Palace Entertainment, parent company to Kennywood Park, Idlewild & SoakZone and Sandcastle Waterpark, will begin efforts to establish a company-wide support facility in the Greater Pittsburgh Area in March 2020.
The move to Pittsburgh will allow Palace to be more closely aligned with the vital parks in Southwestern Pennsylvania, along with the company’s numerous key properties in the Northeast United States, which include Lake Compounce in Bristol, Conn., Splish Splash in New York City, Story Land & Living Shores Aquarium in Glen, N.H., and Dutch Wonderland & the Cartoon Network Hotel in Lancaster, Penna.
The Palace Entertainment Park Support (PEPS) facility will initially be based in Pittsburgh’s Eastern Suburbs. It will be staffed by roughly 25 executive and professional employees. The company will soon begin the search for executive leadership for Marketing, Legal, Construction & Maintenance and other departments, which will work from the PEPS facility. Palace intends to build a permanent support facility on property the company already owns near Kennywood within the next several years.
“We are thrilled about being in Pittsburgh and excited about the future of our parks,” says Chief Operating Officer John Reilly. “Positioning our support teams in the Steel City better aligns our entire company to create great guest experiences at Kennywood and across our unique portfolio of twenty-one parks and entertainment centers in the United States and Australia.”
While COO Reilly and most departments will begin the relocation process, Palace will maintain a base of operations in its existing Newport Beach, Calif., location, with the Finance and Information Technology departments primarily remaining on the West Coast.
