Wet ‘n Wild sold for third time in 19 months

Thursday, March 30, 2000 | 11:13 a.m.

The Ogden Corp., a New York conglomerate that plans to focus on energy-generating facilities, confirmed it is selling the division that owns the Wet 'n Wild theme park in Las Vegas.

Alfa Alfa Holdings SA, of Greece, will be the fourth owner of the Strip-based water park in 19 months.

Ogden confirmed the company's plan to sell its theme park division to Alfa Alfa for $148 million. The transaction marks the Greek company's entry into the U.S. theme and water parks industry and Apostolos Allamanis, president of Alfa Alfa, said the deal would close by the end of April.

Ogden reported an unrelated deal today in which privately held Aramark Corp., Philadelphia, bought Ogden's food and beverage concessions business for $236 million.

Aramark, which is the contracted concessionaire at the Las Vegas Convention Center and Cashman Center, will take over Ogden's concession businesses at Wrigley Field in Chicago, the Staples Center in Los Angeles and the Pepsi Center in Denver among others.

Aramark now serves 45 sports facilities and 30 convention centers with 75 million customers around the country.

Ogden announced in September that it wanted out of its entertainment and aviation units to focus on its energy company. In mid-March, it announced the deal with Alfa Alfa.

Opened in 1977, Wet 'n Wild, a popular Strip water park, was acquired by Ogden from the Universal Studios subsidiary of Seagram Co. for an undisclosed amount in March 1999. Universal had acquired the park from Arlington, Texas-based Wet 'n Wild Co. in October 1998.