Firm Buying Yellowstone Grizzly Center

Ogden Corp., an international services company whose subsidiaries do jobs ranging from fueling airplanes to selling hot dogs at Seattle’s Kingdome, has reached a preliminary agreement to buy West Yellowstone’s Grizzly Discovery Center.

The New York-based Ogden said it plans to buy the assets of Firehole Entertainment Corp., formerly known as Firehole Land Corp. Those assets include 80 acres of land on the western border of Yellowstone National Park, said Quintin Marshall, an Ogden spokesman.

The sale is expected to close in about two weeks, he said. Terms were not announced.

Lewis Robinson III, president and treasurer of Firehole Entertainment, described himself as excited by the prospects, noting Ogden is big enough to back expansion.

Robinson said he would like to open centers similar to Grizzly Discovery Center in Nevada and California. He also mentioned a center in Florida featuring the black bear and environmental problems of Everglades National Park.

“This company has large resources,” Robinson said.

Ogden, which is traded on the New York Stock Exchange, has holdings in the United States, Europe, Asia and South America. It has about 40,000 employees.

If the Ogden sale goes through, Firehole Entertainment will be a wholly owned subsidiary. Firehole officers will remain the same. Robinson is president and treasurer, former state Commerce Director Mike Letson of West Yellowstone is vice president and Jonathan Stern of New York City is secretary.