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How y'all feeling, everybody?
Sunny side of the street.
Walk me through the full history of Jazzland Six Flags.
Sure. Probably in the early '90s,
Tom Winingder, who is a longstanding developer
here in New Orleans, his wife's family,
the Colemans, they're very well-known
in real estate circles in New Orleans.
Tom, the husband of Dian Coleman Winingder,
had a vision that one day he would like to have built
a theme park,
'cause we did not have a theme park in New Orleans.
I could recall being out in my front yard cutting the grass,
and some guys came through the trees with masks on
and big machetes, cutting down the trees,
and I asked them what were they doing,
and they said they were doing a survey,
and I was like, "A survey for what?"
And they said, "A survey for a theme park."
The park at the time was gonna be Jazzland.
The city of New Orleans had long been without
any family entertainment.
Jazzland was dreamt up to solve that.
A park designed to offer an outstanding
family experience appealing to both young and old alike
in an attractive, clean, safe environment.
The park itself would celebrate the heritage, the culture,
and the people of the city.
The location was perfect,
situated centrally in New Orleans East,
just a short drive from the city,
and placed just off the highway.
The land, too, was ideal, with good drainage,
even during storms.
In fact, the Army Corps of Engineers
found it to be a dry piece of land.
By 1991, the developers had submitted the proposal
to the city,
and for over seven years worked to get it built.
With promising over one million visitors
in their first year,
along with over $200 million being added
to the local economies,
even the governor was on board and offered the developers
$10 million in state funds.
Jazzland Resort was planned to be like nothing
the city had ever seen,
with a planned hotel, a water park,
a campground, and even a golf course.
It made sense, too.
This new resort would be located at least 350 miles
from any other major theme park.
The park would be named after the city's most iconic export,
jazz.
I'm a resident of New Orleans East.
You know, the neighbors were overwhelmingly positive
and excited about the prospect
of something this vibrant
and exciting and attractive to the region
would be right in our backyards.
He partnered with a company in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina,
as he was going through the development process.
Burroughs and Chapin.
And they had interest in this company.
He also partnered with Ogden Entertainment,
who also had an interest in New Orleans.
Well, I went to work for Broadmoor, 1998,
and that was to go and do that job
at Jazzland.
You know, obviously it was a virgin site,
some 150-something acres.
This was the first time we ever built a theme park,
or a park that had rides on it that people would
actually get on and participate in.
So, that was unique.
The biggest challenge, once we got on site,
was that the ground conditions
were so poor that equipment that we brought on site
would break through the crust at the top
and sink down three to four to six feet,
in some locations.
We have one picture of a backhoe
that, you know, broke through
doing the early clearing of the land,
and basically the only thing you saw sticking out
-was the bucket. -In 1998,
construction finally began.
Phase one of the project for the theme park itself
was finished in just two years.
Jazzland officially opened
on May 20th, 2000,
at the cost of over $130 million.
The park's original operator, Ogden Entertainment,
ended up dropping out of the project,
and a new company by the name of Alfa Smartparks
had taken over.
Ready? Five, four, three, two, one!
Come on, everybody, sing it.
Let's go ahead and get this ribbon cut
so people can start having fun, get some pictures.
Countdown, five, four, three, two, one, ready?
-Yeah. -Five, four, three,
two, one, woo!
All right, ladies and gentlemen, Jazzland is officially open!
Let's have some fun!
-Did you like it? -I loved it.
Was it a good ride? Tell me yes.
-It was terrific. -Oh, it's better than the beach
-ever was. -It was better than sex.
Spend the day at Jazzland theme park,
where the fun is at full blast!
I gotta do that again!
Jazzland in New Orleans on I-10 at the I-510 exit
is filled with thrills for the whole family.
-Serious rides. -30 incredible rides
-and spectacular entertainment! -This is great.
Come for the thrills, stay for the fun at Jazzland,
open daily at 10:00 A.M.
You know, my first memories was I remember the excitement
of the park opening,
and how much people were anticipating its opening.
You know, it was just something so new
and different from any other asset in New Orleans
that we've had--ever had,
since, um, probably it was 30 years prior to that,
Pontchartrain Beach was an amusement park.
And then, there were kids that didn't have to travel
to Biloxi or to Houston, or other areas,
and they could literally be a member
and go as many times as they'd like
with season passes and things of that sort.
So, there was just a lot of excitement about,
you know, how much you wanted to partake of it.
You had that option, and it was so convenient.
And, um, I think that people were,
you know, they were excited about it.
And you know, it was not perfect,
but it was very, very much a huge positive
for the entire community.
Whenever visitors would come in and visit,
you know, we'd always take 'em one day at least,
-you go to Jazzland. -You know, I will tell you,
I live near the area,
so I had a longstanding knowledge
of, well, this park, probably going back
seven years before it was even built.
I can remember before I worked there
in that first season before I became an employee,
I did have a season pass, and it was very nice
to go there just for a few hours on the evenings
as the sun was beginning to descend,
you know, to catch a ride or maybe get
a light meal out there.
It was a great escape from the normal hustle and bustle
of the work that I was doing in corporate advertising
at that time.
