Great Wolf Resorts Announces Sale of Blue Harbor Resort in Sheboygan, WI

MADISON, Wis.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Great Wolf Resorts, Inc.^® (NASDAQ: WOLF), North America’s largest family of indoor waterpark resorts, today announced that it has completed the sale of its Blue Harbor Resort in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. The 182-room resort has been sold to Claremont New Frontier Resort LLC for $4.2 million.

As part of the sales transaction, Great Wolf Resorts has also made a payment of $2.5 million to the City of Sheboygan. This payment relieves the company of all obligations under the terms of its original agreements with the City, consisting of minimum guaranteed amounts of room tax payments to be made through 2028, and real and personal property tax payments to be made through 2018. The carrying value of the liabilities associated with those minimum payment obligations was $11.6 million as of December 31, 2010.

“The sale of the Blue Harbor Resort is another step in the execution of our strategy to increase our financial flexibility and to focus our efforts on expanding our company through management and licensing arrangements rather than direct ownership of real estate,” said Kim Schaefer, Chief Executive Officer of Great Wolf Resorts. “We remain focused on unlocking the full value potential in our Great Wolf Lodge^® brand and our range of proprietary amenities. Just as importantly, we have further improved our balance sheet and liquidity position by eliminating nearly $12 million of debt.”

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and are subject to the safe harbor created by the Private Securities Litigation Act of 1995. All statements, other than statements of historical facts, including, among others, statements regarding the Company’s future financial results or position, business strategy, projected levels of growth, projected costs and projected financing needs, are forward-looking statements. Those statements include statements regarding the intent, belief or current expectations of Great Wolf Resorts, Inc. and members of its management team, as well as the assumptions on which such statements are based, and generally are identified by the use of words such as “may,” “might,” “will,” “could,” “plan,” “objective,” “predict,” “project,” “potential,” “continue,” “ongoing,” “seeks,” “anticipates,” “believes,” “estimates,” “expects,” “plans,” “intends,” “should” or similar expressions. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties that actual results may differ materially from those contemplated by such forward-looking statements. Many of these factors are beyond the Company's ability to control or predict. Such factors include, but are not limited to, competition in the Company’s markets, changes in family vacation patterns and consumer spending habits, regional or national economic downturns, the Company’s ability to attract a significant number of guests from its target markets, economic conditions in its target markets, the impact of fuel costs and other operating costs, the Company’s ability to develop new resorts in desirable markets or further develop existing resorts on a timely and cost efficient basis, the Company's ability to manage growth, including the expansion of the Company’s infrastructure and systems necessary to support growth, the Company’s ability to manage cash and obtain additional cash required for growth, the general tightening in the U.S. lending markets, potential accidents or injuries at its resorts, decreases in travel due to pandemic or other widespread illness, its ability to achieve or sustain profitability, downturns in its industry segment and extreme weather conditions, reductions in the availability of credit to indoor waterpark resorts generally or to the Company and its subsidiaries, increases in operating costs and other expense items and costs, uninsured losses or losses in excess of the Company's insurance coverage, the Company's ability to protect its intellectual property, trade secrets and the value of its brands, current and possible future legal restrictions and requirements. A further description of these risks, uncertainties and other matters can be found in the Company’s annual report and other reports filed from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including but not limited to the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2010. Great Wolf Resorts cautions that the foregoing list of important factors is not complete and assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statement that it may make.

Management believes these forward-looking statements are reasonable; however, undue reliance should not be placed on any forward-looking statements, which are based on current expectations. All written and oral forward-looking statements attributable to the Company or persons acting on its behalf are qualified in their entirety by these cautionary statements. Further, forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made, and the Company undertakes no obligation to update or revise forward-looking statements to reflect changed assumptions, the occurrence of unanticipated events or changes to future operating results over time unless otherwise required by law. Past financial or operating performance is not necessarily a reliable indicator of future performance and investors should not use the Company’s historical performance to anticipate results or future period trends.

About Great Wolf Resorts, Inc.

Great Wolf Resorts, Inc.^® (NASDAQ: WOLF), Madison, Wis., is North America’s largest family of indoor waterpark resorts, and, through its subsidiaries and affiliates, owns, licenses and/or operates its family resorts under the Great Wolf Lodge^® brand. Great Wolf Resorts is a fully integrated resort company with Great Wolf Lodge locations in: Wisconsin Dells, Wis.; Sandusky, Ohio; Traverse City, Mich.; Kansas City, Kan.; Williamsburg, Va.; the Pocono Mountains, Pa.; Niagara Falls, Ontario; Mason, Ohio; Grapevine, Texas; Grand Mound, Wash.; and Concord, N.C.

The company’s resorts are family-oriented destination facilities that generally feature 300 to 600 rooms and a large indoor entertainment area measuring 40,000 to 100,000 square feet. The all-suite properties offer a variety of room styles, arcade/game rooms, fitness rooms, themed restaurants, spas, supervised children’s activities and other amenities. The company’s consolidated subsidiary, Creative Kingdoms, LLC, is a developer and operator of technology-based, interactive quest adventure experiences such as MagiQuest^®.

Additional information may be found on the company’s Web site at www.greatwolf.com.

For Great Wolf Resorts, Inc.
Media:Steve Shattuck, 608-662-4700
or
Investors:Alex Lombardo or Nikki Sacks, 608-662-4791

Source: Great Wolf Resorts, Inc.