Sam's Fun City was a family amusement park and water park at 6709 Pensacola Boulevard in Pensacola, Florida, on U.S. 29 just south of I-10.
Before any of it, the site was a junkyard and a truck-training ground with a dumping problem. Cleanup took close to a year.
The park opened on September 22, 2000 with 12 rides, three go-kart tracks, and a ticket booth as its only real building.
Then came the arcade, laser tag, mini golf, 12 water slides, a 750-foot lazy river, and a used coaster shipped over from England. The park sold in 2022, lost its name, and closed after the 2025 season.
Destiny Worship Center paid $2.75 million for the land in March 2026, $1.4 million less than the previous buyer paid. Here's what got built and unbuilt on those acres.
Sam's Fun City started on a junkyard lot
The 50 acres at W Street and Highway 29 had been a junkyard, a truck-training ground, and for years a dumping spot.
Nothing usable stood on the land but a small loading dock. Cleanup took close to a year.
Richard Sanfilippo bought it anyway, after 25 years as an executive in environmental engineering and construction.
He started planning in 1996, after the local chamber's tourism director told him the city needed family recreation.
He named it for his daughter Samantha and incorporated Sam's Fun City, Inc. on April 29, 1997.
The family amusement park opened three years later at 6709 Pensacola Boulevard, on U.S. 29 south of I-10.
12 rides, 3 go-kart tracks, and a ticket booth
Opening day was September 22, 2000, and the park was almost entirely outdoors: 12 rides, three go-kart tracks, and a ticket booth, the only real building.
A small steel coaster called Miner Mike ran from the first season, and a train circled the grounds.
Walking in cost nothing.
You paid for the rides you wanted or bought a package, so a grandparent could come along and spend zero. That held for 20 years.
Rocky the Flying Squirrel and Bullwinkle J. Moose were licensed characters here, and the park sold itself as their Gulf Coast home.
Bullwinkle's Family Food 'n Fun sold the pizza.
Hurricane Ivan cost $750,000 after insurance
Ivan hit in September 2004. Insurance covered part of the damage; the rest ran to $750,000, with SBA emergency loans helping rebuild and reopen.
Most of the park was open again after a week, and it gave away free days while the neighborhoods around it still had no power.
Then 2005 brought Dennis, and Katrina, which did its worst well to the west and still hit a third of the park's business.
August traffic came from the Mississippi and Louisiana coast, and that coast wasn't taking day trips.
September 11, the recession, and the 2010 oil spill worked the same way. Pensacola alone was never quite enough.
The arcade got built three times
Bumper boats and miniature golf came in 2001. The first phase of Crossroads Arcade opened in 2003, and it brought air conditioning.
A rainy Saturday stopped being a lost Saturday.
The arcade was expanded three times and ended with more than 75 games and a laser-tag arena.
Play Zone City added an indoor play area for small kids, and a group pavilion took field trips and parties.
Outside, the count passed 20 rides and attractions, among them a Ferris wheel, a Tilt-A-Whirl, and a go-kart course over 1,000 feet long.
Spring, with its school buses, became one of the busiest stretches of the year.
Sam's Surf City: 12 slides and seven pools
The water park opened late and unfinished on September 2, 2005, after a hurricane season got in the way: four big slides, a 750-foot lazy river, and two small pools for kids.
Spring 2006 brought the first full season, a junior pool with three slides, and sand volleyball.
Built out, the water side had 12 slides and seven pools, and summer staffing reached 100 people, many of them teenagers.
In September 2015 the park asked Escambia County for $700,000 toward a wave pool of more than 14,000 square feet, with free lifeguard certification for 50 students a year and swim lessons for 250 children.
The proposal ranked 88th. Never built.
A used English coaster, then March 2020
The big new ride came secondhand from England: a Pinfari Zyklon Z40 that had run as Zyklon at Harbour Park and as Cat & Mouse at Ocean Beach Pleasure Park.
Repainted blue, it opened on March 16, 2018 as the Emerald Coaster, in time for spring break.
The park was now advertising more than 40 rides, slides, and attractions.
Two years later, in mid-March 2020, it closed for COVID, losing spring break and the school-trip season at once.
It reopened on May 22 at 25 percent capacity, with screening at the gate and a wristband on everyone.
Free walk-in admission ended there and didn't come back.
The park sold for $4.15 million and lost its name
In January 2022, a new operating company was formed and the property sold for $4.15 million.
By that August the events were promoted under a different name, Splash City Adventures, with part of the dry side rebranded Pirate Cove.
The park itself barely changed. Go-karts, arcade games, laser tag, water slides, and Rocky and Bullwinkle all carried over.
Sanfilippo's corporation stayed on the state register and moved its address off the property that September, 22 years after the park opened.
Gross income was $1.2 million in 2023, with attendance above 200,000. On September 23, 2024, the 19.76 acres went up for sale at $6 million.
What a church paid for the site in 2026
It never sold at that price. Splash City finished the 2025 season, hinted at 2026 updates, and never opened again.
By late March 2026 the antique cars, the go-karts, the coaster, and the train that circled the grounds were being sold off.
On March 31, 2026, the acreage sold for $2.75 million to Destiny Worship Center, $1.4 million less than the property brought in 2022.
For years the spring rush came by school bus, and the summer staff reached 100 across the park.
The church has campuses in Destin, Crestview, Navarre, and three other towns.
Pensacola isn't one of them. What goes up on the land, and when, hasn't been said.
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