Your Chance to Become a Waterpark Owner

A realtor representing a shuttered water park in Green Lake Township hopes a price drop and property split will lure a buyer.

Dan Stiebel of Coldwell Banker Schmidt Realtors is on the hunt for a buyer for the 40-acre Fun Country park on US-31 in Interlochen, now listed as a $295,000 package including the park, vacant land and a 2,058-square-foot, four-bedroom house. The realtor says he's gotten permission from the investors who own the property to drop the price this week to $250,000 for the whole property, or alternatively, to separately sell the park for $150,000 and the house for $125,000.

“We're trying to hit a price point where it's such a good deal that (a buyer) wouldn't have to make a ton of money on the mortgage to make it profitable,” says Stiebel. “Our hope is that we can get somebody to open it back up as a water park, maybe add some new attractions.”

The listing strategy comes after the most recent in a long line of interested developers and buyers backed out of purchasing the property. The potential buyer, who had the park under contract for six months, recently walked away from the deal because Green Lake Township officials required the construction of a new turn lane on US-31 into the property in order to green-light redevelopment, according to Stiebel. “The cost of that project was more expensive than the cost of the entire property,” Stiebel says.

The turn-lane requirement – along with the property's reliance on a well and septic system and the aging condition of various water slides and equipment – has posed ongoing challenges to redevelopment at a park that for decades was a summer getaway for locals and tourists alike. Problems at Fun Country stretch back to the mid-2000s, when a group of investors led by real estate seminar guru Ron LeGrand purchased the park and touted an ambitious plan to build a restaurant, three-story hotel and RV park on the premises.

The proposal rankled residents and officials worried about increased traffic and congestion in the busy corridor, as well as the economic feasibility of the plan.

“Those were lofty goals for any time, but this came right at the time the market tanked,” Stiebel agrees. “They couldn't find any developers or buyers...and they ended up losing the property to the bank.” Following the park's closure, the bank sold off the note to the site's current group of investors.

Stiebel says that while reopening the property as an amusement park would be an obvious route for a developer – “I could see someone adding zip lines or a ropes course...to the (existing) water slides, go-kart track and mini-golf course,” he speculates – the realtor also notes there are “a lot of different uses” that could be allowed on the property.

“Interlochen has designed a plan for the intersection of US-31 and M-137 (near the park),” says Stiebel, referring to Green Lake Township's Gateway Master Plan adopted in 2013. “They'd like to see a mix of residential and commercial development on the property. That could be retail, office, restaurant...there are a lot of possibilities.”

In spite of Fun Country's past development woes, Stiebel is optimistic the park's newly reduced listing price - combined with multiple potential uses - will prove too attractive for buyers to refuse. “At $250,000 for 40 acres with commercial potential right at the gateway of Interlochen, it's a steal,” he says. “It's a great deal, and someone's going to jump on it.”