Source: WLKY.com

There are more problems with the planned reopening of Kentucky Kingdom.

Developers now say 2013 is their target date for reopening the amusement park. They have been unable to put together the public-private partnership needed to get the park open.

Developer Ed Hart has pledged $1 million toward the reopening, predicated on an interim agreement with the Fair Board. That agreement extends through the end of the next legislative session, at which time the state’s intention to complete the public/private partnership with $20 million should be known.

Source: Courier-Journal

The family that owns the Galt House and other Louisville hotel properties has agreed to guarantee as much as $20 million of any investment by Ed Hart in his effort to reopen the Kentucky Kingdom amusement park.

The guarantee may help jump start stalled efforts to reopen the park, which shut down in fall 2009.

Hart has estimated it would take $20 million to get Kentucky Kingdom reopened on a limited scale, with a couple of new rides.

“If he (Hart) can get his financing together, yes, we think we can get Kentucky Kingdom open next summer, but time is of the essence,” Mary Moseley, head of the Al J. Schneider Cos. said Tuesday. Among the company’s holdings is the Galt House, as well as the Crowne Plaza Hotel, adjacent to the fairgrounds.

Hart has been granted rights by the Kentucky State Fair Board to try to reopen the fairgrounds park that Six Flags abandoned in early 2010 amid a bankruptcy filing.

Source: Courier-Journal

FRANKFORT, Ky. — Kentucky Kingdom may not reopen as planned in 2012 because legislators seem unlikely to approve a $50 million state bond issue to help pay for improvements there.

The Louisville amusement park, which is on property owned by the Kentucky State Fair Board, has been closed since 2010 after its previous owner, Six Flags, filed for bankruptcy.

Susan McNeese Lynch, a spokeswoman for Kentucky Kingdom Redevelopment Co., said the 2012 reopening date “would have to be revisited” if the money is not approved in this year’s session of the General Assembly.

But she said it's impossible to say for sure if there would be a delay or how long it would be.

“There are so many variables, so many things that could happen,” she said.

The fair board and the redevelopment company, which has been chosen to operate the amusement park, still hope that the bond issue could be approved this year.

But leaders in the state House of Representatives say there is little chance of that.