Um, I do not know if--
I don't remember if it was the first year.
My son and I went out there, just the two of us,
before we started bringing our groups of employees.
Um...
it was kind of a love at first sight.
Jazzland was already being publicized
as America's newest major theme park,
and in many respects, it was.
The park had several themed sections,
all originating from a central main street
made to look like the famous French Quarter.
Circling around a main lake in the middle
would be Cajun Country, Mardi Gras,
Kids Carnival, and most popular
a land themed off a vintage amusement park
in New Orleans, Pontchartrain Beach.
These lands were comprised of many different flat rides,
flume rides, a simulator,
two launch towers, an eye-catching sky coaster,
and four roller coasters.
The main attraction, though, was undoubtedly the Mega Zeph,
a wooden coaster built on a steel frame,
one which was inspired by the Zephyr
from New Orleans's very own Pontchartrain Beach.
Of course, the Mega Zeph was the signature wooden coaster
that we had at the facility.
I believe, if memory serves, it was 110 feet tall
at the peak of the ride, and it was just--
it was a great experience.
I think everybody reacted very positively.
First of all, they couldn't believe
that we had an amusement park out there.
I think families were thrilled with it,
and, as I said, the size of the park was great.
Kids could play, you could walk around,
you--it wasn't a big Disney
that you were worn out at the end of the day.
It was, um--I think it was very well-received
by the community,
and especially by families.
If a guest did not necessarily go looking for the stories
in the newspaper or on television or radio,
that the park was in bankruptcy,
they probably would not have necessarily known that we were.
After the second year,
and really beginning in the 2002 season,
Jazzland did indeed have some financial troubles
and it declared bankruptcy
at the end of that season.
In the industry, they call year two "sophomore slump,"
and I definitely feel we had a hit in attendance.
Certainly it was felt.
Jazzland received more than a million visitors
during its first season open.
By their second season, however,
attendance had dropped over 40 percent
to just 600,000 people.
This dip in attendance had taken place
while all other regional theme parks
seemed to have grown.
Subsequently, the park didn't have the attendance numbers
to offset their expenses
and pay off the construction debt.
Jazzland claimed they had less than just $50 million in assets
and between $50 million to $100 million in debt.
We promised folks in year number two
that we were gonna build this great new coaster.
Guess what happened?
We didn't build it.
The first challenge was
centered around the fact that the New Orleans park
was the largest park in the system.
Alfa Smartparks was a brand-new company.
The parent company was in Athens, Greece.
They were a shipping company,
and everyone else, you know, that was affiliated
in the company, again, the other "kids" in the company
were either family entertainment centers
or water parks, that was it.
So, we were required to produce
the largest share of revenue for the company.
In year number two, we did not produce
a large share, or certainly not the share that was requested,
or required per our 2001 budget,
and things, of course, began to unravel.
Alfa Smartparks had been going through
their own financial difficulties,
and had been looking to put the Jazzland park
and their land lease up for sale.
After only two years, Alfa Smartparks
had abandoned their brand-new theme park.
Larry was a former president of Six Flags,
and Larry was an "interim executive" with us,
and, you know, through Larry we opened some doors
back into the Six Flags family,
and there was interest in this park.
I think they saw that this park
was literally only three years old
as a physical facility-- it was a brand-new park,
and it was in great physical condition,
all the rides were new.
They had a great team in place, and there was interest
by Six Flags.
We were excited.
The excitement started before the park
was even really officially going to be renamed
Six Flags New Orleans.
In the 2002 season, containers started showing up
of roller coaster tracks, so everyone had
the high expectations that Six Flags
is seriously going to invest money into this park,
and it's gonna mean good things.
You know, it means that we finally have an investor
that really is serious
and wants to invest in the park
and grow the park.
We rebranded, we remarketed.
We built an entire theme section based around DC Comics.
We redid our kids' section,
it was a Looney Tunes-theme section.
Of course, we opened that spring
in March of that year, 2003,
to great fanfare, and we actually had
a really wonderful 2003 season.
As you can see, we have a lot to look forward to
at Six Flags New Orleans.
Again, welcome to Six Flags New Orleans.
The park is now open!
Six Flags invites you to experience
our newest world-class theme park:
Six Flags New Orleans,
where 14 new attractions include
2 incredible coasters,
Batman the Ride,
and The Jester.
In August of 2002, Six Flags had officially completed
their acquisition of Jazzland,
rebranding it into Six Flags New Orleans
for the 2003 season.
The company had committed,
spending over $20 million on their new park,
and resolving the standing debt from the last owner.
In addition to minor improvements,
like shade structures,
Six Flags had spent serious money
on theming the individual lands,
adding new attractions, including two new coasters,
and bringing in intellectual property characters.
My family, we had great experiences there.
I mean, I remember the roller coasters,
and they had a lot of good shows there.
The park integrated the community with it,
high schools or elementary schools,
and people were doing different types of things,
that Grandma had to go see grandson perform
or what have you, at Jazzland, or at Six Flags.
My daughters were in a dance team
that performed at the park,
and then I think the last thing is jobs that it created.
