COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- The site of the former Fort Rapids waterpark in east Columbus is now managed by a receiver, or court-appointed third party, Columbus City Attorney Zach Klein announced Monday morning.
Klein said the property has been placed in receivership by an Environmental Court Judge, and will now be managed by Ohio receivership agency New Perspective Asset Management. According to court documents, the property owners continue to violate safety codes and still have not paid numerous court fines, leading to the decision.
New Perspective Asset Management will immediately take control of the property, Klein said, and will work to manage the deserted waterpark as the lawsuit persists between the city and the property owners, specifically Jeff Oh Kern. In June, the same judge held the owners in contempt for repeatedly failing to bring the site up to code, ordering Kern to pay the city $199,000 in contempt fines and doubling his daily fines to $2,000 each day the property issues were not addressed.
Fort Rapids closed in 2016 after numerous code violations, and in 2018, millions of gallons of water poured out of the former hotel's windows from an upper floor pipe burst. Since Klein declared the property a public nuisance in 2021, the property has continued to rack up fines and violations.
Klein said Kern has yet to pay any of his fines, which are in the hundreds of thousands. Kern also failed to attend court dates in August, October and on Dec. 3, leading to the receivership and court-ordered jail time for Kern for his lack of compliance. A warrant was issued for Kern's arrest in August and his bond is set at $2.5 million, although he still has not been taken into custody and is presumed to be in his Los Angeles home.
The move comes less than two months after the waterpark was approved to be sold to a California real estate agency. After three years of attempts to purchase the property, Columbus real estate agent Dan Sheeran and Drever Capital Management finally got their approval on Oct. 25.
Just days later, the building was struck by a significant fire, cementing the current structure's future demolition and torching a large hole in the roof. Sheeran and the new developers told NBC4 in November that they still intend to go through with the purchase, having already invested nearly $500,000 into their plans to develop the site into affordable workforce housing.
According to court documents, the sale cannot be finalized until the lawsuit is resolved.
