> Cedar Fair bought the land beneath Great America from the city of Santa Clara in 2019 for $150 million
The quote about the Cedar Fair purchase links to a Mercury News article about the sale:
> The city was forced to sell the property, which it bought in 1985 with money from its former redevelopment agency, as part of a state law that dissolved redevelopment agencies statewide.
> There have been rumors in recent years that another buyer would come along and try to change the property’s use, even though the theme park’s lease wasn’t set to expire until 2074.
So in effect Santa Clara was forced to sell the land to a private corporate which resold it for twice the price after 3 years.
The previous lease didn’t expire until 2074, and presumably was tied to the use as a theme park.
Personally this seems like a big failure to hand a corporation a $150m windfall.