A lot of kids had jobs there.
You know, they would work there for the summer,
or work there for a certain duration
where, you know, they could be part of it,
and kids who worked there were big shots, you know.
Oh, I loved it.
That was my favorite job I've ever had.
I felt like I could connect with everybody who's coming on.
I had something to say, I could make
some sort of comment about their day,
or ask them a question.
We did have a, um,
a little Six Flags chant that we did in the mornings
as operations people that-- to get people pumped up,
um, which I may still know.
I would say I was there almost every other week,
I mean, as often I could.
We all crammed in to the very tiny arcade,
because I think they had a dance game
out there at the time,
and everybody wanted to get in there.
The main arcade was more like a penny arcade.
Throw bottles, win prizes,
win stuffed animals.
So, one time, everybody had to get these big gorillas,
so they all played.
We must've-- instead of riding the rides,
we were playing the crazy games to win these big snakes
and big gorillas, big, colorful gorillas.
I posted a picture not too long ago
of some of the kids with the gorillas on Facebook,
and they all went crazy. "I remember that,
I remember that, that was one of the best--
Oh, man, then we had so much fun."
They loved it, they just had so much fun.
I hope that one day I can be an old man and retire,
and work at a theme park, and be exactly like
Mr. Six, like, running the roller coasters.
That is really my ultimate dream.
You'd go, and I mean, there would be so many people
on--during certain events and certain weekends.
I mean, I'm told upwards of 30,000 people,
which, for a park that size, is pretty impressive.
People who knew the park absolutely loved it.
I mean, if you had the experience of going,
you know, especially if you went from the beginning,
people liked that park.
There was one time that
I was working at the Skycoaster,
and there was a paraplegic woman
who wanted to ride in a wheelchair,
and, um,
the decision was left to me
on if this person should ride or not.
And I'm like, "Okay, I'm making the decision,
she's riding."
And it took a really long time to get her situated
and ready to ride,
and by this time, there is a really large line
just snaking through the whole attraction,
and everyone is seeing what's going on.
And so, we hoist her up.
We, uh, raise her up to the top,
and she pulls her ripcord.
The ride's successful and everyone's applauding
and cheering.
And it made me so happy that--
um, that I could
give that to somebody.
That I could give somebody
that excitement and fun
that was probably unexpected
to her when she started her day.
We're not here to save the world,
but we are here to help people get through
what might be a difficult time in their lives,
or a mundane lifestyle.
We are that respite for them
where they can go and get an escape for a few hours,
take their minds off of their burdens,
take their minds off their problems,
and have a good time for a few hours.
The water ride was always the last one,
and they had to go dry off before they could get in my car,
'cause I wouldn't let 'em ride home with me
-unless they were dry. -It was actually announced
that summer that at the end of the 2005 season
that we were going to build the much-requested
and certainly the much-desired water park.
The plans were drawn.
We knew where it was going.
We knew that during the break in 2005,
we were going to be constructing the water park.
I remember on my way out of the park,
like, my very last time I was ever there,
and, um, I made a joke.
Said that, "I'll be back soon,
unless the hurricane comes and destroys everything."
This morning I spoke with FEMA Undersecretary Mike Brown
and emergency management teams not only at the federal level
but at the state level
about the, uh, Hurricane Katrina.
We will do everything in our power
to help the people and the communities
affected by this storm.
Hurricane Katrina is now designated
a Category 5 hurricane.
I think we all kinda had this notion that
this hurricane that was brewing in the Gulf
was, um--was not gonna be that bad,
or it might skirt past us.
You know, it was business as usual
for the week leading up to the park.
You look at it on the news and it's coming.
They say, "Oh, well, it's going to Florida."
And they said, "Well, it's really going to the Panhandle."
"Oh no, now it's going to Alabama."
"Now it's going to Mississippi."
And then, all of a sudden, overnight,
I think it was that Sunday morning,
the path had significantly shifted,
and the storm was a Category 5,
and it was a feeling of, like,
pure terror, like, "Oh, my gosh, we gotta go now."
No, none of us had any idea then,
not just the park, but, you know, the entire city
of New Orleans, and the entire Gulf Coast
of, you know, New Orleans, Louisiana, Mississippi,
Alabama, to a certain extent,
would've ever have experienced what we ultimately experienced.
When I left on that Friday, that was the very last time
that I came back to an operating park.
The vast majority of New Orleans, Louisiana,
is under water.
Tens of thousands of homes and businesses
are beyond repair.
A lot of the Mississippi Gulf Coast
has been completely destroyed.
We are dealing with one of the worst natural disasters
in our nation's history.
On August 29th, 2005,
Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans
as a Category 3 storm,
sparking the unimaginable.
At around 5:00 A.M., the wall system
built to keep surging storm water out,
called levees, broke,
causing rising water from the lake and the canals
to flood around 80 percent of the city.
New Orleans was beyond devastated.
It was--I mean, it was a lot, 'cause I was not only seeing
images of the park flooding,
but the neighborhood that I live in,
and, um, the--everywhere,
like, my entire life being flooded.
