Abandoned - Hard Rock Park

[Music] what's up guys my name is jake and welcome to abandoned episode 61. if you've watched my videos for some time now or if you have an overall interest in abandoned entertainment locations then you're likely familiar with some of the most popular places like disney's river country or six flags new orleans close restaurant coming july 6th but there's always been one major location seemingly always forgotten about it was an expensive and recent escapade set out by a team of theme park veterans under the iconic hard rock cafe name what they ended up building was a massive theme park in the tourist heavy destination of myrtle beach south carolina however behind the scenes a complex and contentious financial battle was occurring so devastating in fact that this hard rock theme park closed after being open for just under a year this is insane and the more i look into it the more i just can't believe how much went wrong so today join me as i break down for you what happened here and how a huge theme park was abandoned just a few miles away from the beaches of south carolina this episode of abandoned is sponsored by morning brew a simple and fun way to stay informed click the link in the description below to join now it all began with a man named john binkowski an industry veteran who worked in film production then pivoted to physical themed entertainment he also owned a theater with an ice skating show just a few miles away from the shores of myrtle beach the events of september 11th 2001 however had forced the entire tourism industry into a slump and that myrtle beach theater became one of jon's only remaining assets however he had grander plans for the area after all his theater was surrounded by vacant land perfect for developing a tourist attraction confident he could draw tourists away from the beaches so with the help of other investors and local landowners themselves jon spearheaded a new development named fantasy harbor a master plan development where a theme park would become the centerpiece it was themed after the four seasons of a year with each land divided up into those four the summer bayland was planned to incorporate jon's struggling theater with a pretty detailed concept in hand the team approached industry veteran steve goodwin to secure financing but due to the park's lack of intellectual property the generic rides had proven not to be enough of a draw for investment so after approaching many of the major entertainment companies only mgm showed interest a master plan was then drawn to incorporate the brand into their cons of drawings but with little copyright ownership useful for a theme park the scope of the brand was limited and essentially it was back to the drawing boards rather abruptly though jon came up with an idea for a theme park to be based entirely around music something that had never been done before one of his colleagues tied in with the project had previously worked with hard rock international to build their hotels in famous cafes according to josh young at theme park university who has brilliantly documented the story it turns out that the vice president of hard rock franchise operations was literally john's next door neighbor in celebration florida the two soon met and just a few months later a licensing deal was secured with hard rock international to build the now named hard rock park in myrtle beach south carolina the park was now being designed specifically with hard rock in mind shaping this into four distinct lands all based around the lake in the middle surrounding it would be classic rock cool country world rhythms and born in the usa it was 2003 and major planning continued as did the raising of the necessary funds not only to pay hard rock for their licensing fees but to actually build the park ultimately it was the neighboring properties that raised the 2.5 million dollars necessary for hard rock's branding and the general funding for construction and loan payments was secured by a private investment firm out of new york cunningham and morris architects a long time architectural collaborator with the hard rock brand was brought in and the theme park idea was expanding even further through the same year hard rock was planning other theme park locations around the world including one in texas which would have also included a hard rock water park and an enormous entertainment complex somewhere overseas and tropical the texas one particularly was commissioned by hard rock themselves however both of these projects never followed through and it was down to just the park in myrtle beach to become the first branded theme park by 2006 the total budget combined was now raised to 400 million dollars and with schematics and a finalized park layout construction soon commenced in 2007. now 400 million dollars seems like a lot of money and it is but really that's still considered a small amount for a theme park with that being said hard rock park despite its branding was going to be a completely private enterprise one of very few ever attempted in america especially in recent times the most notable one for me of course is jazzland in new orleans but john and his team for the project were hoping for a much better outcome in myrtle beach construction moved along quickly eventually rolling into early 2008 when the facility was finally finished both under budget and a month early the theme park soft opened through this time until finally on june 2nd 2008 the culmination of over half a decade of work had finally paid off when hard rock park officially opened to the public with a big opening and lots of people coming through the gates to see what america's newest major theme park was like what the majority of guests realized was that this was a pretty great experience hard rock park had now evolved its attractions and lands into six