Bank takes ownership of Schlitterbahn water park at auction

SAN ANTONIO – A bank that held roughly $32 million in debt by the Schlitterbahn Riverpark & Resort in Texas’ North Padre Island has taken ownership of the park at a foreclosure auction.

San Antonio lawyer Jon Lowe, who conducted the auction, told the San Antonio Express-News that IBC Bank made a $20 million “credit bid” as the lone bidder for the park. IBC CEO Dennis Nixon says the Laredo, Texas-based bank hopes to find a new owner quickly.

The sale comes a year after a bankruptcy filing by the park’s owners, Schlitterbahn principals Gary and Jeffrey Henry and North Padre Island landowner Paul Schexnaider.

A grand jury indicted Jeffrey Henry in March on second-degree murder and other charges in the 2016 water slide death of a 10-year-old boy at Schlitterbahn’s Kansas City, Kansas, park.