You know, I, uh--I evacuated
to some family--family property
in, uh, kinda more central Louisiana,
and I was really surprised at how bad, you know,
after, you know, the initial storm had passed,
and then, of course, there was the levee breach
was the--really the nail in the coffin for New Orleans.
I was really surprised at how bad things had gotten.
I knew that we had been dealt a really bad hit,
and you know, certainly looking at
what was on local networks, national networks,
radio stations, and so forth,
and I think the more that I was watching that,
you know, the more disheartened, the more depressed
I was getting.
My home, for example, had six feet of water
inside the house, and when you have six feet of water
that was the soupiest, murkiest water possible,
with every chemical you could imagine in it,
sitting in a home for, you know, four to six weeks,
what it did is it devastated the homes,
because you had wind damage,
and then you had flood damage,
and as a result of that, the mold was tremendous,
because after the storm went past,
the heat was very high, so you have all of these homes
that now are--no ventilation, they're all tightly built,
and now the mold is all over the place.
So, Hurricane Katrina just devastated Eastern New Orleans.
Just imagine a home.
It was a mess, the smell.
The other thing that was onerous about it all
was you could smell death in the air.
We have to go down Jacob, I need to see my house.
Hard to believe I lived in it.
Oh, God.
This is the inside of the garage,
Eric's flag is still hanging up.
Oh, my God.
Look at all that stuff.
Fell right in the middle of their yard.
See the holes in the roof we had to punch out to get out?
Can you imagine being in the house and floating?
Well, the park had a levee running around it,
but it was basically a small levee
just to keep the water from the park
going into the surrounding areas,
and that's why we had our own pump station installed
on the park, so we were maintaining that water
from going to other places, going to other properties,
like I said, but, you know, to envision what happened,
no, I don't think anybody envisioned that
that would happen to not only Jazzland,
but the city of New Orleans.
Just the magnitude of that loss,
and that--the damage that was done.
In every single building here,
you can see where the water was standing
in all of these buildings.
All right, so we're walking into the simulator bays now
to the SpongeBob ride,
and while some of it has been gutted,
here is one of the final...
...simulator bays.
This way.
Oh my God.
This bay still has the screen in it.
Whatever is left of it, at least.
Well, yeah.
Wow.
So, this over here is the park administration building.
Oh my God.
-Oh my God, look at this. -Yeah.
Jazzland.
Oh, jeez.
You know what this was?
This was the park's audio system.
-The thing playing music. -Yeah, ambient music
probably would've been played through here.
-Holy Christ. -The equalizer tracks,
it looks like it had three of them.
Look at where the water was.
-The water line is right here. -Yeah, each little line
that you see going down is where the water sat as it receded.
-It's amazing. -That is unbelievable.
-"We're going live." -"We're going live in '05!"
Everything is stuck in time here.
"Suggestions sell...earn those."
Holy--look at this.
Oh my gosh.
Wow.
Look at this.
This was the manager's office here.
This point, this is, um...
This whole office looks like it was in a shipwreck,
like they just pulled it out of the ocean.
-Oh, wow. -Yeah, look at this.
This is where they would monitor each area.
Yep.
Look at this, still has the price tag on it.
The month Katrina hit,
2005,
and this office stopped.
Six Flags New Orleans,
Fright Fest 2005.
Of course, it never happened.
Then, the schedules, August 22nd, 2005,
to August 28th, 2005.
Wow.
Despite the park's Southern climate,
Six Flags New Orleans was on a seasonal operating schedule.
The park's last day open was August 21st, 2005.
Scheduled to open the weekend of the 27th and 28th,
the park closed due to storm preparation,
and the plan to open was moved to the following weekend.
The park never opened again.
Watch out for nails.
Again, look at the water line in here.
Man, I'm...
What's in here?
-Whoa. -Clothing area.
-Wow. -Whoa.
-This is where all the-- -Yeah, you're right,
this is costuming.
Some of them are still in the bags.
-That's so incredible. -Yeah, look at that.
That, too.
Look at that, "Men's pants," these are all
still in their packaging.
-Just ready for someone to-- -Dry cleaned and ready to go.
Yeah, unbelievable.
Holy crap.
This is, like, the-- this is the warehouse
-where they'd take shipments-- -Yeah, yep,
this is where they stored everything.
Oh my God.
It's something else.
Look at--look.
The park was gearing up for a Halloween celebration
at the end of August.
Well, they were gearing up at the end of August.
So, I think that's why they have Halloween cups in here.
-Hey, check out these-- -Oh, yeah,
Halloween decorations.
Wow.
Oh my God, man.
This is unreal.
I remember going into the park.
Interestingly, it was a really nice weather day.
Came back, actually went into my office.
There were a handful of files that I wanted to recover.
Unfortunately, they were unrecoverable.
There was some memorabilia that I had
that I wanted to recover.
Unfortunately, that too was unrecoverable.
The office was total trash, you know, of course, furniture,
like any other Katrina casualty.
The furniture was upside down,
inside out, water lines on the walls,
you know, mold and mildew and so forth.
Physically, if you walked the park itself outside,
it really didn't look that bad,
because we were an outside facility to begin with.
