Developers behind the massive overhaul of the former Six Flags in New Orleans East say they will soon finalize $300 million in financing and have found operators for a youth sports complex and water park resort – critical milestones in the site’s long-awaited revival. 

Eastern Sports Management of Virginia and American Resort Management of Texas and Pennsylvania will run the complex and resort under preliminary agreements with the Bayou Phoenix group. Officials with those two firms joined Bayou Phoenix principal Troy Henry to announce the plans at a Friday meeting at Franklin Avenue Baptist Church.  

Henry said the $300 million private equity deal – with a firm he declined to name, citing a nondisclosure agreement – will take 15 weeks to close, and that the process should begin within the next two months.  

Eastern Sports Management manages nine indoor and outdoor sports facilities in its home state as well as in Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Oklahoma. American Resort Management operates water parks and hotels across the country, and its hotel brands include Hilton, Marriott and Hyatt, according to its website. 

The announcement represents key progress for a project that remains on track despite years of complications over land ownership, strained negotiations and challenging conditions on the 227-acre site that has been dormant since Hurricane Katrina. 

“I know it's been a test of everyone's patience,” Henry said in an interview. “We now will be shifting from being at government speed to the speed of business.” 

Andrew Ballard, chief operating officers of Eastern Sports Management, said he expects the youth sports facility to generate two million visitors annually, based on foot traffic at the company's other facilities. 

"Those two million visitors are going to plug in the lodging, the food and beverage, the entertainment, and it's all happening in New Orleans East," Ballard said. 

Henry said he hopes the sports complex will break ground in about a year. First, however, a site assessment must show that the land each operator gets may indeed be built upon. The New Orleans Redevelopment Authority commissioned the assessment and a firm completed it this week, though engineers still need to analyze the results.  

Bayou Phoenix will then negotiate “pre-development” agreements with the operators related to construction. Those will be followed by operating contracts setting forth terms of the relationship once the park opens. 

The news was welcomed by the crowd that showed up at Franklin Avenue, a megachurch along Interstate 10 where hundreds of New Orleans East residents worship weekly. Henry garnered audible support when closing the presentation with a forceful call for public officials to support the project with $60 million in funding from local, state and federal sources. He said that would represent about 12% of the overall cost. 

"We waited patiently and watched every single other part of the city get redeveloped, except for us," Henry said, referring to New Orleans East. "It's our time now."

Past hurdles

Hurricane Katrina in 2005 forced the permanent closure of the Six Flags site, and proposals to revive it have stalled repeatedly in the years since.

The site’s revival was a priority for former Mayor LaToya Cantrell, who awarded development rights of the site to Bayou Phoenix in 2021. But developers didn’t get control of the site for another two years. Public officials first had to work out the terms of transferring ownership from the city to the New Orleans Redevelopment Authority, a state agency, and a lease then had to be worked out with Bayou Phoenix.  

Tensions flared among all parties along the way, and the project appeared close to unraveling more than once. Bayou Phoenix and NORA have sparred over developers' master plan and proceeds of scrap metal from demolished roller coasters. Bayou Phoenix eventually was allowed to keep the proceeds, which it used to help pay for the demolition.

Bayou Phoenix has not met development deadlines within the 2023 lease, which called for construction to begin last October and completion of the project by April 2027. But Henry has said those deadlines are unrealistic without a site assessment, commissioned by NORA, showing which portions of the land — a combination of woods, wetlands and slab on pilings — can be developed. 

The assessment, which has been underway for more than a year, was completed this week. Henry said he is confident the review won't  contain anything that could jeopardize the project.  

“We want to make sure that there's not something onerous that changes our economic model, changes our financing, changes the ask that we have to make,” Henry said. “Our level of confidence is very high that there's no deal breakers.” 

The operators

Bayou Phoenix has previously announced a sublease deal with film composer Elvin Ross, who plans to finance and build a movie studio there. While that announcement showcased outside interest in the site, Friday’s news showed the project’s core -- a youth sports complex, two hotels, a water amusement park and arcade, along with restaurants and retail shops -- is feasible enough to attract serious operators. 

Eastern Sports Management will subcontract with Hank Aaron Sports Academy, based in Jackson, Mississippi, to attract collegiate baseball tournaments and training. It will also line up programming for other sports facilities. 

The operators will design their facilities and hire their own architects and contractors. Their final agreements with Bayou Phoenix will grant them a management fee as well as a share of the profits, Henry said. He said the operators will also be held to certain performance standards. 

“They have every incentive in the world to make sure this is profitable and that the customer experience is outstanding,” Henry said. 

The final development cost remains to be seen. Henry has always pegged it at roughly half a billion dollars, though Bayou Phoenix documents have suggested it could be nearly twice that much. Beyond that, he said retail tenants and a film studio developer would finance their own buildouts.

Read the full article on NOLA.com.