The sale of Denver’s Six Flags Elitch Gardens was officially finalized last week, said Florida-based real estate investment trust CNL Income Properties Inc.
The amusement park was acquired along with several others from PARC 7F Operations Corp. for $312 million. At the closing, CNL leased the properties back to PARC, which will operate the parks under long-term agreements.
PARC announced in January that it was acquiring the properties from New York-based Six Flags Inc. It plans to announce a new name and new attractions for Elitch Gardens today.
The other parks purchased are Darien Lake in Buffalo, N.Y., Frontier City and White Water Bay in Oklahoma City, Splashtown in Houston, Waterworld in Concord, Calif., and Wild Waves and Enchanted Village in Seattle.
DENVER
Colo. retail sales up 6.7% in January
Retail sales across the state increased 6.7 percent in January compared with January of last year, according to data released recently by the Colorado Department of Revenue.
Nationally, January retail sales were up 5.3 percent, according to the National Retail Federation.
The U.S. inflation rate was 2.1 percent in January.
The data, which include spending in the automobile, furniture, clothing and electronics sectors, were an improvement over December when sales were flat.
GREENWOOD VILLAGE
First Data completes debit-firm takeover
Electronic payment processor First Data Corp. said Monday it has completed its acquisition of Instant Cash Services, a debit and ATM payment-processing business, from a subsidiary of Wells Fargo & Co.
Financial terms were not disclosed. First Data announced the takeover on March 16.
First Data announced last week it was being acquired by an affiliate of private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. for about $27 billion in cash.
DENVER
Baceline launching $75 million fund
Baceline Investments, a Denver-based real-estate investment company, announced Monday it is launching a $75 million fund.
The fund, known as No Debt Real Estate Fund III, will seek to invest in industrial and retail properties in the Southwest, Midwest and Rocky Mountain regions, the company said. This marks the company’s largest fund to date.
NEW YORK
Shares of Janus upgraded to “buy”
Shares of Denver-based money manager Janus Capital Group Inc. were upgraded by Merrill Lynch & Co. because the company’s deposits have increased.
The rating on Janus’ stock was raised to “buy” from “neutral,” New York-based Merrill Lynch said in a report Monday. Analysts Cynthia Mayer and Guy Moszkowski predicted the company’s shares would rise, setting a $25 price objective.
MIAMI
McDonald’s deal will aid migrant workers
McDonald’s Corp. agreed Monday to pay a penny more per pound for its Florida-grown tomatoes to help boost wages for the migrant workers who harvest them, following a two-year campaign by an advocacy group that called for the increase.
Under the agreement, a third party will verify that farmworkers who pick McDonald’s tomatoes will receive the increase. Oak Brook, Ill.-based McDonald’s will also require its suppliers to follow a workplace code of conduct that the workers would help create.
DENVER
MarkWest declares common-units issue
MarkWest Energy Partners L.P. on Monday announced a private placement of approximately 4.1 million newly issued common units at a price of $32.98 per unit, for gross proceeds of approximately $135 million.
Investors include affiliates of GPS Partners LLC; Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors L.P.; Swank Capital LLC; Tortoise Capital Advisors LLC; and Zimmer Lucas Partners LLC.
OMAHA
Buffett ups stake in Burlington Northern
Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc., the largest shareholder in Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp., boosted its stake to 10.9 percent last week as rail stocks hovered near all-time highs.
Berkshire Hathaway bought 1.6 million shares of Burlington Northern, the second-largest U.S. railroad, for more than $81 a share, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
ALBANY, N.Y.
Student-loan firm’s payments probed
A student-loan company under investigation by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo paid consulting fees to Ellen Frishberg, a student-loan officer at Johns Hopkins University, for some of her graduate-school tuition, and also paid consulting fees to officials at two other colleges, investigators said Monday.
In a letter sent to Johns Hopkins president William Brody, Cuomo investigators said they believe Student Loan Xpress, a unit of CIT Group Inc., paid more than $21,000 for the school’s director of student financial services to attend graduate school at the University of Pennsylvania.
BENTONVILLE, Ark.
Wal-Mart wins gag order for ex-staffer
Wal-Mart won a gag order to stop a fired security operative from talking to reporters, and a judge ordered him to provide Wal-Mart attorneys with “the names of all persons to whom he has transmitted, since January 15, 2007, any Wal-Mart information.”
The court papers made public Monday follow a string of revelations about the retailer’s large surveillance operations and its business plans. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. filed a lawsuit and request for a temporary restraining order directly with a Circuit Court judge after court hours Friday.
WASHINGTON
Treasury auctions $28 billion in bonds
The Treasury Department auctioned $15 billion in three-month bills at a discount rate of 4.880 percent and an additional $13 billion in six-month bills at a rate of 4.890 percent.
For a $10,000 bill, the three-month price was $9,876.64, while a six-month bill sold for $9,752.78.
