Six Flags Has High Hopes for New Water Park

With a new, lavishly designed water park called Hurricane Harbor scheduled to open Friday beside the trademark roller coasters of Magic Mountain, Six Flags California is trying to become the kind of world-class theme park that not only lures guests, but keeps them around for more than a day.

It’s a $35-million gamble, one that could help Six Flags compete with the top draws in California’s fiercely competitive tourist industry.

But can the dusty, suburban Santa Clarita Valley become a vacation destination, along the lines--however modest--of Anaheim or Orlando?

It is too early, of course, to tell just how potent the blend of Hurricane Harbor and Magic Mountain will be. But that hasn’t stopped Six Flags officials from predicting that the dual parks could attract $45 million in tourist dollars to the area annually. Local officials are just as boosterish.

“They may take a vacation where they stay over a weekend or a week,” said Jo Anne Darcy, the mayor of neighboring Santa Clarita, which in recent years has launched festivals celebrating family films and cowboy poetry. Darcy hopes the new park “will give us more opportunity to promote what we have.”

However optimistic that $45-million prediction may be, some economic benefits, large and small, are sure to come. Already the largest employer in the Santa Clarita Valley, Six Flags has hired 300 additional workers to increase its total staff to 3,300. Local hotel managers expect increased business and are even considering expansion; one restaurant has hired four more waiters.

As if they were slipping down one of Hurricane Harbor’s dark and twisting slides, park officials and the people of this community are waiting to see how the ride ends.

The notion of adding a water-slide complex, with a separate admission, to Magic Mountain’s dizzying array of roller coasters has been knocking around for more than a decade. But, oddly enough, it wasn’t until the Northridge earthquake that the idea seemed viable.

Magic Mountain withstood the temblor largely unscathed and its lifeline to customers--the Golden State Freeway--was repaired more quickly than expected. In the months that followed, the park enjoyed unprecedented attendance. Buoyed by such success, Six Flags began construction on its long-delayed project.

“Even in the worst of times we had a record year,” said Del Holland, president of the park, which has been renamed Six Flags California. “It signified to us that the Southern California economy was coming on strong.”

The result is a 14-acre park that resembles a lost civilization of shipwrecks and crumbling Tiki heads. Decrepit-looking towers with twists of steep slides rise above a densely planted landscape. A wave pool churns just beyond a row of island huts that house shops and food stands.

“They are trying to place themselves as a destination, and that image is a great idea,” said Tim O’Brien, a regional editor for Amusement Business magazine. “But they have to get people to stay that extra day.”

Each spring, the region’s competing theme parks, such as Disneyland and Universal Studios Hollywood, unveil multimillion-dollar attractions in the scramble for summer business.

While the parks decline to release attendance figures, Amusement Business estimated that Disneyland drew 10.3 million guests during 1994, Universal Studios 4.6 million, Knott’s Berry Farm 3.8 million and Six Flags 3.5 million.

Those figures are somewhat deceptive because, unlike the other parks, Six Flags opens daily only during the summer. And while Disneyland’s attendance fell 10% last year, Six Flags’ rose 6%.

With Hurricane Harbor, Six Flags is hoping to boost its numbers further by following an industry trend.

“Water parks are hot right now,” O’Brien said. “It’s especially good in an area like Los Angeles during summertime.”

In 1984, an estimated 18 million people visited several hundred water parks in the United States, according to the World Waterpark Assn. in Lenexa, Kan. Last year--as the number of water parks rose to 1,000--attendance hit 48.3 million.

Industry watchers say this popularity is an extension of a 1960s phenomenon, when public pools were crowded with neighborhood families. A return to family togetherness plus increasing consumer sophistication has brought about a more elaborate version of those public pools.

From a business standpoint, water parks are relatively inexpensive. The money that Six Flags spent on Hurricane Harbor would have paid for only one-third of the new, high-tech Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland.

Six Flags executives have not ventured to guess how many additional guests Hurricane Harbor may lure to their park. But, judging from a news release, they may already be counting their chickens.

The release estimates that, by summer’s end, Hurricane Harbor’s snack bars will sell 2.5 million French fries, 1 million slices of pizza and enough hot dogs that “if laid end to end would cross the Brooklyn Bridge 27 times.”

All of this development will undoubtedly attract more cars. Even before Hurricane Harbor, summer weekends brought bumper-to-bumper traffic in the slow lane of the Golden State Freeway as cars lined up to exit at Magic Mountain Parkway. Six Flags pays California Highway Patrol officers overtime to direct cars at the off-ramp.

County zoning administrators insist that the freeway and surface streets can handle even more traffic. But the county included an emergency clause in the construction permit it issued for Hurricane Harbor.

“We wanted to add a condition where the county or the state wouldn’t have to foot the bill if there were unanticipated problems,” said John Schwarze, zoning administrator for Los Angeles County. “If there are any problems identified, [Six Flags] has agreed to work with the Department of Public Works.”

Increased attendance also raises the issue of crime. In April, 1993, hundreds of youths rampaged through Magic Mountain and vandalized nearby businesses. The disturbance centered on an oversold concert.

Bad feelings lingered in the community as residents voiced opposition to a water park recently proposed for Canyon Country. But security enhancements at Six Flags and two uneventful years have soothed many concerns, even among those who opposed the Canyon Country proposal.

“The park at Magic Mountain I think is great,” said Janice Bueler, a Canyon Country resident. “We have two nephews who are definitely looking forward to it.”

Meanwhile, state and local officials who have watched Los Angeles suffer through floods, civil unrest, fires and earthquakes are quick to trumpet the water park’s arrival.

“It proves that we can overcome,” said John Poimiroo, director of the state’s Division of Tourism. “Travelers continue to like California, especially because we have attractions like this.”

Six Flags’ commitment to the park, said Tricia Ezell, chairwoman of the Santa Clarita Tourism Bureau, is “a vote of confidence for the economy of the Santa Clarita Valley.”

The greatest economic impact could lie in store. The Newhall Land & Farming Co. owns much of the land around the park and wants to construct a conference center and tourist accommodations.

A new Marriott Fairfield Inn and Residence Inn complex is scheduled for construction near the park, and will add 156 rooms to the roughly 600 now available in the area. While hotel officials expect that most of their guests will be business travelers, they predict that park guests will account for a portion.

In addition, the 4-year-old Valencia Hilton Garden at Six Flags, which boasted 92% occupancy last year, is considering a 40-room expansion, said Jennifer Dinardo, director of sales and marketing for the hotel. Down the street, the Red Lobster restaurant has added four employees in anticipation of more diners.

Just as nature provided the catalyst for Hurricane Harbor, nature also delayed the park’s opening.

Winter storms slowed construction as work crews pumped 1.6 million gallons of rainwater from the flooded site. Months later, Six Flags purchased 1.4 million gallons from the Valencia Water Co. to fill the pools and slides.

That water--enough to supply seven single-family homes for a year--will be circulated through a sand-filtration system.

So, with the slides built and the water now circulating, Six Flags has only to wait and see if its investment will pay off. Industry experts predict that the water park will almost certainly draw guests from the greater Los Angeles area.

In addition, Six Flags has been advertising aggressively in its so-called “outer markets,” such as Santa Barbara and San Jose.

“People have already formed a pattern of visiting Magic Mountain. They are comfortable with the place and know how to get there,” O’Brien said. “The new park is an unknown quantity, but it has a good chance.”

Times special correspondent Mark Sabbatini contributed to this story.