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Bidders, Backups and Blowholes: Dolphin Experts Outbid Developers to (Maybe) Save Florida's Marineland Park

Marineland — America’s watery 'Grand Dame' of dolphin flips and sunscreen-scented nostalgia since 1938 — just dodged a developer-shaped bullet. 

In a bankruptcy auction that read like a reality show crossover between Antiques Roadshow and Shark Tank, a coalition of dolphin experts and local backers won the right to try to keep the historic attraction afloat — and keep the animals in place.

The victorious bidder, a coalition operating under the delightfully earnest name #1 Apex Association, LLC, offered a total of $7,135,000: $6.5 million in cash plus about $635,000 in non-cash consideration. 

The group is led by Barbara and Jon Rubel of Green Cove Springs and includes longtime dolphin expert Jack Kassewitz and former Marineland manager Felicia Cook. 

Their bid narrowly topped an earlier cash offer from Texas developer Delightful Development LLC, which had previously led the auction with a $7.1 million cash bid.

If this sounds like a David-versus-Goliath moment — with dolphins as the unwitting chorus — that’s because it is! 

The Dolphin Company, a Mexico-based operator that bought Marineland in 2019 and owns aquatic attractions overseas, filed for bankruptcy in March. 

For months, developers circled the property; one asset-purchase filing even signaled the attraction’s animals — including 17 dolphins — would be relocated if a developer takeover proceeded. 

That prospect sparked outrage from local conservationists and former staff who argued the park was still operational and its animals deserved continuity and care.

The plot thickened when Kassewitz and the Apex coalition objected that they had effectively been shut out of the October auction after being told they could bid — then told two days later they could not. 

They initially planned a smaller bid — around $4 million with Rubels adding $1.5 million of startup support — but eventually assembled the winning package. 

A federal bankruptcy judge reopened the auction Monday after hearing those objections, allowing Apex to participate and, ultimately, prevail. 

Delightful Development was named backup bidder; northeast Florida’s The Hutson Companies became a second backup, having originally put in a baseline offer of $3.5 million.

There’s still paperwork to be done. 

The judge will consider approving the potential sale to #1 Apex Association at a hearing scheduled for this morning. 

The docket will also take up the fate of three dolphins — Capri, Soleil and their mother Sandy — who arrived this summer from Gulf World Marine Park in Panama City Beach. 

Gulf World, owned by The Dolphin Company, shut down earlier this year after multiple dolphin deaths, a grim context that helped fuel local objections to moving animals again. 

Theater of the Sea in the Florida Keys had offered up to $500,000 for Capri and Soleil (and later Sandy), but Kassewitz and others filed objections — objections that reportedly were withdrawn Monday morning as the auction drama pivoted toward Apex.

Why does this matter beyond the obvious rescue-hero narrative? 

Because Marineland is less a theme park but more of a living slice of Florida history — and because the auction exposed two conflicting logics: one, the tidy arithmetic of real-estate developers who see land as a redevelopment play; and two, the messy moral calculus of people who want to preserve animal welfare, community jobs, and a decades-old public attraction. 

The Apex bid leaned into the latter: the Rubels pledged operating capital to keep the park running through slow months, stressing continuity over "raze-and-replace" maximization.

If the judge blesses the sale, the Rubels, Kassewitz and Cook will inherit the tricky work of transitioning a bankrupt attraction into a solvent one — all while honoring animal-care standards, staff, and community expectations. 

If the sale is blocked or troubled, the backup bidders stand ready; Delightful Development and The Hutson Companies will be waiting in the wings like understudies in a coastal theatre.

For now, locals can breathe a cautious sigh of relief: the dolphins might stay put, the lights might stay on, and a small-town coalition may have proved that, at least once, expertise and local commitment could outbid pure development logic. 

The story isn’t over — the judge must still sign off, and the fine print on animal transfers and operations matters enormously — but Marineland’s next chapter looks less like bulldozers and more like a group that actually talks dolphin.


Florida’s Gulf World Raided: Aquatic Misadventures Under Scrutiny

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  1. #SaveMarineland #ApexWins #DolphinDefense #MarinelandAuction #RubelRescueTeam #JackKassewitz #FeliciaCook #DelightfulBackup #HutsonBackup #HistoricMarineland #KeepDolphinsHome #BankruptcyDrama #GulfWorldContext #TheaterOrSanctuary #CommunityOverDevelopers

Sources: Court filings and bankruptcy auction records filed in The Dolphin Company’s Chapter proceedings; asset purchase agreements and hearing transcripts concerning bids from #1 Apex Association, LLC, Delightful Development LLC, and The Hutson Companies; bid totals and composition (Apex $7,135,000 total: $6.5M cash + ~$635k non-cash); reporting on objections filed by Jack Kassewitz and coalition members; filings and offers regarding dolphins Capri, Soleil and Sandy and the Theater of the Sea $500,000 proposal; background on The Dolphin Company’s 2019 purchase and March bankruptcy filing; historic Marineland opening date (1938).

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