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Presidents Park Has Potential BuyerThursday, May 19, 2011 
Richmond native Larry Creeger, who aims to purchase Presidents Park.
Richmond-born businessman Larry Creeger has been working on buying Presidents Park since before it closed, but there are still a few more hurdles to clear before he can reopen a revamped attraction – including figuring out who currently owns the park. Creeger, co-founder of Global EventMakers, Inc., is also head of the nonprofit American Constitution Spirit Foundation, an organization designed to enhance the public’s understanding of the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights. The Foundation has its own collection of giant U.S. memorabilia: a five-ton National Monument to the United States Constitution and a 20-ton United States Presidency Monument. Creeger’s vision is to connect these monuments to two Presidents Parks, the one in York County and one to be opened soon in New Orleans. Creeger’s interest in buying the local Presidents Park started before park President Everette “Haley” Newman closed the attraction’s doors last fall, but he has since run into some bumps in the road. Creeger started negotiations with the original owners of the park, but the bank took possession of the property before a contract was signed. Creeger, with the backing of several Virginia-based investors, then started negotiating with the bank for the property but was surprised to hear it recently sold the property in one large bundle along with 26 other bank-owned properties in Tennessee and West Virginia. “Now we’re back to square one,” Creeger told WYDaily. “We’re not interested in 27 locations, just one.” Currently, he and Newman are trying to figure out who the new owner is to see if they can start on the third round of negotiations while trying to regroup the Virginia investors. Creeger isn’t letting the little matter of ownership stop him from planning a new future for the Historic Triangle’s collection of 20-foot-tall busts of America’s past 43 presidents, though. “I hope to reopen the Williamsburg [area] location in a few months,” he said. “My expectation is to move the presidential monument and the constitutional monument there.”
The United States Presidency Monument.
The presidential monument, which features a bronze bald eagle taking flight, a replica of the Constitution and Bill of RIghts and other various symbols of the country, would be placed in front of the main building. Creeger also plans to bring a portable pavilion to the park which will house a bronze replica of the Constitution and Bill of Rights and the constitutional monument along with an interactive educational display. The constitutional monument was commissioned by President Ronald Reagan and Warren Burger, Former Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court. Part of his Foundation’s mission is to place bronze replicas of the two national documents in schools across the country, and this initiative would also have its headquarters at the Williamsburg location, Creeger said. His desire to start his nonprofit and later to bring the large monuments and sculptures together grew out of his interest in the country’s founding documents, Creeger said, and it was fueled by the attacks on September 11. “I was watching [the attacks] on television and I thought, there is no time in history better than now for our youth to understand the Constitution … it’s important they understand where their freedoms come from.” Creeger would also like to add a special events site at the park, an area he has lots of expertise in through his events business. The site would seat about 500 and would be used every evening for a sound and light show, which would help bring in revenue and give people a reason to stay longer at the park, he said. It could also be a venue for corporate meetings. Right now, Creeger is helping to establish a Presidents Park in New Orleans with another set of giant presidential busts, also by artist David Adickes, which he hopes will be a sister park to the local Presidents Park. Creeger is currently negotiating the purchase of the second set of busts, which are being stored in Houston. |
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