Let's recap: Disney has been buying parcels of land around the Disneyland Resort over the past few years. The recent news covers the purchase of two buildings at 1515 and 1585 S. Manchester Ave. for $48 million, but Disney obtained control of those properties last year. In 2013, Disney bought 11 acres of land northeast of Interstate 5, near the resort. And, most recently, Disney bought the Carousel Inn property on Harbor Boulevard.
The purchases of the Manchester buildings and the Carousel Inn give Disneyland a nice chunk of nearly 15 acres that are connected to the core resort, via a street crossing on Harbor. When Disney committed to more than $1 billion capital investment at the resort in exchange of the City of Anaheim continuing a ticket tax ban in the city, Disney suggested that the property could be used for additional parking, as well as back-of-house operations.
The clickbait here is the potential for new Star Wars and Marvel attractions at the resort. The angle is that the purchase of this surrounding property allows Disney to free backstage space around the parks for onstage expansions, and to build much-needed spaces to park all the cars that will be coming to the resort for those new attractions.
Fans should expect to see that new parking before any new Star Wars or Marvel attractions debut at the resort. Anyone who's driven to Disneyland on a Friday afternoon when all annual passes are valid knows that parking gets tight at the resort. Add Star Wars Land into the mix, and parking would become impossible. Disneyland needs to expand its parking options with a new garage before it opens any major new attractions at the resort.
As for those new attractions, Disney CEO Bob Iger has told investors that the company will add new Star Wars-themed attractions at all of its theme park resorts around the world. Disney owns the theme park rights to the Marvel characters in Southern California, and Marvel and Star Wars are two of the most popular entertainment franchises in the world. The only question is when Disney will build new lands in Anaheim devoted to these franchises, not whether they will happen.
Many fans are hoping that Disney will make an announcement about Star Wars Land at the D23 Expo in Anaheim next week. Given the high cost of developing new parking, Star Wars Land, and a Marvel-themed expansion at the same time, it's more likely that these expansions will happen in phases, with the parking first, followed by Star Wars, then Marvel.
Remember, Disney does not have the theme park rights to use most Marvel characters at Walt Disney World or Tokyo Disney, given Marvel's contract with Universal Orlando and Universal Studios Japan. So while Disney can distribute the costs of developing new Star Wars attractions across all of its properties, it can develop Marvel only in California, China, and France.
With space at a premium at the Disneyland Resort, adding a couple more dozen acres into the mix allows Disney greater design flexibility as it develops its Star Wars and Marvel expansions. Given the lack of any formal announcements from the company, just the news that Disney's buying extra land is enough to get fans excited about that expansion actually happening.
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That was a nice shot of TPI :-)
Whatever the case it's exciting to see movement
Is anyone else thinking this is going to be the next spot for a hotel?
Potter is the reason why Disney is scrambling to put up new exquisitely themed lands. I have no idea why though, the Disney zombies will show up without them. It is all ego at this point.
I love how you seem to think that calling Disney fans "zombies" is really going to convince them to go to Universal instead.
You seem to be upset over something, as though Universal making less money than Disney is a personal affront to you. It should be noted that without Disney's presence, innovation and leadership in the theme park industry for decades, the industry (and Universal) would not exist in its current form. Without Disney being he major drawcard in Orlando for decades, Universal would have had none of the success it has in replicating the same attractions in every park across the globe.
Just because Disney has been somewhat stagnant in developing new atttactions during the Global Financial Crisis, does not mean the only reason they will develop now is because of Harry Potter.
Will Disney need to lift it's game to match the quality of Universal's new additions? Of course.
In the future, please refrain from attacking people for choosing to attend a different park from you.
NB is upset for the same reason that many of us Disney fans are upset. Walt's legacy is being destroyed by greedy managers, who insist on cutting corners, even as they raise ticket prices through the roof.
Most people don't go to Orlando every year, they don't hang out for every piece of theme park news and read up on every ride before attending the park and they aren't that upset that a park doesn't get a new e-ticket every year or 2. The average person goes to Disney because for decades its been the leader in putting up great, family friendly themed entertainment. Just because Universal has created better attractions in Orlando for the last 5 years isn't a reason to attack people for going to Disney.
I'm getting sick of the Disney bashing on this site. I don't mind reasonable criticism, and for Disney World's lack of development some criticism is warranted. Disney needs to build new attractions as they appear to be doing, and I'm sure we'll find out more in the next month. I'm sorry if I sound like a lawyer, but I'm just tired of hearing "Universal is so awesome, Disney, you suck". If I wanted to hear this childish commentary, I'd go to IMDB.
It could work really well for a ip themed for a transition between earth and another universe.
It would seem wasteful to put functions on prime land that don't need to be so closely located. Doing this would allow for more future growth.
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Robert, what was the name of the company that purchased the land? Ayefive Corporation maybe?