If you just took from the midway down,
oh, the park looks fine.
It's when you went into the actual facilities
that you saw the level and the extent of the damage.
I will say that Six Flags Corporate, as a company,
was extremely generous to the employees
of the New Orleans park
following Hurricane Katrina.
We actually remained on staff and remained on payroll.
We got paid every two weeks
from the time of the hurricane
until the end of April the following year.
We had a company-wide conference.
It was all the parks in the entire Six Flags system
in San Antonio that year,
that would've been in either late 2005 or early 2006,
and Six Flags had gone through a--Six Flags Corporate
had gone through a management change.
Gary Story was the president and CEO
when we became Six Flags.
We had a change in leadership,
and at that conference in San Antonio,
it was me and another counterpart,
we introduced ourselves to him,
we said, "We're from the New Orleans park,"
and I said, "We hope that we have a park to come back to."
And he gave me this look, and he didn't say anything,
and he just kind of nodded his head,
and I knew at that moment, I said, "We're not going back."
I said, "They're not gonna rebuild this park."
I don't know that they thought too much
about any of their parks in that particular era.
The maintenance,
or lack thereof at several properties,
AstroWorld was disgustingly dirty.
New Orleans, they kept it cleaner,
but it wasn't really high on their priority
to do any upgrades.
They weren't doing upgrades at any of their parks
in that particular time, which is part of the reason
that led to the hostile takeover
in December of 2005,
it was they were really just trying
to keep the bills paid.
In 2004, Six Flags began selling off assets
to try and help pay off their growing debt.
That year, the company as a whole
lost over $400 million,
and after Hurricane Katrina,
they determined the damage done to their New Orleans park
was over $32 million.
The company then embarked on a long and tedious battle
with their insurance company over the exact payouts.
In the meantime, the Six Flags New Orleans parking lot
had been used as a FEMA trailer camp.
There was definitely too many things going on
for them to worry about New Orleans.
New Orleans was not the only property
they abandoned at that particular time.
Kentucky Kingdom was likewise never reopened.
It shut down about the same time.
AstroWorld, obviously, was shut down at the same time,
and it had nothing to do with the hurricane,
it was simply a business decision
that they needed money.
So they closed down the parks that were drains
or where they felt like they could get a quick cash grab
and solve other issues.
With New Orleans, when Dan Snyder took over,
he had way too many issues with the rest of the chain
to try to worry about
what was happening in New Orleans,
and since it was a smaller park and a smaller profit center,
it wasn't a cash cow for him to really worry about.
It was, I'll tell you, it was a little hurtful,
but I think, in the back of my mind,
we all kind of knew that it was probably a 70-30,
maybe an 80-20% chance
that we were going to get this park back.
By 2007, Six Flags quietly began
removing attractions from the park for relocation,
never publicly saying what they had planned
to do with the park.
In 2009, the company finally negotiated
out of their land lease with the city,
paying out just $3 million and giving the land back
to the City of New Orleans.
There's a certain point where you can't be optimistic,
where you see Six Flags coming in
and taking rides out,
it's not a good sign.
And they took the assets that they brought into the park,
any of the assets that they wanted,
and then those that they had no interest in,
they left them at the facility, they left them at the site.
Today, the only visitors to the park are vandals,
thieves, and urban explorers
curious and eager to capture what's left behind.
I remember seeing it really, really early,
like right after the water receded,
and my heart just broke.
I mean, it looked-- it just looked sad.
It looked empty,
it looked like it had been hit by a hurricane.
It looked lonely,
and I remember, because I was in 8th grade,
it wasn't that long ago that I was here
when everything was lively and, you know, going on.
And so it hurt my heart to see it,
that's the saddest thing.
It hadn't really hit me yet that this was a city-wide thing,
but this was just like the biggest monument, I think,
that I had personally been to
that was at one time so colorful
and now was all watermarked and dirty and broken.
It's definitely eye-opening to see
how easily Mother Nature
can take back things so quickly, quietly.
Hurricane Katrina left Six Flags New Orleans destroyed.
It has been 15 years,
and the park sits there frozen in time.
Would rebuilding a theme park in New Orleans
fill the hole in the community and prosper?
Jazzland failed in just a few years,
but Six Flags New Orleans was a success.
With $23.2 million in revenue,
the park profited $13.6 million.
However, in 2009, Six Flags declared bankruptcy.
Ultimately, the decision was made
to abandon their New Orleans park,
leaving a permanent scar in the community.
While Mayor Nagin wanted Six Flags to come back,
it just really wasn't in the cards.
I think the crowds had gone down,
I don't think they drew as many people out there
for whatever reason, I don't know.
We all worked so hard
to make the park an amazing experience
and to try to bring as many folks as we could.
And we did--we did great volume in sales of season passes
and group tickets for weekends, of course,
but we always struggled with weekday attendance.
You know, it's hard.
We're a smaller market, so to get folks to drive in
from Mississippi or Alabama during the weekday,
that's a weekend trip,
so we relied on the New Orleans market
to support us, and for better or worse,
unfortunately or fortunately,
depending on how you look at it,
I don't know if we ever felt the love
that we really should have felt from people in New Orleans.
