Santa Clara’s Great America theme park lease could be terminated in three years: new docs
SANTA CLARA — The lease that enables California’s Great America amusement park to operate at its long-time South Bay site could be terminated in just over three years from now, public records show.
Prologis, a real estate titan, could terminate the lease its affiliate has provided to California’s Great America for the land beneath the iconic theme park in Santa Clara as soon as June 30, 2028, documents filed on Jan. 6 with the Santa Clara County Recorder’s Office.
This means the theme park might halt operations by no later than mid-2028, slightly more than three years hence.
In 2022, a Prologis affiliate paid $310 million for 112.6 acres at 1 Great America Parkway, where the theme park has operated for decades.
As part of the deal, Prologis agreed to lease back to Cedar Fair, the amusement park’s operator and owner, the land the Prologis unit had just bought. In July 2024, Cedar Fair and Six Flags Entertainment completed a “merger of equals.” The new company retained the Six Flags name although former Cedar Fair management staff, including the chief executive officer, became the new company’s principal leaders.
Prologis and Cedar Fair completed the updated lease agreement on Dec. 31, the county documents show.
At the point the initial term of the lease expires in mid-2028, the amusement park operator could exercise an option to extend the lease for one five-year period.
Six Flags and Cedar Fair were major operators of amusement and theme parks prior to the merger, a status that continues today.
The regional amusement park business was jolted by the economic fallout from wide-ranging shutdowns ordered by government agencies to combat the coronavirus.
A 2022 regulatory filing around the time San Francisco-based Prologis bought the property indicated that the park could, at this point, close on a swifter time frame than the lease agreement.
“The lease is subject to a right in favor of Prologis to terminate the lease early by providing at least two years’ prior notice,” Cedar Fair stated in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing in June 2022.
It’s not clear whether Prologis has given or is preparing to give that prior notice as outlined in the SEC filing.
Prologis bought enough Santa Clara land through its purchase that an array of development opportunities are possible.
Housing, advanced manufacturing, industrial sites, logistics and warehouse hubs, offices, shops, restaurants and entertainment hubs are among the uses that could be built on the property, which is on Great America Parkway between U.S. Highway 101 and Tasman Drive.