New Hampshire water park sold at auction
After its owner’s last-ditch effort to save the New Hampshire water park, Liquid Planet was sold at auction Wednesday.
The Union Leaderreported that the owning company of Whale’s Tale Water Park in Lincoln, New Hampshire — NLI LLC Inc. — purchased the foreclosed Candia park for $950,000. In 2013, NLI also acquired Alpine Adventures, an outdoor sports and zipline park in Lincoln.
Kevin Dumont, who opened Liquid Planet in 2008, had chained himself atop one of the park’s water slides for 17 days in an attempt to attract publicity and find investors who might help him pay off a $1.6 million bank loan before Wednesday’s auction date.
On November 25, Dumont announced that, though there were some interested suitors, they had run out of time to complete the “complicated investment.’’ He also said he was developing pneunomia after several freezing nights atop the 30-foot slide.
“It’s sad, obviously,’’ Dumont told the Union Leader on Wednesday. “Whenever you start something and you pour your heart into it as long as we did, which was 10 years from start to finish, it’s painful. I’m hoping that it’s found itself a good home. I know in my heart I’ve done everything I could to try to save it and it’ll go on to the next phase of its life.’’
Dumont also said he expects he’ll have to move from his home, which is one of two houses that are also on the water park’s property.
A representative NLI, which several months ago attempted to broker a deal with Dumont, told the Union Leader the acquisition is an opportunity to expand their business into south from the White Moutains location of their current two parks.
“We’ve been in the water park business for 30 years and we think we can take our expertise and continue to grow with it and continue to make it bigger and a successful company,’’ said Jeff Woodward, a managing partner with NLI.
Woodward added that that the park will re-open in the spring.
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