Another thing that I think was a detriment to us
was the fact that it's hot here,
you know, I mean, there's no denying
that New Orleans is a hot city.
And not having a water park as a supplemental element
certainly did hurt us.
You know, again, we were actually planning
to put the water park in for the--
would have been the 2006 season,
but Hurricane Katrina
certainly had other plans for us.
For a Six Flags type park, the numbers were low.
Six Flags parks typically get
at least two million people a year.
The New Orleans market is a smaller market,
so the numbers were less than a million.
But if you look at locally owned regional parks,
family type parks.
Those attendance numbers are in the 800,000
to one million range.
Those are numbers
that sustained those family parks very well
with profit margins as high as 50 percent.
Six Flags even in New Orleans
had profit margins of over 50 percent.
It's a smaller market,
but it's still a profitable market,
and we're not expecting it to be anything above and beyond
what was necessarily there before.
If we just do what they did, we will be doing quite well.
I actually, like the city would have cared,
I actually sent an email to City Hall
and I said, "Six Flags is gonna bail."
Like they're gonna pay attention,
but I just knew it,
there was no way that they would stay.
They were in it to, like I said,
get that low-cost investment
where they can put in $10 million, $25 million here
for new attractions or expansions.
They weren't gonna rebuild a park from scratch.
At that time, Nickelodeon was looking at the park
to rebuild it as a Nickelodeon theme park
that we tried--
I was working with them at the time as well.
We tried for about six months altogether
before that effort really just hit
one dead end after another.
Mayor Nagin's term was ended,
and Mayor Landrieu came into office,
so things kind of started all over fresh with him in 2010.
We proposed to rebuild it as Jazzland.
This is our plans for the whole area.
This about a 15-year buildout.
Where the park is, along with associated lands
to really turn it into a large, destination-quality resort.
Long term, 15 years, we'd love to see two theme parks
as well as the water park and mixed use,
something kind of like a Downtown Disney,
something that gives both the locals
as well as tourists
shopping and entertainment options and dining.
The theme park itself, right now, we're estimating
about $65 million to rebuild it,
compared to a brand-new theme park.
A brand-new theme park would be $200 million.
So it's still a huge cost savings,
and it's what makes the project feasible.
You cannot build a new theme park in this market
because you cannot justify those costs.
We've looked at every building,
every item, every ride, everything,
and have individual cost estimates
for each individual thing.
The concrete is what's primary,
is what makes it the most efficient use to rebuild.
The concrete and foundations were built very well.
They're on top of piers that have supported them,
there's no cracks, they are structurally sound,
and they can support the new equipment
that would be brought in.
So things like Mega Zeph, which has steel infrastructure,
that can be rebuilt for $4.5 million to $5 million
versus building new that would have been
about $15 million.
Right now, I have my sights on the Six Flags site,
which we are now running numbers for demolition,
really as I speak.
-Honestly? -Did you not know?
-No, you want me to be serious? -Be absolutely honest.
Yeah, they've been saying that for 10, 15 years.
They stopped talking about it, you know, late 2006,
nobody really said anything,
and then you'd see like a news article
in the Times-Picayune and they go,
"Oh, well, somebody's buying the park.
Let's see if they rebuild it,
or let's see if they build a subdivision,
or see if they build like a shopping mall,"
and then it was nothing.
I really doubt an amusement park
could ever be in that site's future.
They know that it's an issue with trespassing.
They feel that getting rid of it
would be the easiest solution to keep the trespassers out.
Unfortunately, that doesn't do anything for the neighbors.
It's still a blighted, abandoned property
that would be sitting there.
It is surrounded by vacant land that hasn't been developed
for the last 20 years,
there's no reason to suspect that a demolished park
would all of a sudden be attractive and be developed.
If you have the funding,
if you believe that you can do this,
bring the park back up,
why would the city not want to do that?
Why would the city not want to go with you?
You're trying to get me into trouble.
We know that the previous administration
didn't necessarily support development
in New Orleans East.
The current administration seems more open
and wanting to do things for New Orleans East,
but there is a perception issue.
The people of New Orleans East are not given credit
for the quality of life that they really do have.
It's a nice neighborhood, there are great people
that live in New Orleans East.
That was some of the things that the developers sold us,
saying it's gonna be just like you living
a block away from Disney World,
and your property value will soar,
but since Katrina, 2005, it's been sitting dormant,
empty, and ruined since that time,
so how is that gonna make a positive effect
on your home, on the value of your home
when you've got an eyesore like this?
I would think that if this was in Downtown New Orleans,
it wouldn't take this long for the city
to actually do something with it.
By being out here in this neighborhood,
or whatever, I guess they just take their time.
We're talking 2005 and now we're in 2020.
Take a walk up on my deck
and you take a look over the back,
and what I remember seeing years ago
was a bunch of forest, beautiful,
and now you come up here and, of course,
the first 100, 200 feet you see the trees,
but then you see a parking lot that's empty
with rusted-out lights,
and then you see the roller coaster
off in the distance that's sitting dormant,
just sitting there and whatever.
We just hoped that the city would do something with it.
