REAL ESTATE : Balboa Fun Zone Is Still for Sale, but There’s No Hurry

The Ferris wheel, the merry-go-round and the other rides at the Balboa Fun Zone--a vest-pocket amusement park on Newport Beach’s Balboa Peninsula--are still for sale. But after two years on the market with no deal, the owners say they’re in less of a hurry to sell these days.

Joe Tunstall grew up thinking it would be fun to own the Fun Zone. About five years ago, he and a partner realized that dream: They bought the rides. A Japanese restaurateur actually owns the building.

But Tunstall says that about two years ago, he tired of constant demands on his time. Now 53 and retired once from a profitable bicycle shop, he wants more time to travel.

“The goal was to get me out of there, and the quickest way to get me out of there was to sell it,” he says. “After a year, when nobody came along and bought it, I started training a manager. Last October, I fired me and put him on as general manager.”

Tunstall is asking $2.5 million for the franchise, but so far the most serious offer was a swap for land in Phoenix, where the real estate market has collapsed.

The place takes in about $1 million a year, Tunstall says, and turns a tidy profit. And so far, revenues are running ahead of last year. Recession-proof? Hardly. Tunstall says February of last year was rainy and that hurt sales, which is why this year looks a little better so far.

Still, he says, the inexpensive Fun Zone is likely to be hurt less than the more expensive theme parks that replaced all of Southern California’s seaside amusement parks but this one.

“For five dollars, you can ride everything we’ve got,” says Tunstall. “I think the high-priced, gated amusement parks will be hurt more than we will.”