Theme park wins 24 years, loses 0.4ha in lease deal

Rainbow's End's Power Surge ride will have to move under the lease deal. Photo / Glenn Jeffrey

Theme park Rainbow's End has secured its lease for a further 24 years but will have to give up some land in exchange for the deal.

New Zealand Experience, the NZX-listed owner of Rainbow's End, yesterday confirmed it had finally signed a lease arrangement with Manukau City Council after five years of talks.

The park, which last month opened its first new ride since 2004, will now have the right of renewal on the lease until June 2034.

But the deal means it will also have to surrender 0.4ha of its 9.3ha to the council to allow the adjacent law courts to expand.

The park had a lease arrangement to 2019 but struck problems when it began looking into the new ride it had planned to open in 2008.

It wanted to put the ride close to its boundary with the Manukau District Court, near the roller coaster and its previously newest ride, the Power Surge.

But instead the company will have to move the Power Surge to another spot in the park and has had to dig into a bank below the proposed area to install its new Invader ride.

Yesterday NZ Experience said it would have liked to have kept the land but would be offered compensation to cover the costs.

"While Rainbow's End would have preferred not to have to surrender any existing land, the inclusion of additional land and plans to redevelop some of the existing park area will provide sufficient capacity to continue to extend the offerings and range of attractions at the park."

Part of the new lease conditions will also mean it must re-invest $3 million every three years until June 2027.

Its latest ride cost $2.5 million.

The company said the commitment was fair to the park and the council.

It said the compensation meant this year's shareholder dividend would not be affected. Its shares last traded at 24c.