Elitch Gardens has returned to local ownership as an investment team led by a Denver real estate firm and backed by Stan Kroenke announced they were purchasing the 125-year-old theme and water park.

Denver’s Revesco Properties has partnered with Kroenke Sports Entertainment, which owns the Pepsi Center, the Paramount Theatre, Dick’s Sporting Goods Park, the Colorado Avalanche, Denver Nuggets, Colorado Mammoth, and Colorado Rapids, and Second City Real Estate in the undisclosed deal.

The new ownership group will keep 21-year-old Premier Parks as the operator with a new management contract that will not change the park’s current management or staff.

Premier Parks, which operates 12 theme and water parks across the country and once owned Elitch Gardens, took over operation of Elitch Gardens in 2013 and grew park attendance 28 percent last year.

Despite the presence of two residential and commercial investors, the partnership has no plans for developing the park. There is no empty land in the deal; it’s all park. And there have been no talks about redevelopment, Revesco CEO Rhys Duggan said.

“We love the park. It’s a great business that just happens to be located on an important piece of land for the city,” said Duggan, who owns the Shoppes at Castle Rock and LoHi’s Old Major restaurant building. “There is no redevelopment plan. It’s a great opportunity to buy an operating business. We will look at it over time, as we do with all of our assets. But right now, it’s business as usual for the park.”

Premiere Parks CEO Kieran Burke bought Elitch Gardens in 1996 from the Gurtler family who had moved the park downtown from its longtime home in Denver’s West Highland neighborhood.

Burke completed the Gurtler’s plan by adding a water park and roller coasters in late 1996. Two years later Burke’s company acquired Six Flags, making it the largest regional theme park chain the world and the second largest amusement park operator in the U.S., behind Disney.

He helped rebrand Elitches as Six Flags Elitch Gardens before Premiere Parks left Elitch Gardens in 2005. Premier Parks returned as the park manager for owner CNL Lifestyles Properties in 2013.

“This is kind of a fun back-to-the-future for us,” Burke said. “When we first got involved there was not much down there. So to come back two years ago … and to see what has happened in downtown Denver is so impressive. I think the potential for the park remains quite significant.”

Revesco drove the deal, bringing in Kroenke and Second City, which owns the Cherry Creek Corporate Center, as it worked on the deal for the last year.

“KSE is just a logical partner,” Duggan said. “It just made sense.”

CNL Lifestyle Properties, a 12-year-old non-traded Florida-based real estate investment trust with about $2.3 billion in assets, is the seller.

CNL Lifestyle owns 67 ski areas, marinas, senior housing complexes and attractions. It ranks as the nation’s largest ski resort owner with 17 mountain properties, including Copper Mountain village and Crested Butte Mountain Resort, which the trust leases to Crested Butte’s Mueller family.

In early 2014, CNL Lifestyle sold 48 golf properties for $320 million, the first large transaction in a long-planned liquidation strategy the trust announced when it turned 10 in 2013.

Last month CNL Lifestyle sold 37 of its 38 senior housing properties for $762.6 million. Most of the trust’s properties are listed for sale, including its eight Eastern and nine Western ski areas. Last month the trust told investors it had agree to sell three attractions and an unnamed mountain property and had entered a contract to sell all its 17 marinas.

The trust reported $373.3 million in revenues in 2014, up from $362.5 in 2013. After expenses the trust reported an operating loss of $10.4 million in 2014, compared to $26 million in 2013.

“CNL Lifestyle Properties is evaluating strategic options for its entire portfolio as it seeks to maximize the return to its shareholders,” reads a statement released by CNL Lifestyle on Friday. “The sale of Elitch Gardens as a standalone property was a unique opportunity driven by the interest of investors in the Denver market.”

Burke has a dual perspective as a former owner and now manager of the park. He said he was unable to mine the “true opportunity” of Elitch Gardens in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The new ownership team, which invested $2.5 million in the new six-story Slidezilla waterslide that opens later this month, will tap Elitch’s potential in Denver, he said.

“I think that’s the most exciting thing from my perspective. I really do think this local partnership, which brings together such a concentration for Denver-focused business, it just makes a huge difference. By definition there is a commitment level to Denver as a city that’s just different here — no disrespect to CNL at all — but we have a 125 year business now in local hands and that’s a really good thing. I think having local hands around the asset is probably the biggest advantage.”

Jason Blevins: 303-954-1374, jblevins@denverpost.com or twitter.com/jasonblevins

Kroenke’s fun and games

Entities owned by Kroenke Sports Entertainment:

Pepsi Center

Paramount Theatre

Dick’s Sporting Goods Park

Colorado Avalanche hockey team

Denver Nuggets basketball team

Colorado Mammoth lacrosse team

Colorado Rapids soccer team

Six Flags Elitch Gardens