ST. LOUIS (KMOX) - Ownership of City Museum downtown has changed hands.
Oklahoma City-based Premier Parks LLC operates 10 theme and water parks throughout the U.S. and Canada.
Traci Blanks is the chief marketing officer for Premier Parks says they were attracted to City Museum because of it's combination as successful business that's very "unique and creative."
"We do not have any plans or thoughts on what we would change initially," Blanks says. "The people that work there are the product, they are the museum so we really hope to learn from them."
Blanks believes what her company brings is a better marking strategy for the museum, but the "vision and the product" won't be changed.
"It's been a very successful business and it's very unique and creative," Blanks told KMOX's Alex Degman. "We feel like this is a really must-see attraction and we're interested in working with the team there, learning about it, and seeing if it has application down the road in some of our other markets."
Blanks was not able to disclose terms of the sale, but Thursday is the first official day of new ownership for City Museum.
“We are incredibly excited to add the creativity and uniqueness of City Museum to our portfolio of entertainment facilities. We love the vision of founders Bob and Gail Cassilly. The ability to operate a must-see attraction in the vibrant downtown of St. Louis is a welcome opportunity. We plan to keep the same staff and vision for the museum while infusing some of our resources so that City Museum will continue to grow and expand."Rick Erwin, who until today was known as Executive Director but is now General Manager, agrees that Premeir Parks brings good resources to the table."It's our park to run, and we just report to them," Erwin says. "They're a small organization in their corporate (office), they're like 8 people. They're like our office. So they need us to run this."
The Cassillys opened City Museum in 1997 in the Washington Avenue Loft District in St. Louis. City Museum displays the art of the late Bob Cassilly and dozens of other artists in a setting of reimagined industrial and architectural materials. It drew more than 800,000 visitors in 2017.
The City Museum was previously owned by a Cahokia-based, grain processing business American Milling. They had been searching for a buyer for more than a year and first took ownership of City Museum in 2002.