Corporation acquires Animal Paradise

Animal Paradise Family Fun Park on old Route 66 near Strafford, Mo., has been purchased by Great American Family Parks Inc., according to a news release today.

Animal Paradise is a longtime drive-through zoo that had seen troubled times lately. Revenues fell enough at the former Exotic Animal Paradise that the owner auctioned off many of the animals and sold some of the land to a housing developer in 2006. But then the park was reopened as Animal Paradise Family Fun Park in the summer of 2007.

The news release makes it clear that Animal Paradise’s new owners want it to remain an animal theme park. And the fact the new owners want to beef up the facilities is encouraging:

In the first full year of GFAM’s management, Animal Paradise is expected to generate over $1 million in revenues. Annual revenues are expected to rise to over $2.5 million by 2012. […]

Larry Eastland, Founder and CEO of Great American Family Parks, said, “This park is an excellent complement to Wild Animal Safari, our existing theme park near Atlanta. The Missouri park will be upgraded to the standards of GFAM’s Wild Animal Safari by re-stocking the animal exhibits and bringing in professional park and animal professionals as well as design and growth specialists. There is tremendous revenue and growth potential as we use our expertise to redevelop this property.”

The acquisition of Animal Paradise was made through equity and debt, with no external financing needed. The theme park was acquired from Arbuckly ad Ozarks Development Company.

I don’t know whether the upgrades mean that the park will be shut down for a while. No one was picking up the phone at Animal Paradise on Wednesday except an answering machine. Messages left to a representative were not returned.

Great American Family Parks Inc. is publicly traded, and is based in Santa Monica, Calif. Its stock is in penny-stock territory, with a low of 6 cents a share as recently as January. It’s now trading at 13 cents a share.

UPDATE: I talked by phone to Sarah Robinson, former manager and current employee at Animal Paradise. She said Animal Paradise would remain open as usual except for being closed Mondays and Tuesdays indefinitely. She’s detected no other changes in operations since the buyout.

To get a taste of Animal Paradise’s future, Robinson said to check out the Wild Animal Safari in Pine Mountain, Ga., which is owned by Great American Family Parks. Judging by Wild Animal Safari’s Web site, I don’t detect any big differences from Animal Paradise, except for perhaps adding a restaurant.

UPDATE2: I received an e-mailed response from Dale Van Voorhis, president and CEO of Great American Family Parks. I asked whether there would be layoffs or a shutdown of Animal Paradise during the transition time. Van Voorhis said:

It is not our intention to close during the construction and upgrades of the facility since many of our print ads are already in circulation for 2008, and we do not intend to have any layoffs, in fact we will be adding staff.