distinct areas by opening day these included all-access entry plaza lost in the 70s rock and roll heaven british invasion born in the usa and cool country after walking down the entrance plaza a cleverly angled path would open up to reveal the existing lake and the park's icon at the other end a neon lit 90 foot tall electric guitar this certainly set the mood as when you walked around the lake and found yourself in these distinct lands key attractions would catch your eye like the towering led zeppelin the ride the slippery when wet water ride and the eagle's life in the fast lane all thrilling attractions the park also boasted many award-winning shows including one inside jon's former theater now incorporated and rethemed into the cool country area what the park perhaps lacked in rides they made up for its theming and creativity there was a good amount of wits and humor pumped into many of the aspects of the public areas that also had creative and quirky landmarks spread throughout the theming had depth and care put into it and it really did add to the overall fun atmosphere the only thing seemingly missing was an actual hard rock cafe by the evening guests would enjoy the bohemian rhapsody water and light show around the park's main lagoon perfectly finishing off a day of fun complete with some really cool visuals and a great incorporation of the park's landmark they made great use of their available land too making their small budget go a long way even the main dark ride the trip created by sally dark rides was entirely housed within a portion of the existing abandoned mall on the land that also meant there was potential for even further expansion with more uses for that mall and other key areas of vacant land around the park set aside for a prosperous future however that future was unknowingly about to be short-lived as we've discussed all too much on this channel 2008 was not a great year for new development harder rock park had a capacity for around 30 000 guests within the park however as a result of high gas prices lower amount of spending for consumers and a general decrease of tourism the theme park began to see a lower and lower attendance numbers at opening operating hours extended all the way to 1am each night but now it only made sense to decrease those hours to 10 pm with critically low attendance it was decided that after labor day 2008 hard rock park would move to a weekend-only operating schedule during some days attendance was only 1 000 people a day where it should have been around ten thousand with spending down as a whole for tourists hard rock park decided to set all admission prices to fifty dollars including for children they thought if they made one price across the board it would help but it instead backfired all of this was obviously a massive problem and the park wasn't bringing in money certainly not enough for a much bigger issue they now had the problem was the fact that the majority of investment into hard rock park were loans so when the economy began to take a nosedive in 2008 their interest rates on those multi-million dollar loans for construction had skyrocketed that's a deadly combination when little money is coming in the door to keep up with their ballooning interest rates money was flying off their books and thrusted the park into severe debt with the no cash reserve in place since it had literally just opened the owners were put into an extremely difficult situation and ultimately saw no way out hard rock park closed its gates permanently on september 24th 2008 just three months and 22 days since its grand opening after the closure the company declared chapter 11 bankruptcy protection initially they had hopes of reopening but soon announced they would instead liquidate the park by selling it off in bankruptcy court by december the property was put up for auction with the stipulation of a minimum price of 35 million dollars along with proof of competence in operating and running a business of this nature ultimately the courts accepted a 25 million bid from a company named fpi mb entertainment llc while they had the choice to keep the hard rock's name attached they instead decided to entirely rebrand the facility citing hard rock's name wasn't family oriented enough and that it had a bad connotation with guests so in april sticking with the music theme of the park they had unveiled their new name freestyle music park their plan was to ever so slightly change key elements about the park including the names of each land drifting it away from rock and roll and more to all genres of music a key point they made was also the inclusion of a kid's area overall though the bones of hard rock park remained in place the new owners however were insistent on the prospect of a bright future for this property and even stated that this would be the first of a worldwide expansion of the freestyle park brand yeah okay however issues already began with the previous owners of hard rock park filing a lawsuit to these new owners over what they claimed was copyright infringement since mb entertainment was changing so little and they were essentially just planning to operate the former park to their game but still undeterred they claimed they were in this for the long haul so we can do everything we can to make the park viable this summer and i mean we're in this for the long haul freestyle music park ultimately opened on may 23 2009 at just 40 dollars for admission with many promotions over the summer after one full season the park closed for the winter on september 14 2009 with the lower than expected attendance for the season to add on top of this poor financial year the company began receiving lawsuit filings to an almost comical amount mb entertainment had seemed to have pissed off a lot of people with their operations receiving suits from contractors who claim