Tech billionaire buys CrackerJax in Scottsdale – Phoenix Business Journal – The Business Journals

After years of rumors and proposals, the nearly 28 acres that are home to CrackerJax amusement park in Scottsdale has finally sold.
Billionaire George Kurtz, the co-founder and CEO of cybersecurity company CrowdStrike, and one of the wealthiest people in Arizona, acquired the site at 16001 N. Scottsdale Road in Scottsdale on Wednesday for $55.5 million through CrackerJax Land Company LLC, a newly formed Delaware-based limited liability company.
CrackerJax – that featured mini golf, go-karts and batting cages – was sold by Herberger Enterprises Inc., which is owned by the prominent Scottsdale Herberger family.
“We have had an excellent relationship with the CrackerJax Land Company LLC during the negotiations of this completed sale and we congratulate them as they move forward with the development of their project,” Jeanne Herberger, the president of Herberger Enterprises, said in a statement.
Kurtz, a longtime tech entrepreneur, said in a statement that he has a “unique vision for this site” and he will utilize his background and experience to “create a transformational, sustainable mixed-use campus as a catalyst to attract top innovators, technology entrepreneurs, knowledge workers, and venture capitalists to accelerate Scottsdale’s growing technology cluster.”
Kurtz and his development company have brought on Stockdale Capital Partners to oversee the project. Los Angeles-based Stockdale has developed – and is in the process of developing – several properties in Scottsdale, including a $450 million mixed-use redevelopment in Old Town.
“We are excited to create a plan for the future of this irreplaceable land that is worthy of the role that the Herberger family has played in the history of Scottsdale”, Kurtz said in a statement.
Kurtz’ spokeswoman said that at this time there are no specific plans for the site yet.
The site is in a highly coveted area in the Valley just north of Kierland Commons, Scottsdale Quarter and the Scottsdale Airpark.
The CrackerJax property has been subject to much speculation over the years about possible developments and buyers. In 2017, JDM Partners, which counts former Phoenix Suns owner Jerry Colangelo as a principal, submitted plans to the city of Scottsdale for a 2 million-square-foot mixed-use development that would have included offices, restaurants, condos, a hotel and a theater. Ultimately those plans never came to fruition and JDM did not buy the property.
Separately, the 35.5 acre site of the former Big Surf Wave Park and the Inland Oceans Ice Arena in Tempe sold earlier this month to a California-based real estate developer.
Inland Oceans Inc., an entity owned by Marvin and Jerry Rosenbaum of El Paso, Texas, sold the land, which was located at 1500 N. McClintock Drive near Loop 202 in Tempe, to Torrance, California-based Overton Moore Properties for $49.97 million, according to the Maricopa County Recorder’s Office.
The Rosenbaum family worked with Darren Pitts and Brad Ranly of Phoenix-based Velocity Retail Group to find a buyer for the former Big Surf property.
Velocity’s press release said that OMP is expected to use the site to “create a development that will enhance, bring employment, and other activity to the trade area,” and “bring a quality development and be something that residents and the city will be proud of for years to come.”
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