Knott’s Parent Buying San Diego Water Park

Continuing its California expansion, the Ohio company that owns Knott’s Berry Farm and the Buena Park Hotel, said it expects to complete its purchase today of White Water Canyon, a water park in San Diego County, for $11.5 million. Cedar Fair will trade in White Water’s Western motif for a beach theme, renaming the Chula Vista park Knott’s Soak City USA. It shares the Soak City name with a $25-million water park that Cedar Fair is building next to Knott’s in Buena Park and another one beside Cedar Point, the chain’s flagship amusement park in Sandusky, Ohio. Egged on by Wall Street, Cedar Fair is expanding its holdings, which include four amusement parks in the East and Midwest. The amusement park industry has stagnated lately, leaving Knott’s attendance flat at about 3.5 million patrons a year and other Cedar Fair parks flat to lower. Cedar Fair partnership units closed at $19 on the NYSE, down 31 cents on the day and 35% below its high of $29.44 in May 1998.