My home was valued more in 2005
than it is currently valued today.
Whereas the rest of New Orleans,
outside of Eastern New Orleans,
the values have surpassed the pre-Katrina values.
So from--if you're a resident and you're sitting there
and you're kinda waiting for things to come up,
and one of the crowning elements of blight
that is depressing the values of properties
is this Jazzland site.
So it's been frustrating for our residents
for a long time.
And the problem is there's not a plan yet
to do something about it,
so residents have just been sitting there
with major investments and, for many people,
the biggest investment they'll make in their lives
is in their homes,
and they're seeing those values,
in many cases, they're upside down.
He will be the moral compass of this city.
We need a champion
who will guide a master plan to completion.
We need a champion who will bring serenity
and safety back to our streets.
We need a champion who will pave our roads
while paving the way for a new generation.
We need a champion for change.
We need the next mayor of the City of New Orleans,
Troy Henry!
It was one of the principle drivers
for me deciding to run for office,
and for mayor specifically,
was because, I mean, the executive branch
is supposed to execute.
And we had had too many politicians
and not enough managerial experts
that could really understand
how to manage a complex enterprise.
I just have a vision for the city that is different,
and having lived in California and Pittsburgh
and Boston and D.C. and Atlanta and Houston,
so I've seen a lot and seen how those cities have grown
and sort of blown past New Orleans,
and I wanted New Orleans to have that chance
to realize that same sort of meteoric growth.
And perhaps maybe the residents of New Orleans
aren't interested in being a more cosmopolitan growth,
and maybe they want us to kind of stay more the same.
But the risk of doing that is what has happened now
is we're sort of a one-trick pony
principally revolving around tourism.
New Orleans East was really forgotten
for a number of years after Katrina.
Everything that they've done, they've had to do themselves.
They were last on the list for the city.
But up until the New Orleans East Hospital
finally reopened, if you got sick,
if you had a heart attack,
you had to drive 20 minutes to get to someplace
so that you could be taken care of,
because there wasn't anyplace in New Orleans East.
Just like the previous administration,
I think they're struggling.
They want to do something for New Orleans East,
but the city doesn't know exactly what to do.
So they've hired consultants to do studies
and all kinds of stuff,
but what they really don't have is a deal.
They don't have a development plan.
So they've gotten these folks to come up and say,
"If you do this, this will make it more attractive.
If you do this, this will make it more attractive."
The long and short of it is, a person who's got money
and who's got a deal is gonna do a deal.
All of this, "This is gonna make it better,
and that's gonna make it better,"
that's just moving the chairs around the deck of the Titanic.
The city had been working on a report
about the best use.
It was a best use study for the site.
They came up with best use being something
with a lot of green and nature.
In the very same sentence, they said,
"It needs to be big and bold,
something that's gonna bring the tourists in,
like birdwatching."
There was complete silence in the room.
Obviously, the residents were not happy at all.
They want the park to come back.
From everything that they've told us
and from everything we've read online
and when we've spoken with them and met with various people,
that's what they want.
After that meeting, they said
that they were gonna come out with an RFQ,
so I think the timing works to their benefit
as far as, "We're doing something,
we're going to award this to a developer,
we're taking steps,
so please give us your votes this November."
The city is fishing, and they're desperate,
because it is, you know, election time in October.
But I'm also hopeful that, for the first time,
they've probably got a-- we believe our offer
is gonna be a truly credible offer.
I wanted to bring back
a sports and entertainment complex
to the Jazzland facility.
We're one of the bidders on this project now,
so our proposal is to reconstitute it
as an amusement park,
adding a water park and a sports complex to it.
Our vision is to make this
a bigger sports and entertainment concept,
so that's what we'll be proposing to the city.
I don't know if they'll accept our proposal
as the right vision.
Our second alternate proposal
is we've also had some discussions with Amazon
as a distribution center for that site.
We're not sure which one of those two visions
will end up...
If we're selected, we're gonna kind of
evaluate both of those principally,
and whichever one makes the most sense,
if we're selected, we're gonna execute on that.
Yes, all those things would be lovely in that area.
We're getting an Amazon here in Baton Rouge, a huge one,
and it does employ a lot of people,
but there's just better locations
for those things.
You could even go down the street
to the old plaza location
that the city kind of has its fingers on,
because of loans and taxes and stuff.
That would be far better for those purposes
than the park property.
We're expecting to be under construction
sometime in 2022,
which means we open in 2024.
They definitely need
entertainment venues to come back.
The hotels are struggling right now.
Many of the downtown hotels don't even have
5 percent occupancy,
and they need something that's going to help boost
and bring families and tourists back,
so we're hoping maybe that plays out to our benefit,
but we'll see.
In the short term, I mean,
obviously, these companies are struggling,
but the ones that are going to be able to weather the storm
have to view a growth strategy.
So as we emerge out of this pandemic
and the depressing earnings that they've realized,
it now gives them the ability to sort of rebound
in a bigger way than it even did pre-pandemic,
because now they've got more assets
that are now available in the marketplace.
So we think that they're all hurting right now,
but we think, come time where we're now
redeveloping that site,
they're all looking at the future.
