Least surprising news of the year — the U.S. National Log Flume ride has defaulted on its $38m. construction loan. In fact, the taxpayer-backstopped center lost more money than it did the previous year. Again, not a surprise.
The long and short of it is that local taxpayers will pump millions of scarce dollars into this thing and the banks will still end up owning it. GovCo will then have the option of operating it at a massive subsidy or watch it shut down.
This is an utterly foreseeable and avoidable waste of local revenue. Honorable people would resign their government offices in shame for having backed this thing.
Update: Doh! The Charlotte Business Journal had this story yesterday, with many more details.
