Amusementtrader.com

According to Civil Georgia, Rakeen, the real estate development arm of the UAE’s Ras Al Khaimah emirate, has taken over the Mtatsminda amusement park in Tbilisi .
Rakeen Georgia has confirmed that it signed an agreement with the Tbilisi city municipality in June on leasing the park, overlooking the capital, for a 49-year term. The company will pay GEL 300,000 per annum to the municipality.

The Georgian authorities seized the park last November from Lynx Ltd, a company wholly owned by late tycoon Badri Patarkatsishvili , after Tbilisi city municipality canceled a 49-year leasing contract with the company, claiming that Lynx Ltd had “violated numerous times” the terms of the contract.

The park, which had a so-called ‘soft opening’ last September, was forced to cease operations on November 7, 2007.

Salford Georgia, which managed Patarkatsishvili ’s assets in Georgia, denied the municipality’s allegations and said in November that it would “continue to defend its rights under its contract” as well as USD 25 million it had invested in the park’s rehabilitation since 2005.

Salford Georgia has declined to comment on the new leasing contract between Rakeen and Tbilisi city municipality.

US regulators in the US state of Georgia have said a popular amusement park will have to increase the size and number of warning signs near its roller coaster.

Last week, a teenager was killed at the Six Flags Over Georgia park after he was hit and decapitated by the roller coaster.

Police say 17-year-old Asia LeeShawn Ferguson scaled two fences and wandered into a restricted area where he was hit.

The park has been told to add the words ‘extreme danger’ to the signs.