Property Info

[Gavin]

I have spent the past few weeks compiling data on the property BGW and WCUSA sit on. It's a rather massive amount of data, so much so that I actually stumbled accross it 2 years ago but forgot. :blush: Anyway the data was compiled by James City County and York County, from public records; and are available in their original form at the links below. Thanks for Swiftman, for convincing me to get off my butt and post this.

Basic Facts:

Busch Gardens Williamsburg:
Acreage: 383 acres with 1.38 acres in York County
Estimated Value: 67 Million USD

Water Country USA:
Acreage: 222 acres
Estimated Value: 22 Million USD

I also want to point out that Alpiengiest is ~1033 ft from the nearest house, and ~387 ft from BGW's property line.

Also at the links below, they do include other overlay options such as land contours, RPA overlay, buildings, and such.

**Disclaimer**
I in no way, own the attached files or data in them as they are property of James City County and York County. I make no representation on the accuracy of the data, nor does JCC or York County. They are available for public online viewing at the following links:

Busch Gardens is viewable here (Parcel ID: 5140100009)
James City County Parcel Viewer
http://property.jccegov.com/parcelviewer/

Water Country, External Office, Warehouse 13, and Scotland Parking Lot are viewable here (Parcel IDs: I13a-0846-4200; H12c-1556-1467; G12b-3875-4176; H12c-1347-1651 and H12c-0510-2206)
York County Parcel Viewer
http://maps.yorkcounty.gov/

EDIT: I just realized that I forgot to label the photos, since I don't have time to do that now they are in order (left to right) as follows:
1) Busch Gardens Williamsburg
2) Water Country USA
3) An External Office?
4) Scotland Parking Lot
5) Scotland Parking Lot Exit Road
6) Image showing the distance between the closest house and Alpiengiest
7) Warehouse 13

EDIT 2: I have mapped out the images and posted them to Picasa here: http://picasaweb.google.com/g1mcnabb/BGWWCUSAPropertyPlats?authuser=0&feat=directlink

EDIT 3: Added a parcel that SWP&E bought recently. It appears to be the new site for the Graveyard, so I'm affectionately calling it Warehouse 13.

EDIT 4: Created a Google Map with the property lines overlayed here:http://g.co/maps/zh8h2

 

[Zachary]

RE: Busch Gardens' and Water Country's Property Info

Excellent work! This will be a very handy resource- especially for those of us who like to map out our hopes and dreams for the park. I honestly had no idea that WCUSA had all of that property.

 

[Gavin]

RE: Busch Gardens' and Water Country's Property Info

I find it more interesting that 1.38 acres of BGW is in York County. It makes me wonder if York County will ever attempt to annex BGW. Or if BGW will ever decide to do what Kings Island did, and "move" to York. York does have the advantage of not having to answer to Kings Mill. :angel: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_subdivisions_of_Virginia#Annexations.2C_alternatives

 

[David]

RE: Busch Gardens' and Water Country's Property Info

I find it more interesting that 1.38 acres of BGW is in York County. It makes me wonder if York County will ever attempt to annex BGW. Or if BGW will ever decide to do what Kings Island did, and "move" to York. York does have the advantage of not having to answer to Kings Mill. :angel: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_subdivisions_of_Virginia#Annexations.2C_alternatives

I would love to see that happen. Kings Mill gets rather annoying. If you want peace and quiet, why move in next to a theme park... Ford's Colony is right up the street and much nicer imo...

Kind of like the people who moved in next to the airforce base and then complained about the jet noise...

 

[b.mac]

RE: Busch Gardens' and Water Country's Property Info

How about people in New Jersey complaining about Englishtown Dragway when they recently started developing about 15 years ago and the drag strip has been there for more than 50... People like that are basically stupid and ignorant.

Thank you very much BGEfan, this is extremely valuable stuff you've shown us and I think this should be stuck for a future reference point in locations of projects.
___________________________________________________________

Here is the basic overview of the park:

Color code:
Green: Property Line, everything inside of the line belongs to the park.
Red: Parking and employee lot. Most likely won't be used for future expansion.
Yellow: Verbolten (forgive me if I'm not 100% accurate).
Orange: Current grazing area for the deer, sheep, rams and horses. Possible chance for either Italy being expanded or a new country, not entirely sure about any plans for it (although Carter dreams of development there...).
Purple: Highlighted section for the possible train station in 2012. Not 100% accurate but station will be in this general area of the track.
Pink: Graveyard. Nothing more than storage for now but it could be moved in place of the rumored hotel.
Blue: You should zoom to see this but there is a clearing of trees through a good part of the land in a semi-straight line. Not sure what it's for.
Gray: Separates developed part of property from the undeveloped. The large plot of land seems to be a nice spot to develop not one but possibly two countries (or even the rumored resort hotel)

 

[Zachary]

RE: Busch Gardens' and Water Country's Property Info

Good idea B-Mac. Thread stuck.

 

[b.mac]

RE: Busch Gardens' and Water Country's Property Info

Butchered the living hell out of that post to get that photo in. Crudely drawn with MS paint but I hoped I pointed a few things out and made things slightly clearer for some people.

 

[Gavin]

RE: Busch Gardens' and Water Country's Property Info

The Blue is an easement for Colonial Pipeline, it runs through the southern half of the county. My guess is that it's some sort of natural gas line, the only place it shows any sort of hub is at the Beer Factory. So, don't light a match.

