text: Jungle Adventures, Swampy hit market for $2.2M - Orlando Sentinel
  Apr 08, 2016 at 10:45 AM
  Jungle Adventures, an animal park near Titusville, has been put up for sale. (Video from Fox 35 Orlando)
  For 40 years, "Swampy," a 200-foot manmade gator, has flashed its sun-bleached incisors to motorists passing by on State Road 50 in Christmas.
  It's part of the Jungle Adventures attraction in east Orange County that was listed for sale two weeks ago for $2.2 million. So far, the 10-acre park with its collection of gators, turtles and deer has drawn several prospective buyers — among them, a former Orlando radio personality.
  "I'm a Marine Corps veteran and a single mom and I'm going to buy a $3 million alligator park in Christmas, Florida," said former radio co-host Savanna Boan, who now lives in California but said she plans to return to Central Florida. She launched an online fundraising campaign to help purchase and renovate the aging venue.
  Oh, and if she can interest reality-TV producers, she said she plans to live in Swampy's tail.
  SVN commercial real estate adviser Ali Mushtaq said other buyers are scouting opportunities to buy the park and expand with an RV campground on adjacent land. He said he landed the listing by determining a sales price based on the land, business and animals — a unique property that defies duplication.
  "It could be replicated but only at a much higher price," he said.
  The development, first announced in August, will include a 60-acre manmade lake, a water taxi system and a lagoon with a swim-up bar and water activities.
  Old tourist attractions have come, gone and sometimes been reinvented throughout Central Florida. Arabian Nights and Circus World are just two that have closed, while Cypress Gardens got a second life as Legoland and Splendid China is planned to become Margaritavillage. Jungle Adventures' fate remains to be seen.
  Rollins College Librarian Dorothy Mays has written about the sustainability of lesser-known tourist attractions and said they have a better chance if they generate revenue beyond admission sales. Proceeds from parking fees, food concessions, weddings, birthday parties, and other special events should bring in at least 40 percent of the revenue, she said.
  She pointed to Gatorland in Orlando as an example of a viable tourist operation.
  "I think what Gatorland has is that it captures that old-Florida feel," said Mays, who wrote a 2009 article "Gatorland: Survival of the Fittest among Florida's Mid-Tier Attractions" for Florida Historical Quarterly. "When there is so much glitz and glitter in the theme parks, I think people find it refreshing."
  But if a place seems too "ticky tacky," it won't land special-events bookings that are key to the bottom line, she added.
  Could a 200-foot alligator sporting walk-through teeth for tourists' photos be too ticky tacky?
  Jungle Adventures may lack the cachet for weddings. It recently ranked sixth out of eight things to do in Christmas, according to Trip Advisor, a tourist-resource website. Airboat tours and a historical park topped it.
  Located halfway between Orlando and Titusville on State Road 50, it's about an hour from Orlando's tourism hotspots. It's on a roadside that was marginalized decades ago by the construction of State Road 528, a toll road linking Orlando with the Atlantic Coast.
  Despite some challenges, Mushtaq said it is able to draw visitors regularly from cruise lines docking in Port Canaveral.
  The real attraction, said Jungle Adventures owner Kobi Kagan, is the park's showcase of Florida's natural side.
  "I think [State Road] 50 is very interesting with the real Florida, and the St. Johns River. I love that area," he said. "I don't like the other attractions. They are all kind of mundane."
  Now 69, Kagan was part of a group that purchased the property in 1986 for $325,000, records show. He said he had experience raising crocodiles in Kenya and wanted to invest in a tourist alternative to magic and roller coasters. In describing the property, Kagan repeatedly mentions the "real Florida." The park's full name, in fact, is Jungle Adventures: A Real Florida Animal Park.
  Previous owners helped Kagan operate the park initially. Now he said he employs a staff of about 20. He said his three sons opted to pursue technology careers rather than try their hand at the east Orange County slice of "real Florida."
  If no one purchases it, Kagan said he may miss some opportunities to travel but he is happy to continue what he started three decades ago.