Six Flags Gains Ground Under Redskins' Snyder

Snyder has been around Washington long enough to remember the lesson of Woodward & Lothrop. The venerable department store went bankrupt and then out of business because real estate developer A. Alfred Taubman did an LBO that burdened Woodies with more debt than it could handle. Taubman was counting on paying off the debt by selling some of the Woodies stores, but his timing was bad. The real estate market tanked, he couldn't sell, and Woodies went under.

An imploding real estate market is one of the things that could go wrong for Snyder at Six Flags, because he, too, is counting on selling real estate to pay down debt.

The company has roughly 3,500 acres of land around its 30 parks that it doesn't need, Bear Stearns estimates. That land could be sold for about $300 million. In addition, Six Flags is close to selling AstroWorld in Houston and could get $100 million for it. The Six Flags park near Los Angeles could fetch $350 million to $400 million more.

Bear Stearns says the Six Flags real estate strategy is being developed by Snyder's partner Dwight C. Schar, who is a board member of Six Flags and a minority partner in the Redskins. Schar is also head of NVR Inc., the biggest home-building firm in the Washington region.

To aid in handling the real estate, Schar has brought in the Staubach Co., a high-powered national real estate consulting firm. Yes, that Staubach. Former football great Roger.

That's one of the appeals of investing with Danny Snyder: You get to drop as good a batch of names as anybody in Washington. Besides those mentioned already, there's Six Flags board member Harvey Weinstein, the Hollywood mogul (If you missed him at the Golden Globes last week, wait for the Oscars). And Bill Gates of Microsoft Corp., who is Six Flags' second-largest shareholder after Snyder.

Those names tell you Snyder knows how to build a team. What's happening to Six Flags stock shows he knows how to play the game.

Now, if he could just get the Skins into the Super Bowl, people around here might start to really like the guy.

Jerry Knight's e-mail isknightj@washpost.com.