Also B-Mac, please don't call me BGEfan it's kinda a peeve of mine. It was also the username of someone else at BGEscape, just something to keep in mind.

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As far as a hotel/resort goes, I don't see that happening in the next 2-3 years. I would also think that it would be more likely that they would build it over at WCUSA, since they have more undeveloped land and less competition in the area. There may be some whispers amongst Blacktone, Hilton, and Busch Execs, but the truth is that it's not exactly profitable to build a resort since the area is kinda depressed. Maybe once the area starts to rebound or BGW starts to attract more vacation goers, who knows. :huh:

EDIT: Ha, BTW it should be SeaWorld Execs not Busch, I hadn't had my coffee yet so I sorta forgot.

 

[b.mac]

RE: Busch Gardens' and Water Country's Property Info

I'll keep that in mind. I didn't frequent Escape so I am out of the loop.

If there is ever plans for a resort in the next few years they're going to have to compete with the lower rates of the other hotels in the area (there are like 30, lol). They might offer some extra incentives for booking at the resort, but they can't do that much aside from that. If they built the hotel by WC maybe they can make a monorail or another train to ease traffic between WCUSA, BGW and the resort. speculation is so much fun.

 

[Gavin]

RE: Busch Gardens' and Water Country's Property Info

In the days before Quick Queue, they use to offer cut the line passes for Griffon to those that stayed at the Kings Mill. They were bundled with a package that included your stay and tickets to BGW and WCUSA.

 

[b.mac]

RE: Busch Gardens' and Water Country's Property Info

I know, I got those tickets for Griffon's opening day

Atleast BGW limits the amount of Quick Queue's they sell a day unlike Six Flags. At one point in 2010, more than half of the guests at the park had some sort of Flash Pass (and I'm talking a capacity crowd, too).

___________________________________________________________

Color Code:
Red: Property Line of Park
Orange: Land not suitable for development (really it's the lake, but part of the land is right next to houses so they'll probably complain if anything is going that close to their backyard)
Yellow: Land too far away from entrance to where people will probably complain about the walk to get to a ride.
Green: Suitable areas for a possible resort hotel in the future. Some area might make good land for future expansion, too. (Particularly in the northern end, but the southern area is also suitable outside of the yellow)
Blue: Undeveloped land very suitable for future expansion
Pink: Not sure what this is, but it branches from Hubba, Hubba Highway and has a rather large path to a building. May not be viewable if you zoom in.

 

[Gavin]

RE: Busch Gardens' and Water Country's Property Info

That's actually a time share on the other side of the lake. They also could shift the parking lot t'wards the north end more, and have all the land on the south end for a resort. Just a thought...

I know, I got those tickets for Griffon's opening day

Lucky... :dodgy:

 

[b.mac]

RE: Busch Gardens' and Water Country's Property Info

So timeshare = no say in development? Well then just ignore that orange part the doesn't surround the lake then. I kind of doubt they will shift the majority of the parking lot for a resort but the areas in green make an almost perfect spot for them. Hell, maybe they could try and pull a Knoebel's and put a campground nearby; that would just be awesome.

 

[Gavin]

RE: Busch Gardens' and Water Country's Property Info

Not quite, just wanted to point out that it was a business there and not a group of houses.

 

[b.mac]

RE: Busch Gardens' and Water Country's Property Info

I still would love a campground in the area :idea:

I can dream, I know. At least this has more possibility than the grazing area being developed which is what Carter really wants


EDIT: Oh yeah, if you look at my map near the right end of the orange you see something that looks like a beach. I knew the park had sand somewhere!!!

 

[Gavin]

RE: Busch Gardens' and Water Country's Property Info

I got to thinking, and I started to wonder how difficult it would be to add a monorail between BGW and WCUSA. The results are quite interesting, there's only two things separating them; The Interstate, and some undeveloped land at a shopping center. See:

Color Code:
Red A undevloped parcel owned by Busch Properties, use to be owned by WCUSA (1998) and could be sold back.
Blue WCUSA, obviously
Yellow Shopping Center
Orange Target
White Proposed Monorail route

All the parcels listed above use to be owned by WCUSA at one point and time. The only major hurdle would be building over the interstate, because I'm pretty sure that the Shopping Center Co. wouldn't mind either leasing or selling them that land to build a resort.

 

[Zachary]

RE: Busch Gardens' and Water Country's Property Info

That shopping center would do it in a heartbeat. Last I heard, they were doing absolutely terrible. Originally, it was going to be about 2 or 3 times as large as it currently is.

I still don't see this happening though- at least not for a while.

 

[pandorazboxx]

RE: Busch Gardens' and Water Country's Property Info

If it stopped in the shopping center you'd have to factor in parking. Maybe include a rail pass with your parking pass?

 

[Pretzel Kaiser]

RE: Busch Gardens' and Water Country's Property Info

JCC/Kingsmill won't allow a coaster if it's too loud, I doubt they'll allow a huge monorail.

 

[Gavin]

RE: Busch Gardens' and Water Country's Property Info

Looking at it again, they could also extend Busch Gardens Blvd to ease traffic in the area.

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JCC/Kingsmill won't allow a coaster if it's too loud, I doubt they'll allow a huge monorail.

It would be in York until it reaches BGW. JCC/Kings Mill has no say. There also use to be a Monorail between the factory and the park.