Disney Acquiring Land Near Park : Development: The company reportedly will soon announce plans for a new Anaheim facility.

The Walt Disney Co., which is expected to announce plans for a second amusement park here soon, has paid $30 million for a 23-acre tract of land near Disneyland, obtained a land lease on a small motel and is shopping for more property.

According to real estate records, Disney paid top dollar--$1.3 million an acre--for the 23-acre parcel on Katella Avenue southeast of the park. And the entertainment giant has been negotiating to lease 58 more acres nearby.

Disney has already paid for a long-term lease for at least one motel and is negotiating to lease a string of other businesses near the Disneyland Hotel across West Street from the amusement park, a source said.

The real estate transactions come just weeks before Disney is expected to unveil plans for a second park near Disneyland. Anaheim is vying with Long Beach to become home to the lucrative project.

Disney would not comment on what it said were “rumors and speculation.”

But Orange County land records in Santa Ana show the company on Dec. 21 acquired a 23-acre property from Magnolia Realty Investments Inc. and President Jensen Cheng for $30.2 million. The property, formerly a mobile-home park, is near the corner of Katella Avenue and Harbor Boulevard across the street and cater-cornered from Disneyland.

The company has been scouting for other parcels as well. Hiroshi Fujishige, whose family has owned a 58-acre strawberry field near the park since the early 1950s, says Disney recently sought a long-term lease on the land. But he rejected the $32-million offer as too low.

Disney’s land dealings come nearly a year after the Burbank-based company announced that it would spend more than $1 billion to develop another theme park in the 1990s in either Anaheim or Long Beach. The company has since said it might eventually build parks in both areas.

Nonetheless, the company’s announcement has pitted the two nearby cities in a high-stakes competition for Disney’s favor. The firm has already disclosed plans for another theme park near where the Queen Mary ocean liner is docked in Long Beach.

Disney’s plan there calls for a 350-acre “Port Disney” park at the present site of the Queen Mary/Spruce Goose in the Port of Long Beach. The $2-billion park would include rides, a big waterfront shopping area and shuttle boats to bring tourists from two new Disney hotels in downtown Long Beach.

Plans for the Anaheim park are a closely guarded secret. A Disneyland planner said last year that the concept would be sort of a permanent world’s fair similar to Epcot Center in Florida, a Disney attraction that operates alongside Walt Disney World and the Disney MGM Studios attraction.

Sources said Disney planners have told them that the company may unveil plans for two new amusement parks near Disneyland and several hotels.

And the fact that Disney is buying land in Anaheim appears to provide some evidence that the company has serious plans for building there, sources said. The anticipation over the possible Disney development has prompted some hand-wringing and wishful thinking among real estate owners near Disneyland’s main gates.

“I promised I wouldn’t say anything about what’s going on around here,” said one owner in the Katella Avenue area. “If I talked, my name would be (mud).”

Disney is likely to build a parking lot or the second amusement park on the mobile-home park and strawberry field, if it can obtain it, sources said. If Disney builds a parking lot, it could close the present 100-acre Disneyland parking lot and build a new attraction there. Patrons who parked in the new lot across the street could be whisked to the park via an extension of the park’s monorail system, the sources said.

Real estate experts said Disney paid a generous price for the 23-acre parcel on Katella, even though it is--with the adjoining strawberry field--one of the last, large undeveloped pieces of land in central Orange County.

Land values in the area and indeed around the county have stagnated recently because of the downturn in real estate. When commercial land was selling in the county, it cost about $20 a square foot, or just under $1 million an acre, brokers say. Ordinarily, a big purchase of land like this might get the buyer a discount, too, they say.

The mobile homes have been gone since 1984, when the property was planned for a $200-million mix of office towers, condominiums and hotels. But a deal to sell the land to a developer fell through in the late 1980s, local brokers say.

Now that parcel and adjoining strawberry field are not nearly so desirable because office construction has slowed to a crawl because of a glut of office space on the market. There are several better sites for office buildings still vacant in the central part of the county, brokers say.

The 58-acre strawberry field is on Harbor Boulevard, south of Katella Avenue. Fujishige, whose family has owned it for nearly 40 years, said a deal fell apart in November when he rejected as “insulting” Disney’s preliminary offer of $32 million for a 99-year lease on the land.

“It sure seemed to me that I was about to end up like those Indians who used to own Manhattan Island,” Fujishige said. “When they came in with such a low offer, I was about ready to walk out (of the meeting) right then. Disney will do what they want to do, and I’ll do what I want to do.”

The land is now off the market, says James Kindal, Fujishige’s lawyer.

It’s not clear whether Fujishige’s refusal to sell the strawberry field will put a major crimp in Disney’s expansion plans. As late as last week, Fujishige said, his daughter-in-law, Carolyn Fujishige, and the family bookkeeper got overtures from theme park officials about the land.

“It was clear (Disney was) interested in it,” Kindal said. “They talked about it as important in their plans for a new Disneyland. They were very careful in negotiating not to discuss plans for its use.”

Over the years, Fujishige said, his family has received dozens of offers from developers of everything from hotels to business parks. The clamor for the property, he said, was a factor in his brother’s suicide in 1986. At the time, Fujishigesaid, his brother, Masao, had been battling to keep the city from building access roads across the family farm at 1854 S. Harbor Blvd.

“I’m just plain too simple,” Hiroshi Fujishige said. “I just want to stay here and farm.”

Meanwhile, the string of motels and other businesses on West Street near the Disneyland Hotel would likely be combined with about 60 acres of fields Disney already owns and used for a phalanx of glittering new hotels to be built by Disney, sources said.

In one case, Disney paid more than $1 million for a long-term lease on the Dunes motel, sources said. The South West Street motel sits on less than an acre of land. Other deals are expected to be sealed within 30 days, the sources said.

The sources also pointed to widespread rumors that Disney plans to build several hotels with up to 5,000 rooms near the Disneyland Hotel over the next decade. The hotels would be built in conjunction with the new park.

Disney did not buy up the surrounding land when it opened Disneyland in 1955. Other property owners built a motley collection of motels, convenience stores and strip shopping centers just across the street from the park. Some of those buildings became rundown and shabby with time. But until now, Disney has not been known to be interested in buying much of its neighbors’ property.

The company took a different tack when it built Walt Disney World in Orlando, Fla., in the 1970s. The company bought and controls much of the land around the park, where it has built several large hotels.

This story was reported by Times staff writers Kevin Johnson, Chris Woodyard and Michael Flagg. It was written by Flagg.

Times staff writer James S. Granelli also contributed to this report.