If the company had no excess land to sell and they desperately need cash, the only choices are selling entire parks, borrowing more or dilute stock with a stock offering. The sale of excess land absolutely makes the sale of a park more likely.
Unused Kings Dominion Land Up for Sale
- Thread starter MaxxForceFan
- Start date
Or….it lowers their tax burden for land they never plan on developing.
Because before KD was built, it was a farm. It all came as one parcel.
According to Dale Brumfield’s article in Richmond Magazine, the original intention for the total parcel was that there be an amusement park, a resort hotel, an 18 hole golf course, and a shopping center.
Well, one outta four ain't bad I guess.
Land for sale - Available February 2026
https://www.cbre.com/properties/pro...nion-dr-doswell-va-23047-usa-doswell-va-23047
I attached the Brochure to this post in case it is removed from the site.
https://www.cbre.com/properties/pro...nion-dr-doswell-va-23047-usa-doswell-va-23047
I attached the Brochure to this post in case it is removed from the site.
Wow they are including the land directly behind the park in the sale. I figured everything on the park’s side of the train tracks was safe.
Fuck. That's way more brutal than I was anticipating. I figured the Lion Country Safari site would be retained with only the land on the other side of the transmission lines and Doswell Road offloaded. Crap. Definitely not what I wanted to see.
Edit: This will likely kill any dreams of consolidating the water park past Racer and even just prevent creating a water park loop beyond Racer broadly. Awful, awful, short-sighted move in my opinion. KD had way more land than it needed—there was plenty to sell—I despise that they've decided to go with basically the absolute maximalist approach.
Edit: This will likely kill any dreams of consolidating the water park past Racer and even just prevent creating a water park loop beyond Racer broadly. Awful, awful, short-sighted move in my opinion. KD had way more land than it needed—there was plenty to sell—I despise that they've decided to go with basically the absolute maximalist approach.
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Data Centers wrapping around the park... nice! It's going to look like Carowinds with all that industry if they can sell the land.
Man this sucks. In theory there could be a future where you dropping down 305 feet on Pantherian only to brush just past a giant data center warehouse just a few dozen feet away. It looks like each site is being sold in tandem or separately though, and it seems like the Western site has to be pretty hard to access.
SF is desperate for cash. Not a big surprise they would max out land sales where possible.
I think it's also a bit short-sided to sell land behind the water park. Water parks are cheaper to expand and are a proven draw, and some buffer space would have helped here to make sure there's enough land for the future.
Plus, if they ever wanted to redevelop the front gate, that would be an excellent place to relocate back of house areas that are currently to the right of the main entrance. Or even just keep this for employee parking lots to allow for redevelopment down the line, etc.
Edit: Also with Kalahari opening up down the "street," having space for an expanded waterpark is a must. Very short-sided.
Plus, if they ever wanted to redevelop the front gate, that would be an excellent place to relocate back of house areas that are currently to the right of the main entrance. Or even just keep this for employee parking lots to allow for redevelopment down the line, etc.
Edit: Also with Kalahari opening up down the "street," having space for an expanded waterpark is a must. Very short-sided.
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There should still be room for significant growth in the water park just infilling the space they have or densifying some areas. If you look at a park such as HP, they easily have 1.5-2x the density as KD, so it's certainly viable to broaden the use of existing land.
The long term issue is if SF wanted to build an on sight resort or some other type of tangential expansion. That would be off the table after a land sale.
The long term issue is if SF wanted to build an on sight resort or some other type of tangential expansion. That would be off the table after a land sale.
I really really hope this doesn't happen. KD has such a quaint and secluded feel unlike Caro, and that is one of the main reasons I prefer it significantly OVER Caro.
I said it before that they should develop the land themselves, but I would even take them leasing out the land to a developer that will build out what they would like to see rather than sell the land.
Because one of the concerns of selling the land and it becoming data centers is the water and power impacts. Data centers would put even more strain on the power needs of the area, the water usage would effect the water for SC expansion, and the added constant noise would be something the park needs to contend with.
Them giving up total control with the land is going to be a massive mistake in the long run. Seems like a short term gains over long term vision.
Because one of the concerns of selling the land and it becoming data centers is the water and power impacts. Data centers would put even more strain on the power needs of the area, the water usage would effect the water for SC expansion, and the added constant noise would be something the park needs to contend with.
Them giving up total control with the land is going to be a massive mistake in the long run. Seems like a short term gains over long term vision.
I agree that this doesn't limit water park attraction additions in any meaningful way—but I do think it really limits the ultimate shape of development at the water park.
I've long envisioned the long-term plan for the water park (whether bulldozing the park-side or not—whether separately ticketed or not) as including a new river attraction and a series of other slides and amenities filling out the other half of the loop behind Racer like this:
The land sale essentially dooms the water park eternally to be a long, thin, dead-end.
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I wonder how much they had to pay off the owners of the houses on Doswell Rd. Are they owned mostly by people still associated with the park?
If data centers are inevitable and will pop up somewhere, this land is actually pretty prime for one. Not very many homes, if any, will be impacted by the noise. And it's relatively cheap land close to NOVA, which is basically the data center capital of the world...
But yeah, reflecting on how short sighted this move is... I really hope they don't sell all of the land at once. If they only sold the east parcel and wait for that to develop, it's possible the west parcel directly behind the park will be worth more. Doswell Rd I'm sure would be upgraded in some capacity.
It's not completely insane for a hotel chain to be interested in buying the west parcel and developing it on their own. Unlikely, but not impossible.
Kalahari bought ~135 acres of land to develop their new waterpark in Fredericksburg. How cool would it have been if the stars aligned, and KD had their land up for sale when Kalahari was shopping around...
Thankfully Dominion is already building a new substation on the land. It's renewable (solar) and will be connected to the grid by this summer, so that will hopefully help offset some of the new power demands.
If data centers are inevitable and will pop up somewhere, this land is actually pretty prime for one. Not very many homes, if any, will be impacted by the noise. And it's relatively cheap land close to NOVA, which is basically the data center capital of the world...
But yeah, reflecting on how short sighted this move is... I really hope they don't sell all of the land at once. If they only sold the east parcel and wait for that to develop, it's possible the west parcel directly behind the park will be worth more. Doswell Rd I'm sure would be upgraded in some capacity.
It's not completely insane for a hotel chain to be interested in buying the west parcel and developing it on their own. Unlikely, but not impossible.
Kalahari bought ~135 acres of land to develop their new waterpark in Fredericksburg. How cool would it have been if the stars aligned, and KD had their land up for sale when Kalahari was shopping around...
I mean the west parcel (part south of the water park) is definitely the less desirable of the two so it’s definitely possible someone would buy just the east parcel and leave the west one (hopefully)
This is an ideal location for development. I know several companies looking at Doswell. The proximity of power, gas, sanitary, water and a rail line will make this a highly desirable property. I can see multiple big users coming. The B-3/A-1 will need to be rezoned, but the 143 acres of M-2 behind the park is ready now.