CEO James Harhi negotiated something unusual into Enchanted Parks' acquisition of operations at the soon-to-be-former Six Flags St. Louis: the right to keep using DC Comics and Looney Tunes characters and theming at the park past a standard transition window.
KMOX talked with Harhi over opening weekend about a number of topics, including immediate changes visitors will notice and the company's chaperone policy.
The conversation also covered a real estate investment trust pipeline that could nearly double the company's park count in two years.
"You could see us go from eight to fifteen parks in the next couple of years, in the blink of an eye," he said.
The IP Carve-Out
Six Flags St. Louis ran under licensing deals with Warner Bros. Discovery for DC Comics and Looney Tunes characters, and those deals carried exclusivity language that, under standard terms, would have required removal after sale.
Enchanted's carve-out is St. Louis-specific: the company can keep licensing DC and Looney Tunes here beyond the one-year transition window, if all sides want to continue.
But whether the relationship continues past this transition year is still an open question.
"We're able to continue that if we'd like to. And if DC likes to as well," Harhi said. "So we're going to meet with DC throughout the summer and make sure that it's a good relationship going forward and it provides value. Then we'll see how that relationship either can blossom or is there something else that our guests want to see."
In the meantime, he's put costumed characters back on the concourses, sees the Supergirl film coming out this year as a tie-in for the existing Supergirl ride (which is similar to its predecessor, the old Highland Fling), and wants to see how guests actually respond to it all this season.
"We do have Supergirl opening this year as a movie and I've talked to our team," Harhi told KMOX. "We should be working with DC to do promotions around the Supergirl movie and our Supergirl ride. That's what these kind of partnerships are really about."
But he didn't commit to keeping the names Batman, Mr. Freeze, Catwoman.
"It seems like that's a big deal that Six Flags would waive its exclusivity. Would that just be for St. Louis or could you then extend that to to Valleyfair, Michigan's Adventure, etc.?" KMOX asked.
"It's just for St. Louis," Harhi said. "It was just part of the deal. I don't think it makes sense for us to try to buy additional rights for other parks from Six Flags. This this was a one-off exclusivity deal."
If Enchanted were to extend it into the Mid-America era, it would appear to make St. Louis only the fourth theme park -- and the only in the U.S. -- to have Warner Bros intellectual property without being operated by Six Flags. The others are in Spain, Australia, and the United Arab Emirates.
St. Louis Wasn't in the Original Deal
Enchanted Parks was spun out of Innovative Attractions Management in December, taking Water Safari in New York, Diggerland USA in New Jersey, and more. The original offer between Six Flags and the EPR + Enchanted group was for five parks: Worlds of Fun in Kansas City, Valleyfair in Minneapolis, Michigan's Adventure in Grand Rapids, Schlitterbahn Galveston waterpark in Texas, and The Great Escape in upstate New York. St. Louis -- to be rebranded Mid-America -- wasn't on the list. Harhi added it.
He said the new chain needed a high-traffic park to top its portfolio, but "we just didn't really want to go into Canada. We felt that was too big of a jump for us." So he asked Six Flags to add St. Louis instead.
It's the crown jewel of the collection, in his telling.
"St. Louis is the largest attendance park, has the best rides," he said.
St. Louis tends to get underestimated in national conversation, even though the Cardinals, Saint Louis Zoo, Purina Farms, and other attractions pull in from Louisville to Little Rock to Des Moines. Kansas Citians bristled when Harhi dubbed St. Louis the flagship, as they have recently over new transatlantic flights and Lambert's Southwest Airlines hub. But the metro's population and business base are bigger than its reputation suggests.
The EPR Relationship
The growth story runs through EPR Properties, the Kansas City REIT that owns the land under all six of the former Six Flags parks which Enchanted is operating on a 40-year lease. Harhi described the relationship as "close" and already aimed at what's next. Within weeks of closing, he said, EPR was asking him about the next deal. He told them to give him a few months.
The obvious candidates are two parks EPR already owns and currently leases to Six Flags: Frontier City in Oklahoma City and Darien Lake in western New York. Those are effectively queued up. Asked whether they could end up in the Enchanted portfolio, Harhi didn't say no.
What happens after that is where it could get more interesting.
Six Flags announced last month that it's reinstating park presidents at 10 of its major properties, reversing a chain-wide cut from less than a year ago. The 10 getting dedicated leadership are Cedar Point, Knott's Berry Farm, Magic Mountain, Kings Island, Canada's Wonderland, Great America near Chicago, Great Adventure, Over Georgia, Over Texas, and Carowinds — a pretty clear map of where Six Flags is doubling down.
Six Flags CEO John Reilly was asked specifically about this on Thursday during the company's quarterly earnings call.
"We have no other plans in 2026," he stated. "That said, we are seeing the benefits of focus since the disposal of parks. We’ll approach this with flexibility and we’ll be willing to look at it in the future."
Reilly said Six Flags plans to spend up to $450 million next year on capital projects like new rides at its most profitable parks, including Kings Island, Knott's Berry Farm, and Six Flags Over Texas.
The Boss Question
As for Mid-America, Harhi isn't ready to name specific capital investment ideas yet. He wants a full season of data. But said he is hearing people.
The single most common message he gets across all his parks is a plea to ship The Boss, St. Louis's jackhammer wooden coaster, to Rocky Mountain Construction for the steel hybrid treatment that's juiced ridership elsewhere. Though about 20 percent of the people writing in about it want the ride left alone.
"RMC The Boss is probably the number one email I get," he said. "It's a very polarizing topic."
There's a third path. Ahead of the 2025 season, The Boss got about 215 feet of Titan Track installed in the ravine after the first drop. Titan Track is a steel-replacement system from Great Coasters International that mimics the wooden-track feel. More section-by-section retracking in future off-seasons could smooth out the rough spots without converting the ride away from being a wooden coaster.
Harhi didn't promise either way. Bigger capital projects at St. Louis, once identified, could be penciled in for 2027 and 2028.
A new Enchanted Parks app should land around Memorial Day, roughly eight weeks after closing. He said that's about as fast as the technical handoff could realistically happen.
Updated with more detail and quotes from Harhi on WB IP.
Enchanted Parks negotiated to keep DC and Looney Tunes rights, and another deal with EPR Properties could see the company's park count nearly double within two years
Enchanted Parks negotiated to keep DC and Looney Tunes rights, and another deal with EPR Properties could see the company's park count nearly double within two years
