The future of Wet 'n' Wild remains shrouded in doubt and will still not reopen this year – despite being bought for £3.2m by the waterpark's tenants.
Serco Leisure, the operator of Wet 'n' Wild in North Shields, announced in February that the popular waterpark would not be re-opening this year, blaming poor visitor numbers outside of weekends and school holidays for the temporary closure.
The firm said it was reviewing plans for the future of the site – and remarkably says that position has not changed, despite carrying out a multimillion-pound deal to buy the site from its landlords.
However, the sizeable investment in the property suggests Serco Leisure will be working up plans for the site in a bid to draw in more customers, especially as the UK staycation market is expected to boom for the foreseeable future.
A spokesman for Serco Leisure said: “The future of the site remains under review, there is no change to that.”
Wet 'n' Wild – known for its rides including the Abyss, the Black Hole, Tornado and Kamikaze as well as its Lazy River, wave machine and mini water park – first opened in 1993 but closed in 2013 when the previous operator went into administration.
Serco took on the lease in 2014 and invested in the venue to try to change the park’s fortunes. The attraction re-opened to the public in July 2014.
However, Serco says it has incurred substantial financial losses in each year of operation.
Commercial property consultants Mason Owen, an adviser to Alternative Income REIT PLC, sold the North Shields waterpark to the Serco group subsidiary for £3.2m, which marks a 9.7% lift on the purchase price.
Simon Bland, managing director of Mason Owen said: ‘We were delighted to work with the team at M7 on the sale of the water park for Alternative Income REIT and achieve a successful outcome that generated a positive uplift on the purchase price, a premium on the book value and an attractive six per cent exit yield even during such challenging times that was ahead of the acquisition yield.”
Alternative Income REIT intends to use the proceeds of the sale to invest into its growing pipeline of assets.
Steve Smith, chairman of Alternative Income REIT PLC said: ‘We are pleased to have completed the disposal of the Wet ‘n’ Wild water park asset at a significant premium to acquisition cost and book value, enabling the group to recycle the proceeds into an accretive investment in short order.”
