With just a few months left until Stone Mountain Park’s longtime management company says goodbye, officials are still working on a contract with its would-be successor.
But Bill Stephens — CEO of the Stone Mountain Memorial Association, the state authority in charge of the park — was confident the deal will get done in plenty of time.
“There’s just a lot of moving parts to this and a lot of decisions to be made. It’s more that than it is any particular point of contention,” Stephens said following a Monday afternoon meeting of the memorial association’s board of directors. “It just takes time to do something this complicated.”
While Stone Mountain Park is owned by the state, Herschend Family Entertainment has run popular attractions since they were privatized in 1998. Those include the laser show and Skylift, as well as special events, shops, hotel and convention spaces.
The Peachtree Corners-based company informed the state nearly two years ago that it would pull out this July. It cited falling revenues and “protests and division” fueled by the park’s Confederate imagery as factors.
An official said Monday that the park sustained a net loss of nearly $1.6 million in 2021.
With Herschend’s departure looming, the memorial association issued a formal call for proposals from businesses interested in taking over role.
Only one company, Thrive Attractions Management LLC, submitted a bid.
A new firm created by Michael Dombrowski, who has served as Herschend’s vice president and general manager for Stone Mountain Park for several years, Thrive was named sole finalist last October.
Stephens said the goal is to finalize the contract in April or May, giving the park ample time to transition to the new management company before Aug. 1.
While the management situation has been at the forefront of recent discussions, the memorial association is also working on a handful of changes to try and soften the park’s affiliation with the Confederacy.
Those include the creation of a new on-site museum exhibit that would seek to “tell the truth” about the park and the massive mountainside carving of Confederate leaders Jefferson Davis, Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. Lee.
The carving was conceived over several decades and has ties to the Jim Crow era and the Ku Klux Klan, as well as white Georgia leaders’ resistance to desegregation and the Civil Rights movement.
A request for proposals from museum companies interested in creating the truth-telling exhibit was issued in October. The deadline for submissions is April 12.
Stephens said Monday that 14 exhibit companies attended a recent open house and at least “six or seven” said they planned to submit proposals.
“I would describe the interest as strong,” Stephens said. “A lot of companies who are in that business see this as an opportunity for a signature project.”
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