Monday, January 25, 2021

Conneaut Lake Park To Go To Bankruptcy Auction for Private Buyer to Take Over


© Conneaut Lake Park

The long saga of Conneaut Lake Park is continuing into a new phase, though this time it seems that it's some good news for the classic park.  After not being able to open at all in 2020 due to the pandemic, the trustees of the non-profit that operates the park while it is still under bankruptcy protection have realized that they will not be able to make payments to keep their agreement with the court intact.  


Not making payments this year will force the park to enter the really bad part of bankruptcy, when the court makes them sell off the entire park in a liquidation, which would pretty surely spell the real end of the park as we know it.


So, instead the trustees are asking the bankruptcy court to allow them to go to auction and see what bidders are out there that would want to purchase the entire property, hotel, rides, etc., with the intent being that it stays as it is now.


© Conneaut Lake Park

The park shared that they already have one interested party, who is willing to buy the park and all its assets for $1.2 million, which will retire the bankruptcy status and take the park private once again.  Even better, they state that the potential buyer wants to keep the momentum going that the park has made in recent seasons, and actually invest and expand it.


Now that's a light at the end of the tunnel if I've ever heard one!  This news article says that the bidder is listed as Keldon Holdings, LLC, though as a private company that doesn't mean much to us yet.  The article also says that the potential new owner intends to expand Camperland, which Conneaut was trying to do before the pandemic hit.


The plan needs to go through the bankruptcy court and then the auction needs to take place, so it could still be a while until anything final happens, but hey, it looks like there is hope.


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