Orlando's Dixie Stampede Skips Town

Jan 7, 2008 (WESH.COM) -- Dolly Parton's Dixie Stampede in Orlando announced Monday that the western-themed dinner show is immediately ceasing operations, a spokesman said.

Public relations manager Pete Owens said Dixie Stampede was presented with an enticing offer for its 13-acre tract of land on Orlando's southwest side, and decided to take it. Owens said the contract does not allow him to divulge who the land was sold to.

According to Owens, the company is currently looking to relocate the Stampede. He said the new location may or may not be in Central Florida.

No sale yet for Dolly Parton's Dixie Stampede Property

Nov 12, 2008 (The Orlando Sentinel) -- When Dolly Parton's Dixie Stampede abruptly shut down and laid off 162 workers in early January, the dinner theater's owners said they had sold the attraction in a deal that was too good to pass up.

That deal, it turns out, has fallen apart, leaving the 13-acre lot east of Walt Disney World without a buyer and its fate unknown.

Orlando Premium Outlets, which had considered purchasing the nearby property as part of an expansion, recently said it wasn't interested in the site at 7950 Vineland Ave.

"We never said we were buying it; we said we are looking at it," said Michele Rothstein, a spokeswoman for Chelsea Premium Outlets, a division of mall-owner Simon Property Group and operator of Orlando Premium Outlets.

The mall owner had done its due diligence and wasn't going forward with a deal for undisclosed reasons, Rothstein said. Orlando Premium, one of the most successful outlets in the country, recently completed a 114,000-square-foot expansion that added 40 new outlet retailers.

As for the empty Dixie Stampede, which occupies a high-profile location in Orlando's tourism corridor and can be easily spotted by motorists on Interstate 4, its fate remains unclear.

Pete Owens, spokesman for Dixie Stampede LLC, said the company is now searching for a new buyer. Owens said the theater operator does not plan to move back into the empty building, which once held a 1,086-seat theater for shows featuring horses, buffalo, ostrich races and a cast of Civil War soldiers.

Dixie Stampede now operates namesake dinner theaters in Pigeon Forge, Tenn.; Branson, Mo.; and Myrtle Beach, S.C. The concept was the brainchild of country singer and actress Parton, who remains part-owner of the company.

At the time of the announced sale of the Orlando location, which opened in 2003, Parton issued a statement saying the offer was an "opportunity we could not pass up."

Now, with the credit crunch hampering commercial real-estate transactions, a buyer might be harder to find.

"We are optimistic even with the current economic situation," Owens said. "We had several groups that expressed interested in the property at the same time that Chelsea was involved."

The property has an assessed value of $14.9 million, according to the Orange County property appraiser. Dixie Stampede purchased the vacant site in 2000 for $3.4 million.

Meanwhile, Dixie Stampede continues to search for another location in Central Florida for a dinner theater, Owens said.

Mark Chediak can be reached at mchediak@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5240.

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