they weren't paid for their work investors and creditors who loaned money local governments and even bmw for their use of trademarks in the park altogether there were over 17 lawsuits filed seeking millions of dollars in payment despite this the owners assured everyone would be paid yet by april of 2010 they claimed they didn't have any money left this sent the property into a foreclosure as their mortgage on the park was unpaid with the interest gaining around ten thousand dollars a day by now grass and weeds had been peeking through the ever-growing cracks in the parking lot weathering and rust was now showing up on the buildings dotted around the park a seemingly obvious sign of neglect that was taking a foothold on the idle grounds the 2010 season should have already started by now and with mb entertainment claiming they were aggressively seeking out new investors to get the gates open it never came with the management company who owned them collapsing in on themselves the land defaulted to the formal mortgage owner run by a russian businessman who had ties with mb entertainment the whole thing is confusing and of course sparked even more lawsuits but the gist was that they didn't have any money to reopen as a number of years passed and several campaigns to raise money by other organizations failed freestyle music park sat abandoned waiting for someone to come in and save the property or get radical with their assets by 2013 the owners of freestyle decided they might as well extract as much value as possible from the property since the land wasn't selling it was reported in november that a number of the rides had gone up for sale and were eventually sold soon after one by one rides began to be dismantled and shipped out across the world by summer of 2014. now leaving freestyle with no future by 2016 all rides of value had been removed and sold along with whatever was valuable in the buildings as all the theaters and ride stations were torn down and dismantled security was still on the premises and actively caring for the park one that now only had small buildings standing and the bones of a once thriving and colorful theme park as rumors of a chinese company seeking to develop the site fizzled away the park remained abandoned with no legitimate development on the horizon on december 30th 2018 however the land was finally sold to a developer named bishop parkway llc apparently that company was in partnership with myrtle beach's former mayor who claimed he wasn't sure what to do with the land and also claimed it would not be a theme park but while these very slow land transfers took place what was on the actual land was suffering the hard rock turned freestyle music park continued to sit as it was from 2016 a shell of its former self only populated by its entrance plaza the many shops and eateries and the abandoned mall at the end of the property as years passed more and more people began finding their way in and what was still standing very quickly began to show decay and vandalism in just a few short years the main street went from looking like this to just recently this the level of destruction and decay is honestly astounding the entire park looks like it's been in a war zone or part of some sort of apocalyptic event but that's not to say there's nothing recognizable here unlike places like giaga lake which had most of its trace removed harder rock park is still pretty intact most notably with its entrance way with the signs still hanging and the theming still in place the pathways still reveal the guitar shape in the concrete and several smaller buildings allude to its former attractions perhaps the largest building still standing however is the former abandoned mall a portion used as the dark ride track and the rest a gutted shopping center the vast parking lot also still remains in place a grand entrance for this unbelievable abandoned landscape one that doesn't have much of a conclusive future ahead 2019 is really the last time anything moved forward with redevelopment the owner put out a call to rezone the property for other uses including retail and housing however with no public update since it's not really known what will happen to the land the 2020 pandemic is not really helping anything with attracting new investors and on top of that in april of 2021 the landowner former mayor john rhodes had died potentially bringing all future plans in his possession with him today the park still stands abandoned and in horrible shape the property itself is squished between two churches and medieval times it being the only entertainment facility which has survived on the land and one which has seen the entire transformation of its adjacent neighbor when i first began this video i had figured that hard rock park was going to be some sort of faceless vapid investment firm looking to create a cheap theme park honestly what it actually turned out to be was so much more it's honestly incredible that this all began with one man and a dream to develop a theme park and put his struggling theater to better use the park he dreamed of could have only come from a man as charismatic and kind as he was but more importantly one that came from genuine care the team behind the project were not only already very experienced in the industry but they were so excited about what they were doing there's actually a great presentation that jon held at tea chronicling his journey and just what went into the park to make it so special i'll leave a link to watch that in the description below these creators cared and what impresses me even more is that they took huge risks in almost every area of the park building whatever to make sure it fit their vision making cheeky and genuinely funny jokes everywhere they could something you would never ever see in a disney or universal park i suppose that was the enormous