{"id":1004357633,"date":"2019-10-03T04:57:21","date_gmt":"2019-10-03T12:57:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/?p=1004357633"},"modified":"2021-05-15T05:29:41","modified_gmt":"2021-05-15T13:29:41","slug":"blackstones-interest-in-great-wolf-resorts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/blackstones-interest-in-great-wolf-resorts\/","title":{"rendered":"Blackstone Strikes $2.9B Deal for Great Wolf Resorts"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Image via Pixabay<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

A Blackstone affiliate, Blackstone Real Estate Partners IX, is acquiring a 65 percent controlling interest in Great Wolf Resorts Inc., from current owner Centerbridge Partners LP. The deal calls for Blackstone and Centerbridge to form a $2.9 billion joint venture<\/a> to own Great Wolf, a leading owner and operator of family-oriented entertainment resorts in the U.S. and Canada.<\/p>\n

\n

READ ALSO<\/strong>: Blackstone Closes Largest Real Estate Fund Ever Raised<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Great Wolf owns 18 resorts, or lodges, with more in the pipeline, including one in Scottsdale, Ariz., due to open this fall, and a Northern California site in Manteca, Calif., scheduled for a mid-2020 opening. Every Great Wolf lodge contains a full-service hotel, expansive indoor waterpark, recreational activities, food and beverage offerings and themed experiences. The company has about 6,000 full-time employees.<\/p>\n

Tyler Henritze, head of U.S. acquisitions for Blackstone Real Estate, said in a prepared statement that Blackstone was impressed with Great Wolf\u2019s growth in recent years. Since 2015, the resort company has opened seven new lodges. Centerbridge, a private investment management firm, with about $27 billion in capital under management, acquired Great Wolf in 2015 for $1.4 billion, including debt, according to the Wall Street Journal<\/em>. Another private equity player, Apollo Global Management, acquired the company in 2012 for more than $700 million, including debt, after a bidding war with KSL Capital Partners LLC. Apollo took the company private that year, WSJ<\/em> reported.<\/p>\n

Noting Blackstone\u2019s expertise in the hospitality industry, Great Wolf CEO Murray Hennessy, said the company was pleased to work with Blackstone on continuing the rapid expansion. North America\u2019s largest indoor waterpark resort company, Great Wolf has locations in Wisconsin Dells, Wis.; Sandusky, Ohio; Traverse City, Mich.; Kansas City, Kan.; Williamsburg, Va.; Pocono Mountains, Pa.; Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada; Mason, Ohio; Grapevine, Texas; Grand Mound, Wash.; Fitchburg, Mass.; Charlotte, N.C.; Garden Grove, Calif.; Colorado Springs, Colo.; Bloomington, Minn.; LaGrange, Ga., and Gurnee, Ill.<\/p>\n

Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC and Citigroup Global Markets Inc. are serving as financial advisors to Great Wolf, and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP is serving as legal counsel to Great Wolf. Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLC is serving as legal counsel to Blackstone.<\/p>\n

Theme park interests<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Blackstone, a global private equity firm with $154 billion in investor capital under control, is familiar with hospitality and theme park operators. The firm nearly tripled its investment in SeaWorld Entertainment Inc. when it sold it after seven years in March 2017. It is also planning to buy Legoland operator Merlin Entertainments for $6.1 billion. Legoland said Wednesday it will open its newest and largest theme park in Goshen, N.Y.,<\/a> on July 4, 2020.<\/p>\n

