Knott’s Planning Water Attraction Near Theme Park

Continuing to expand under new owner Cedar Fair L.P., Knott’s Berry Farm plans to add a separate attraction with water slides, a wave pool and a water-play area for small children, sources close to the project said Tuesday.

The proposal, nearly finalized, envisions a 13-acre water park opening in 2000 on what is now a parking lot next to Knott’s replica of Independence Hall. The attraction would compete mainly with Raging Waters in San Dimas, the region’s oldest and most successful water park, and Wild Rivers in Irvine.

Cedar Fair bought Knott’s for $245 million last year and since has spent about $35 million on the Buena Park theme park. Officials said an entire water park could be built for far less than the cost of Knott’s latest single attraction, the $23-million Ghost Rider roller coaster that opens next month.

Cedar Fair, based in Ohio, has four other major amusement complexes. All have water attractions that have done well, said Knott’s general manager, Jack Falfas.

“It’s synonymous with fun in the summertime, and I don’t know any people who love the sun any more than Southern Californians,” he said.

Falfas declined to discuss details of the company’s plans in Buena Park, saying local officials haven’t been briefed.

Cedar Fair Chief Executive Richard Kinzel couldn’t be reached for comment Tuesday. He has said in the past that the blueprint for the company is its flagship park, Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio, which operates not only a theme park and separate water park, but also a hotel.

“In order to grow . . . we needed more than a coaster and thrill ride collection; we needed more of a resort complex,” Kinzel told Amusement Business magazine.

“That’s the model,” said Knott’s spokesman Bob Ochsner. “Anything we’re doing is part of a larger master plan.”

Indeed, water parks have become popular additions to amusement complexes throughout the nation. Walt Disney Co. has three in the Orlando, Fla., area. Its theme park archrival, Seagram Co.’s Universal Studios Inc., recently bought Wet ‘n Wild Inc., a water park chain that includes one in Florida.

Closer to home, Premier Parks Inc. operates a water park with a pirate/shipwreck theme, Hurricane Harbor, next to Six Flags Magic Mountain, its main amusement park in Valencia.

The Knott’s water park would greet the public a year before Disney’s second Anaheim park, Disney’s California Adventure, opens and intensifies competition in Southern California’s theme park business.

Raging Waters general manager Kent Lemaster said his park considered opening an Orange County water park but decided against it, in part because the summer weather is milder here than farther inland and the beaches are easier to reach.

Another drawback, Lemaster said, was the intense competition that could be expected from Knott’s and Disney--including the possibility that Disney someday will elect to build its own water park in the area.

Also, he noted, water park customers typically travel no more than 20 miles, and “with Wild Rivers just down the freeway, we thought the Buena Park area could support only a small park.”

Instead, the 50-acre, $25-million Raging Waters is planning its own $26-million expansion, Lemaster said.

Falfas said Knott’s will continue to study ways to expand, including adding a hotel “if the price is fair.”

Vowing not to be “held up,” he said the hotel proposals he’s received so far have been too expensive.