Houston's Theme Park Wars

Houston's theme park wars heat up: New competition spurs an old standby to up its game

The former Six Flags CEO on duty during AstroWorld's 2005 closure has returned Houston market with plans to reinvent one of the area's most popular water parks.

Kieran Burke and his Premier Attractions Management company revealed major goals for SplashTown in Spring, starting with newly-built attractions, a revamped dining area and a redesigned entry plaza. The 53-acre park also will get a fresh logo and website to match its rebranded name, Wet 'n' Wild SplashTown.

News of the overhaul comes as the upcoming Grand Texas Theme Park in nearby New Caney moves ahead with plans to build its own Lone Star-themed water park, which is scheduled to open in spring 2015.

To maintain its A-game, SplashTown will introduce a trio of memorable new rides this April. FlowRider creates a surfing experience with man-made waves moving as fast at 35 miles an hour. Big Kahuna blasts five-person rafts through unpredictable twisting tunnels. Wet 'n' Wild Jr. gives kids the VIP treatment with smaller rides designed specifically for children.

"Our goal here is to take an already great park and improve it even more."

"It feels great to be working in Houston again," says Burke, who coincidentally purchased the water park as CEO of Six Flags in 1999. Not long after his departure from the corporation in late 2005, Six Flags sold the park only to watch Burke's newly-founded Premier Attractions take the reigns again in 2010.

While he wouldn't disclose the amount of money his company will inject into renovations, Burke tells CulutreMap that the improvements mark the beginning of a long-term commitment to the park. Additional undeveloped land around SplashTown, he says, could mean more opportunities in the coming years.

As for his Houston reputation as the man who closed AstroWorld, Burke stresses just how hard the decision was to make at the time.

"AstroWorld had been there for a long time and it made me incredibly sad to close it," he says. "But I had a responsibility to Six Flag and to its shareholders. Given its condition and location and the costs to modernize, we just couldn't get the numbers to work. We had big offers pouring in for the land at the time and it just made more sense to close it."

With SplashTown, he hopes to once again "add something special" to the Houston entertainment community.

"Our goal here is to take an already great park and improve it even more . . . ," Burke says. "We're in this for the long haul and are focused on doing it the right way."

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remembering injustice

New downtown park will shine a light on a dark part of Houston's past

Photo by Jef Rouner

Harris County Commisioner Rodney Ellis and Rep. Al Green posing in front of new historical markers for Remembrance Park.

On Saturday, June 20, Harris County Commissioner Rodney Ellis revealed the full plans for Remembrance Park, a three-block greenspace that will connect Buffalo Bayou to the Herbert W. Gee Municipal Courthouse at 1400 Lubbock St. The park will also include historical markers dedicated to four Black Houstonians who were lynched between 1890 and 1928 — Robert Powell, John White, Burl Smith, and John Walton.

The markers will be installed temporarily at Commissioner El Franco Lee Public Service Plaza until the completion of Remembrance Park, estimated for 2029. The projected is estimated to cost $42 million, though final funding numbers have not been released. Remembrance Park is funded through a combination of Harris County tax revenue and a grant from the Ford Foundation.

Walter Hood of HOOD Design Studios and Michael Murphy of AMMA presented renderings of the future park. It will be a combination of gardens, pavilions, and overlooks that can be used for multiple purposes. In the center of the park will be an innovative fountain. When filled with an inch of water, it will reflect the sky. When emptied, it will show a massive photograph of a baptism in Buffalo Bayou by a Black congregation from the early 20th Century.

The connection to the bayou is woven throughout the park. There are gardens based on Hush Harbors, which were used by Black residents as congregation spaces, as well as canopies made with reclaimed wood and moss from the bayou. The landscape itself will change depending on the rainfall, with features built with retaining ponds to create water installations.

Construction of the park will begin in 2027.

Dr. Ruth Simmons, a President's Distinguished Fellow at Rice University, former president of Prairie View A&M University, and the first African-American president of an Ivy League institution (Brown University) spoke about the importance of remembering history accurately despite attempts to sanitize the past.

"A community that endorses ignoring the history of fabricating that history invites corruption in other areas," she said. "In order to have a common project which we desperately need in this nation, a common project across difference, we must commit to walking in truth. Truth brings light to what darkness would destroy."

The mission statement of Remembrance Park is to "tell the story of the legacy of enslavement and systemic oppression faced by Black Americans in the United States." To accomplish that, the park will have art and education installations, a witness grove, and the lynching markers.

Following the presentation, Ellis and others led the crowd to Lee Plaza for the unveiling of the markers. The unveiling included Representative Al Green and was opened with a prayer from Bishop James Dixon of of Community Faith Church. The bishop thanked Ellis for advocating for the park.

"Today, Rodney Ellis, I see your face in the faces of the great liberators who stood up to injustice, stood up to evil, using creativity and brilliance, bringing people together," Bishop Dixon said.

parks remembrance park politics downtown