Blackstone had a busy September, entering into agreements with Colony Capital <\/a>to buy its light industrial division for $5.9 billion and Global Logistic Properties to acquire its U.S. industrial assets valued at about $19 billion. Also in September, Blackstone Real Estate Partners Europe agreed to buy five hotels in the Greek Islands<\/a> from the Louis Group for $197 million. That news came soon after Blackstone raised the largest-ever global real estate fund, closing on Blackstone Real Estate Partners IX at $20.5 billion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An affiliate will take a majority stake in the family-oriented entertainment company, which specializes in water park-themed properties.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1068,"featured_media":1004331317,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21743,21808,21751,21783,23891,21742],"tags":[34301,46979,33435,34295,33129,36658],"class_list":["post-1004357633","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-deals","category-featured","category-hotel","category-investment","category-national","category-latest","tag-apollo-global-management","tag-blackstone-real-estate-partners-ix","tag-goldman-sachs","tag-great-wolf-resorts-inc","tag-the-blackstone-group","tag-tyler-henritze"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nBlackstone Strikes $2.9B Deal for Great Wolf Resorts - Commercial Property Executive<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/blackstones-interest-in-great-wolf-resorts\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Blackstone Strikes $2.9B Deal for Great Wolf Resorts\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"An affiliate will take a majority stake in the family-oriented entertainment company, which specializes in water park-themed properties.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/blackstones-interest-in-great-wolf-resorts\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Commercial Property Executive\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CPExecutive\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-10-03T12:57:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-05-15T13:29:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2019\/06\/CORPORATE-ACQUISITION-01.-Image-via-Pixabay.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"620\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Gail Kalinoski\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@cpexecutive\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@cpexecutive\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/blackstones-interest-in-great-wolf-resorts\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/blackstones-interest-in-great-wolf-resorts\/\",\"name\":\"Blackstone Strikes $2.9B Deal for Great Wolf Resorts - Commercial Property Executive\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/blackstones-interest-in-great-wolf-resorts\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/blackstones-interest-in-great-wolf-resorts\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2019\/06\/CORPORATE-ACQUISITION-01.-Image-via-Pixabay.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-10-03T12:57:21+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-05-15T13:29:41+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/fc5b5df1393e5023d2417bd48c2fda57\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/blackstones-interest-in-great-wolf-resorts\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/blackstones-interest-in-great-wolf-resorts\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/blackstones-interest-in-great-wolf-resorts\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2019\/06\/CORPORATE-ACQUISITION-01.-Image-via-Pixabay.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2019\/06\/CORPORATE-ACQUISITION-01.-Image-via-Pixabay.png\",\"width\":800,\"height\":620,\"caption\":\"Image by geralt via Pixabay.com\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/blackstones-interest-in-great-wolf-resorts\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Blackstone Strikes $2.9B Deal for Great Wolf Resorts\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/\",\"name\":\"Commercial Property Executive\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/fc5b5df1393e5023d2417bd48c2fda57\",\"name\":\"Gail Kalinoski\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2023\/04\/Gail-Kalinoski-headshot.jpeg?w=86\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2023\/04\/Gail-Kalinoski-headshot.jpeg?w=86\",\"caption\":\"Gail Kalinoski\"},\"description\":\"Kalinoski has been a contributing writer to Commercial Property Executive and Multi-Housing News since 2010 and previously wrote for three years for Commercial Property News. Gail has been a freelance writer and editor for more than 20 years, contributing to daily websites, magazines, weekly business newspapers, market intelligence newsletters, research reports, monthly B-to-B and consumer magazines. Earlier in her career, Gail worked for Gannett Corp. as an editor and reporter for 15 years. Gail has a bachelor\u2019s degree in journalism from Pace University.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/author\/gail-kalinoski\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Blackstone Strikes $2.9B Deal for Great Wolf Resorts - Commercial Property Executive","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/blackstones-interest-in-great-wolf-resorts\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Blackstone Strikes $2.9B Deal for Great Wolf Resorts","og_description":"An affiliate will take a majority stake in the family-oriented entertainment company, which specializes in water park-themed properties.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/blackstones-interest-in-great-wolf-resorts\/","og_site_name":"Commercial Property Executive","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CPExecutive","article_published_time":"2019-10-03T12:57:21+00:00","article_modified_time":"2021-05-15T13:29:41+00:00","og_image":[{"width":800,"height":620,"url":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2019\/06\/CORPORATE-ACQUISITION-01.-Image-via-Pixabay.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Gail Kalinoski","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@cpexecutive","twitter_site":"@cpexecutive","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/blackstones-interest-in-great-wolf-resorts\/","url":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/blackstones-interest-in-great-wolf-resorts\/","name":"Blackstone Strikes $2.9B Deal for Great Wolf Resorts - Commercial Property Executive","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/blackstones-interest-in-great-wolf-resorts\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/blackstones-interest-in-great-wolf-resorts\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2019\/06\/CORPORATE-ACQUISITION-01.-Image-via-Pixabay.png","datePublished":"2019-10-03T12:57:21+00:00","dateModified":"2021-05-15T13:29:41+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/fc5b5df1393e5023d2417bd48c2fda57"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/blackstones-interest-in-great-wolf-resorts\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/blackstones-interest-in-great-wolf-resorts\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/blackstones-interest-in-great-wolf-resorts\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2019\/06\/CORPORATE-ACQUISITION-01.-Image-via-Pixabay.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2019\/06\/CORPORATE-ACQUISITION-01.-Image-via-Pixabay.png","width":800,"height":620,"caption":"Image by geralt via Pixabay.com"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/blackstones-interest-in-great-wolf-resorts\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Blackstone Strikes $2.9B Deal for Great Wolf Resorts"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/","name":"Commercial Property Executive","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/fc5b5df1393e5023d2417bd48c2fda57","name":"Gail Kalinoski","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2023\/04\/Gail-Kalinoski-headshot.jpeg?w=86","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2023\/04\/Gail-Kalinoski-headshot.jpeg?w=86","caption":"Gail Kalinoski"},"description":"Kalinoski has been a contributing writer to Commercial Property Executive and Multi-Housing News since 2010 and previously wrote for three years for Commercial Property News. Gail has been a freelance writer and editor for more than 20 years, contributing to daily websites, magazines, weekly business newspapers, market intelligence newsletters, research reports, monthly B-to-B and consumer magazines. Earlier in her career, Gail worked for Gannett Corp. as an editor and reporter for 15 years. Gail has a bachelor\u2019s degree in journalism from Pace University.","url":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/author\/gail-kalinoski\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2019\/06\/CORPORATE-ACQUISITION-01.-Image-via-Pixabay.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1004357633","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1068"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1004357633"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1004357633\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1004533509,"href":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1004357633\/revisions\/1004533509"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1004331317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1004357633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1004357633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1004357633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}