Bill Fuller Buys Florida’s Jungle Queen, Tropical Isle

One of South Florida’s oldest and most iconic tourist attractions is changing hands.

Hospitality entrepreneur and developer Bill Fuller acquired the Jungle Queen Riverboat and Tropical Isle from the Faber family, who operated the Fort Lauderdale attraction for nearly 70 years, according to a news release.

Fuller, co-founder and managing partner of Barlington Group and Mad Room Hospitality, did not disclose the purchase price but said the deal exceeded $5 million. It included the Jungle Queen and River Queen boats as well as Tropical Isle, a waterfront destination with a restaurant and performance space. The property’s measurements are unknown.

The Jungle Queen was launched in 1935 by captain Al Starts. In 1958, Earl Faber and his wife, former Ziegfeld Follies performer Mary Faber, acquired the business, the release said.

The attraction departs from Marina Village at Bahia Mar and offers daily sightseeing tours and a cruise up the New River to Tropical Isle five days a week. There, guests enjoy a barbecue dinner, a live show and access to wildlife, Fuller said.

The Jungle Queen also has a tradition as “Santa’s Showboat” and carries Santa Claus along the New River during Fort Lauderdale’s Seminole Hard Rock Winterfest Boat Parade.

Fuller told The Real Deal the acquisition reflects his passion for historic preservation and legacy businesses.

“I’m really, really excited about its future,” Fuller said of the Jungle Queen. “The more it ages, the finer the wine. The older it gets, the more beauty it has.”

Fuller plans to upgrade and enhance the Jungle Queen and Tropical Isle while continuing to honor the attraction’s history. He said businesses like the Jungle Queen are “absolutely irreplaceable,” and they play a distinct role in South Florida’s growing modern high-rise and mid-rise environment.

“There needs to be more of an effort to protect wholesale historic areas and the communities that still have these historic assets because I believe that even now and in the future, they will become gems in their own right and will become economic stimulants to even the new modern development that will build around them,” Fuller said.

Fuller, who was born in Miami and grew up in Kendall, is behind several other well-known hospitality brands in South Florida, including Ball & Chain in Little Havana and the Polynesian-themed Mai-Kai Restaurant in Fort Lauderdale.