Six Flags: So Very Tired

IDB is meeting again with two of the same shoddily financed developers with dubious ideas for Six Flags it has been rejecting for years now. It looks like they're looking to sell it outright and wash their hands entirely.  Previously the mayor's office has stepped in to stop them from doing this. I wonder what's changed.


Update: So here's what happened at the meeting. IDB determined only one of the offers was even legitimate. (This is actually an improvement over what's happened in the past.) 

Three people made offers for the 224-acre property Tuesday -- $3.26 million from a group proposing a return of a Jazzland amusement park, $4.55 million from a developer pitching an amusement park and "city within a city," and $5.5 million from a developer's representative who didn't give details about his group's plans.

David Wolf, the board's attorney, said the board has only one legitimate offer for the property, the Jazzland $3.26 million bid, which was submitted in detailed and proper legal form. The board will also consider other written offers made in the correct way, he said.

Still not good enough for them to accept outright. They've told the Jazzland people no before. Seems like they really don't want to sell to them if they don't have to.  Might have something to do with their crass use of the recent tornadoes as a sales pitch.

TPC-NOLA Inc. has long been pursuing the shuttered park with a vision for bringing back Jazzland -- Six Flags' predecessor -- along with retail, movie production facilities and other uses in several phases. Tonya Pope, the group's leader, urged the board Tuesday to consider her $3.26 million offer, which is just above a recent $3.2 million appraisal of the property.

"As everyone knows, that whole area was devastated last week," Pope said, referring to a tornado that hit New Orleans East on Feb. 7. "I think it would really help the morale that this place that hasn't been repaired in over 11 years, that the neighbors have to see on a daily basis, that there is some hope that something's going to happen."

Regardless, they're apparently not selling to Scrulock's group under any circumstances. 

By the end of the meeting, Frank Scurlock, who wants to build an amusement park and "city within a city" called Transformation Village on the site, said because the board didn't accept his group's $4.55 million cash offer Tuesday, they are withdrawing their bid and will now focus on developing an adventure zip line and water park in Jefferson Parish.

Scurlock, whose family invented the bounce house and is known for skywriting over Jazz Fest, declined to identify the location in Jefferson Parish. "We believe time is of the essence," he said.

So far that guy has seemed the most like an obvious con artist of all of them.  If he's telling the truth about walking away, he's Jeff Parish's problem now.   Anyway, speaking of con artists walking away, what is this all about. 

As the board heard from the two groups making purchase offers as listed on the agenda, Henry Klein, an attorney who said he represents 30/90 Development, said his group wants to offer $5.5 million for the property, while giving no details who's involved in the group or their plans for the Six Flags site. Klein left the meeting while it was still ongoing.

IDB member Justin Augustine said people jumping out of the audience to make an offer is "not a professional process" and urged the board to use a more professional method to receive offers.

Actual photo of Klein as he walked out of the room:



Anyway, par for the course. Wait a few months and we'll see if they're all in the same room frowning at the same group of applicants again.