benefit of working independently from a board of directors and shareholders demanding the company to proceed in a certain way they only answered a hard rock based upon branding issues and that was it my god they built a fish and chips restaurant and named it codpiece fish and chips they had a kids play area themed to magic mushrooms i mean this stuff is hilarious and it never took itself too seriously now things like that did receive pushback from the typical people you would assume that would have an issue with stuff like that and there were other mistakes like i mentioned earlier like the pricing and the lack of rides and the fact that they could be seen from the roads and assumed that they were the same from other local parks like six flags but it really all came down to the unbelievable poor timing of its opening the recession was hitting every industry hard but especially with tourism it wasn't even really an issue with the park losing money i mean that's somewhat common with theme parks as it takes years to get back net profit it was just the skyrocketing interest payments and no way for them to pay those off at the end of the day it wasn't the park design it wasn't the branding or the logo or the rides or really anything else but just really really bad luck it must have been so demoralizing for the people who worked on this seeing their creation of years of hard work close just after 4 months i have absolutely no doubt that hard rock park left a lasting imprint on all of their lives especially john's and that's what just makes this story so unbelievably tragic i know the timeline can get messy with all of the financials and stuff but between hard rock park and freestyle park's general operation the theme park was open to the general public for a total of a little over seven months a 400 million dollar theme park between both companies was open for seven months that is unbelievable to me and such an enormous waste the owners of freestyle park however essentially were the corporation i had originally thought they were going to be an investment firm made up of americans and russians attempting to turn around a theme park with little care for the actual contents within and instead resulting to a formula of attractions they thought they needed to add to gain attendance with a terrible logo honestly a terrible name little effort and no money the park was poised to fail again and it did honestly in the end i think out of all the videos i've done in the past this might be one of the most tragic so far what makes it even more sad is the amount of things that never got to happen harder rock park had multiple attractions planned as expansions like a flume ride and a really awesome looking mustang themed vintage usa coaster a hard rock hotel was also in the works as well as a seasonal halloween event called rock and horror nights but of course none of these were ever realized not only is this now abandoned theme park just a few years old the facilities were basically brand new the day they were left abandoned just look at the brick down main street and how new it looked i mean this park was open for just a few months the pathways the props everything purposely and thoughtfully put there only to be experienced by a very limited number of people and just not too long later left abandoned and rotting away and now it stands today as a spectacular failure perhaps ever in theme park history and one of the last privately built theme parks in america it's certainly a sad and unfitting end for the world's first rock and roll theme park so i'm a big believer in staying informed especially when it comes to the business and finance world and i think it makes sense why when you watch my videos like these and my bankrupt series i'm always eager to stay up to date but news these days have become very noisy and often difficult to digest when i wake up in the morning i usually just scroll through social media but not really getting the substance in terms of the news that i would really like to have so i of course very much like what the crew at morningbrew have created with their easily digestible and fun to read daily newsletter that gets you up to speed on business finance and tech in just five minutes just this morning i learned that verizon is apparently selling aol and yahoo to a private equity company for around five billion dollars an almost four billion dollar loss for what verizon bought them for so good luck to them i guess i've also been checking up on their coveted vaccine tracker for around the world as i am extremely desperate to travel again so if you're into staying informed especially about tech and business there is no reason for you not to sign up all you need to do is enter your email address and that's literally it it's completely free and honestly a fantastic sponsor which i've been using every morning click the link in the description below to subscribe to morningbrew today i appreciate all of your support and remember clothes for storm is coming out july 6th yes it's finally happening anyway guys my name is jake and thank you very much for watching [Music] could even be my friends again [Music]

Channel: Bright Sun Films

Views: 1,455,884

Keywords: myrtle beach, hard rock park, freestyle music park, freestyle theme park, abandoned theme park, Myrtle Beach theme park, closed theme park, bankrupt, abandoned ride, abandoned hard rock amusement park, urbex, music theme park, rock and roll park, documentary, history, hard rock, disney, universal, disney parks, 2021, 2022, new, clean, family friendly, PG

Id: VY0e2Qh665Q

Length: 24min 20sec (1460 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 04 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/fourvell]

BEAR

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FAMILY

[u/foxtrot1_1]

Does this include Winston the Punk Rock Dog?