We've always wanted the public
and the community to be involved.
A little less than two years ago, we said,
"Well, why wait until we're open?
Why wait until we have the property?
Why not just do it now?"
We've created what we call the Rhythm Section,
which is our New Orleans East specific
community advisory board.
It's composed of people that actually do live
within just a very short distance of the park,
and they are with us every step of the way.
We get their feedback and comments
on everything we do,
they get an advanced copy of the RFQ response
so that they can give us their feedback
as to what they want.
This response is very much going to be theirs,
because the park is theirs.
But I think the idea of rehabilitating
and reinvigorating an amusement complex
that now has a water park to it,
that now has an amusement park to it,
that now has a sports complex to it,
and making it into a family-friendly destination
tied in with the cruise lines
is something that's very unique and is a unique opportunity
for us to take advantage of.
Fulfillment center is great,
but to me, that would be 1B.
If I had my druthers, and if we can make--
get the commitments that we need to happen happen,
you know, I think the sports and entertainment complex
would be pretty exciting.
And I think it would bring
the rest of the residents in the region
back to New Orleans East with a positive light,
because recently the things they've heard most about
have been crime-oriented things that have happened
in Eastern New Orleans.
I think this would be something
that would make regional noise,
it would make-- it would really be
a reinvigorating and revitalization
that is long, long, long overdue.
Even if we get the concessionaire agreement,
that, come this fall and they get reelected,
what's to stop them from saying, "Okay, we tried, never mind"?
It's definitely a thought that goes through our heads,
because we've been through this process
a time or two,
and there's not a lot of faith.
Okay, good morning, everyone.
The Purchasing Bureau does hereby certify
they are unable to perform RFQ #961
Six Flags/Jazzland site redevelopment
on this day, Tuesday, March 16th, 2021, at 12 P.M.
Let me just ask you then, sort of broadly,
what's your overall reaction today?
We are definitely very disappointed.
Disappointed, frustrated,
irate, to some extent.
We definitely do not feel like the scoring was done
in a fair and equitable manner.
This was a day that we had said
this would probably be it for us,
and it still might be it for us.
We'll all move on and do our other things
that we've been doing anyway.
'Cause it has been a long nine years,
and to have the community and the public
completely omitted from the process
just doesn't give us a lot of faith
in anything moving forward.
When you've got such a prominent intersection
that is now such a prominent eyesore,
it's kind of demotivating for people.
Every day, a vast majority of numbers in people
in New Orleans East drive right by it,
and they just look at it, and they just--
it's a remembrance of the past,
and it's blight.
Unfortunately, I think a lot of people
have given up on it,
because when Six Flags decided
just to take insurance money or whatever they did,
I really think they were glad Katrina came along,
I think they wanted out.
I think they wanted to close the park,
they had already closed AstroWorld.
I think this might have been a way out for them,
I don't know.
Honestly, most people had given up a long time ago
on the park ever coming back.
This is where you would come to purchase tickets,
groups sales, will call.
Season ticket holders, I think,
entered at the other end, if I remember,
and if you were buying just a ticket for the day,
you would come up here, and one of these,
purchase your ticket.
This was the main street.
All the gift shops were along here
and were air conditioned,
which was very nice in the summer.
This is heartbreaking to see.
As the graffiti says, this could have been beautiful,
and it was very beautiful.
I'm very sad now.
We would come several times a year.
Had many, many good times out here.
So here we are at Mega Zeph.
Obviously, the riders waited in here
for Mega Zeph to come around this way
and pull up here.
It is obviously very overgrown
and...pitiful.
Jocco used to live up on top of the building.
He was this big jester guy
who would laugh at you and squirt water on you.
This is where you lined up, the queue line here.
It was a little neater back then.
We called it the laser tag ride,
since I own a laser tag,
and all my kids would think of it
as a laser tag ride,
because you were actually shooting targets
with the guns that were on the cars.
This is what was Jocco's ride.
This is one of the cars
that has been completely stripped,
the guns are gone.
You earned points by tagging--
talking laser tag talk--
by hitting the targets, you would earn points.
You got a score on the car.
You can see where the screens were.
And it wound all through here
with different targets to hit.
It was very colorful, minus the graffiti.
Big fleur-de-lis on the front, all Mardi Gras colors,
everything was Mardi Gras colored.
There was a gun to shoot targets here
and a screen for score.
This one is still here.
Mardi Gras-- Jocco's Mardi Gras Madness.
Hmm.
Everything's gone.
Here they come.
Are you happy at Jazzland on your first day?
-Yeah, you? -Yeah!
It's devastating, I mean,
to think that the city let that park get like that
over all these years, it makes me very angry,
and it's very sad,
because of all the memories I have.
Just remembering all the fun.
If I would be in the car with someone else
and we were driving past it,
I would be cranking my head around,
and, like, looking at what rides are going, and...
That was really fun, just to drive past it.
But now it's--it's just there.
I find it very funny still
that when I drive to my family's home
and that sign still says on there, "Closed for Storm."
Just kinda like frozen in time,
a suspended animation element from that park's past.