Re: Cedar Fair officials considering new office building

Mark my words, this will never happen. Rumor has it that there are already survey marks on-point for where the new building will go. I think the execs have their hands too far in to daily operation at Cedar Point to want to be across the bay.

Jeff - Advocate of Great Great Tunnels™ - Co-Webmaster - PointBuzz - My Blog

Re: Cedar Fair officials considering new office building

Well, I would hope that at least someone there sees the need to move some of the facilities off-Point, eventually.

Re: Cedar Fair officials considering new office building

Jeff said:
Mark my words, this will never happen. Rumor has it that there are already survey marks on-point for where the new building will go. I think the execs have their hands too far in to daily operation at Cedar Point to want to be across the bay.

That last statement is definitely true. There was one Saturday morning this past summer where Jack Falfas was walking around the park and by noon had already cut several positions at a few rides. This was on a Saturday, in the middle of peak season, when we were already a little on the short side of staffing. Obviously, an infamous budget cut considering I had seen several notices around Park Op and even on the clip boards at our ride to cut positions ASAP for a few days proceeding this.

There are other instances similar to this that I encountered, but the details aren't coming to me at the moment. I know I saw a heck of a lot of Jack this past summer, usually with the Park Services people. I think I actually saw Jack more than I saw Kinzel, or even Hildebrandt. It raised a few questions in my mind, but, oh well.

Blue Streak crew 2007
ATL Matterhorn Tri. 2008
Three things you need to fix anything in the universe: duct tape, WD-40, and a hammer. Duct tape if it moves and it shouldn't, WD-40 if it doesn't move and should, and the hammer as the last resort.

Re: Cedar Fair officials considering new office building

Wow - if that's true, it's no wonder someone like Wozniak left. I was never a huge fan of Bob's, but that's a pretty difficult situation to work in and try to maintain some kind of respectable operation.

Unfortunately, it's not the first time I've heard this type of story about Falfas. And that makes me wonder if he's really going to be any better than Kinzel. They really do seem hell bend on budget cutting their way back to profitability and I think that's pretty sad.

-Matt
2001 Magnum Crew
2003 Magnum Crew
2004 Magnum ATL

Re: Cedar Fair officials considering new office building

I found that instance rather interesting, and slightly angering. But I guess it should also be noted that, if memory serves, it was one time where Jack Falfas was acting as GM. Not that it really gives him much more reason to do that in my view, but, I guess to be fair, that should also be noted.

Sometimes I wonder if I would rather have Kinzel stay until Falfas retires, so that we really see the torch passed to someone that would actually bring some much needed change to the company. If Falfas takes over, I really don't see too much of the overall corporate trend that we've been seeing, changing.

Blue Streak crew 2007
ATL Matterhorn Tri. 2008
Three things you need to fix anything in the universe: duct tape, WD-40, and a hammer. Duct tape if it moves and it shouldn't, WD-40 if it doesn't move and should, and the hammer as the last resort.

Re: Cedar Fair officials considering new office building

Matt, you keep saying they're not profitable. They are profitable, by a gigantic margin.

Jeff - Advocate of Great Great Tunnels™ - Co-Webmaster - PointBuzz - My Blog

Re: Cedar Fair officials considering new office building

I stand corrected. It was a bad choice of wording. However, I think we're going to see that they're coming awfully close to not being profitable enough in terms of EBITDA to be comfortable in terms of their loan covenants. I think their debt to EBITDA ratio needs to be under 5.50 to avoid violating it this year and under 5.25 next year. Given their rather modest capital program for next year and nearly perfect weather this year, it's difficult to see them posting a big EBITDA gain for 2008.

If everything were just peachy, they wouldn't be leaving same park year over year numbers out of their press releases.

Luckily for them, they have some assets that they can unload (Geauga Lake land, maybe Great America, maybe some other land, etc) to hopefully be able pay down some debt and keep that ratio in line. Unfortunately, unloading all these assets will hurt future growth opportunities which was the whole point of buying them in the first place.

I agree with BlueStreak - I don't think Jack is going to offer much of a change if he takes over.

-Matt
2001 Magnum Crew
2003 Magnum Crew
2004 Magnum ATL

Re: Cedar Fair officials considering new office building

By special request, here are photos of the initial survey marks for the new office building. The building will be located next to the Marketing offices.

http://www.pointbuzz.com/Photos/Gallery.aspx?id=597

... or is it for something else? Stay tuned to SpraypaintBuzz!

Walt Schmidt - Co-Publisher, PointBuzz
Twitter

Re: Cedar Fair officials considering new office building

I'm a little surprised they would locate it there from a "physical" standpoint, seeing as there is limited parking in that area anyway. I'm not surprised from the "mental" standpoing, seeing as Kinzel's office is just around the corner.

"You can dream, create, design and build the most wonderful place in the world...but it requires people to make the dreams a reality."

-Walt Disney

Re: Cedar Fair officials considering new office building

^The majority of office buildings in downtown metropolitan areas, where space is at a premium, have underground parking garages. This would be a feasible scenario for a CP office building as well.

Nick

Re: Cedar Fair officials considering new office building

^With all the discussion about CP's very high water table, I don't believe underground parking is possible. Is there any basement in the park right now?

-Craig-
2008:Magnum XL-200 | 2007:Corkscrew/Magnum XL-200/Maverick
http://www.pointphotography.net/

Re: Cedar Fair officials considering new office building

You can do underground parking, it's just real expensive to do. The convention center in San Diego , which is directly on the bayfront, has a parking garage beneath it. It's dry as bone there, but the area beneath the garage has a battery of pumps that keeps the bay out.

Re: Cedar Fair officials considering new office building

If the PR guys give up their valet parking, they should be OK for space.

Walt Schmidt - Co-Publisher, PointBuzz
Twitter

Re: Cedar Fair officials considering new office building

There goes your special park perks Walt.

Ben Holcomb
Web Site
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