Rides, then buildings, then land, will be sold after Calif. company decides not to buy park.

Wild West World faded into the sunset Friday when a California amusement park operator backed out of talks to buy it.

Officials from Parks America, a Santa Monica, Calif., company, have decided not to buy the park, signaling the end of the $30 million dream that bankrupted founder Thomas Etheredge.

Wichita lawyer Gaye Tibbets, who represented Parks America in the talks, said the company remains interested in individual Wild West World rides, but not the whole park.

"After it performed its due diligence, it concluded that the park as a whole was not a purchase it wished to make," she said.

Dale Van Voorhis, Parks America's president, is out of the country at another theme park, Tibbets said. She declined to elaborate on the company's decision to not make an offer.

Ed Nazar, the Wichita lawyer representing the park in bankruptcy, said he filed motions Friday afternoon in U.S. Bankruptcy Court to sell three of the park's 24 rides.

It wasn't immediately clear how quickly Judge Robert Nugent will approve the ride sales, a process that could take a few weeks.

In the interim, the entire park will remain for sale but sources close to the bankruptcy say there are no bidders.

Within days, Overland Park-based Bank of Blue Valley should be the first in line, seizing four rides it leased to the park.

The ride sales will be cash only, Nazar said, with no financing or equity participation available.

Getting the rides sold and out of the park is the immediate priority, with cold weather and significant weatherization expenses looming that the park cannot afford, Nazar said.

Once the rides are gone, Nazar said he will begin selling off the park's metal buildings, then will put the land on the market to developers.

'No surprise'

The park's demise is "no surprise," said Gary Slade, editor and publisher of the national trade publication Amusement Today.

A sale would have been almost impossible to complete, he said.

"One thing that hurt the park in terms of trying to sell it intact was the fact the rides aren't paid off in full," he said.

"Even if you bought that park with the land and buildings, you'd have to work out an agreement on all those different ride loans, and that's a big deterrent for someone to come in and make a bid."

Wild West World also had no track record of business success to sell itself, Slade said.

"Way too many unknowns," he said. "Still essentially a startup business."

It's not clear how much money the individual rides will generate for the bankruptcy estate, Slade said.

"If the ride in question is brand new, and a handful of them were, then those can fetch top dollar," he said.

"But the rest are like used cars -- used and through at least one rehab, one new coat of paint."

Park City Mayor Dee Stuart called Friday's developments "disappointing" and criticized bankruptcy officials for dealing only with Parks America. Park City invested more than $1 million in tax money into the park's parking lot.

Stuart said an offer from the owners of Magic Springs in Hot Springs, Ark. --based on creditors investing in the new operation -- should have been considered.

"What are they going to get out of it now?" she asked. "Twenty-five cents on the dollar? That might be generous."

However, Nazar said none of the parties who have visited Wild West World in the past month evaluating rides had any interest in the entire park.

The park's land along I-135 offers positives and negatives to potential buyers, said Stan Longhofer, director of Wichita State University's Center for Real Estate.

"The challenge is going to be to what extent what's left out there matches up with someone's use," he said.

"How much use are the parking lots? How much do the hydraulics out there create a cost? It's not obvious to me which way that goes as compared to vacant land."

The park's failure, and the failed sale, don't diminish Wichita's tourism potential, said John Rolfe, president of the Greater Wichita Convention and Visitors Bureau.

"This isn't to say, I don't think, that Wichita can't support an amusement park," Rolfe said. "For whatever reasons, this situation just didn't work."

Parks America first materialized in August when it made a $12 million offer for the park in a "letter of intent to purchase."

The company was formed specifically to buy Wild West World, Van Voorhis said at the time. But the offer never materialized after two months of due diligence, including a late August visit to Wichita to tour the park and analyze its financials.

The original deadline for a park sale was Sept. 28, but creditors and the amusement park manager agreed on a week's extension to Friday.