Raging Waters is trying to keep its head above water financially.
The water park broke even last summer, but other recent seasons apparently haven't been successful and accumulated debts are taking their toll.Raging Waters is behind on payments to Salt Lake City and to a Belgian financial institution. The city has given the company until Jan. 15 to explain how it will catch up on its payments and regain profitability.
Company representatives say they expect to resolve the financial problems without any hitches and to continue full operation of the water park.
"We are going to open in the spring, and we currently have a Christmas pass sale going on," said general manager Peter Elliott.
Raging Waters owes Salt Lake City $80,000. The company pays the city $50,000 per year to lease the 15-acre property on which the park is located. Salt Lake City, in turn, leases 11 acres at the site from Salt Lake County for $38,000 a year.
Raging Waters paid the city $20,000 in 1993 but has not made any payments since, said Roger Black, management services director.
The situation took on new urgency recently when the city received a letter from Fitraco, a Belgian pension fund that is carrying debt for improvements at the park. The letter said Raging Waters was behind in its payments.
Raging Waters is owned by a joint partnership. The general partner is Amcore Management Inc. of Toronto, Canada. The other partner is Morey Development Co. of New Jersey, which operates two other water parks elsewhere in the United States.
Amcore Management stepped in as general partner of the water park this summer.
The city took Amcore's backing as a positive sign that the park, located at 1200 W. 1700 South, would be able to resolve its problems, Black said.
"Our sense is the park has some challenges to make it profitable, but so far we remain optimistic about the ability of the people operating the park to have the wherewithal to keep it functioning," Black said. "We've been in contact with them and they've led us to believe that they will make arrangements to cure this situation. We're confident the park can thrive."
Hugh Hall, Amcore spokesman, said the financial problems are due to the combination of an "old debt and a new partnership." He said the park is a profitable venture.
"It's an internal partnership problem really," Hall said. "It will sort its self out."
But, in fact, business at Raging Waters has suffered in the past several years with the opening of the Seven Peaks and Lagoon water parks.
"They've had some challenges over the past few years," Black said. "We've had to remind them of their obligation and had to work through some things with them."
The city renegotiated the firm's lease agreement in 1993 to ease its financial burden, Black said. The city lowered Raging Water's lease payment from $100,000 per year to $50,000 per year.
At the same time the county agreed to accept partial or no payment from the city, based on the amount it receives from Raging Waters, while the company tries to straighten out its finances, Black said.
The city uses its share of the money to pay for small improvement projects at its parks, Black said.
"We have given up some of our early expectations about the profits from this operation," Black said.
Raging Waters' current difficulties aren't the water park's first financial problems.
Salt Lake City received a "Golden Fleece" award from Sen. William Proxmire, D-Wis., in 1978 for installing a wave-making machine at a swimming pool at the park. Back then, the pool was known as Wild Wave.
The Wild Wave pool cost $450,000 to build. The city expected to generate $200,000 per year from admission fees. By 1982 the pool's popularity had subsided and city officials revealed it was not generating enough money to pay off the construction debt.
Shortly thereafter, the city proposed that a private developer expand the facility into a full-fledged water park that would attract more people and justify higher admission fees.
Morey Development Co. of New Jersey took over the park from the first private developer and operated it alone until last summer.