BUFFALO, N.Y. -- The once-popular Fantasy Island amusement park on Grand Island, closed over the summer because of financial difficulties, has a new owner who says the 66-acre facility will be open for the 1983 season.
Charles Wood, an amusement park operator from Lake George, said Tuesday he bought the park and plans to renovate and open it by the Memorial Day weekend next year. He not disclose the purchase price.
'We're going to do everything possible to make Fantasy Island the type of operation to make everyone proud,' Wood, a native of nearby Lockport, told a news conference. 'What we make on this park will remain in this area and will be plowed back into the park.'
Wood, head of Charles R. Wood Enterprises, said the park will employ about 350 people, mostly high school and college students.
'The youngsters need those summer jobs,' he said.
Wood -- who also owns The Great Escape Fun Park in Lake George, Gaslight Village and Waxlife, USA, in Lake George -- said Fantasy Island will undergo a $1 million facelift, including several new rides and an 'upgrade of the children's area.'
The park will have a one-price admission policy and will feature high-diving, western and circus shows.
Fantasy Island, a popular summer amusement facility geared to young children which opened in 1959, had financial diffilculties in recent years and did not open in 1982. The firm filed for reorganization under Chapter 11 of the Federal Bankruptcy Act and Chemical Bank took title to the park last month.
Thomas Wages, vice president of Wood Enterprises, downplayed a suggestion Fantasy Island would be in direct competition with Darien Lake, a sprawling amusement-camping facility in Genesee County between Buffalo and Rochester.
'I don't anticipate that we're going to compete with Darien,' Wages said. 'We're going to be more of a backyard-type park.'
