Disney Outlines $3-Billion Plan for Anaheim Resort : Entertainment: Called WESTCOT Center, the second park would be patterned after the company’s Florida attraction and feature a landmark Spacestation Earth.
Ending nearly a year of speculation, the Walt Disney Co. unveiled plans Wednesday for a $3-billion expansion at Disneyland. It would include a second theme park and a giant golden sphere called Spacestation Earth, which could rival the Matterhorn as an Anaheim landmark.
Called WESTCOT Center, the second park would be patterned largely after the company’s highly successful EPCOT Center in Florida. It would be part of a 470-acre “Disneyland Resort” that, if built, would probably double the number of visitors to Anaheim--to more than 25 million annually.
Disneyland itself would also get a face lift: two new “lands”--one a permanent birthday party for Mickey Mouse and another linked to the popular Indiana Jones adventure films--and an updated Tomorrowland.
Also included in the WESTCOT proposal are three new resort hotels, a 7-acre public plaza and a collection of retail, dining and entertainment facilities called Disneyland Center, which would be built around a 6-acre lake.
But even as they described the future of Anaheim in a series of briefings for reporters preceding the formal public announcement of their plans today, Disney officials reiterated that a decision on whether to build the company’s second Southern California attraction in Anaheim or in Long Beach will not be made until the end of the year. Even if the company chooses Anaheim, the plans would have to undergo extensive review, and the park would not be completed until at least 1998.
In Long Beach, the company last year outlined a proposed $2.8-billion ocean theme resort called “Port Disney.”
Wednesday’s announcement will probably raise the stakes in this competition and already has raised the rhetoric between the two cities. In a not-too-subtle bid to gain regulatory concessions in each location, company officials have said their decision will depend, in part, on “governmental approval and support . . . and community support.”
Anaheim Mayor Fred Hunter, while praising Disney’s plans as “impressive and ambitious,” said “we need to know more.” He said the toughest part of the project now lies ahead with what are expected to be protracted negotiations over how much the city will have to contribute in the way of transportation improvements and further land acquisitions.
Countered Long Beach Mayor Ernie Kell: “If they (Disney) want an ocean view, they are going to have to do it with a lot of water in Anaheim. . . . In Anaheim, they have to deal with a horrendous traffic problem. One only has to drive around the city to see that they have severe traffic problems there.”
A key measure of local government commitment in Anaheim will probably be revealed when planners try to implement a proposed transportation plan that includes three new multistory parking structures near opposite ends of the park--one on the northwest side near Ball Road and a pair of others on the east side on property near the Melodyland church.
Also planned are an expanded monorail system and an elevated people-mover system that Disney says would “significantly reduce” traffic near the park. The systems are designed to shuttle up to 8,000 tourists an hour from parking structures and hotels to the resort during peak times.
Also included in the transportation proposal are plans for new ramps off Interstate 5 that would directly feed the project’s parking structures. What hasn’t been decided is who will pay for the company’s costly transportation improvements, and Disney officials said they will certainly seek public assistance in financing the projects.
Company officials said cost estimates for the freeway improvements and land acquisition for the parking structures were not available, but Anaheim City Councilman Irv Pickler said, “I’m pretty sure the powers that be will not give away the store.”
Although the inspiration for the Anaheim project was drawn from the company’s highly successful EPCOT Center, Disney Development Co. Vice President Kerry Hunnewell said the Anaheim proposal, because of space limitations and its urban setting, presents significant challenges for company planners. Still, if the project is built, Disney officials estimate it will attract 13 million additional visitors each year.
Beginning late last year, the company began quietly acquiring tracts of land on the perimeter of Disneyland, largely aimed at paving the way for the company’s planned hotel district on what is now West Street, on the park’s western boundary. Included in those acquisitions were several low-rise motels where purchase prices were estimated in the tens of thousands of dollars per room.
Plans call for West Street--between Katella Avenue and Ball Road--to be renamed Disneyland Drive and to become a gently curving, tree-lined boulevard and home to the addition’s three new hotels.
On the same boulevard, the park’s main thoroughfare, Hunnewell said architects will borrow themes from California’s structural landmarks, such as the Hotel del Coronado in San Diego, to construct the Disneyland Resort Hotel, an 800-room luxury hotel that would be the focal point of the district.
On the same boulevard, envisioned as the resort’s main street, plans call for an extensive renovation of the existing Disneyland Hotel to include a 300-room tower. North of Disneyland Hotel, architects are proposing the Magic Kingdom Hotel, a 960-room low-rise structure to reflect the Spanish influence of the Santa Barbara Mission.
On the other side of the Disneyland Hotel, there are plans for what is being called the WESTCOT Lake Resort, a 1,800-room hotel encircling a 6-acre lake and lined with tall palm trees. Pedestrian bridges would connect the hotel to a monorail station at the water’s edge.
The network of monorails and planned people-mover systems would be designed to carry tourists to the 7-acre, open-air Disneyland Plaza, described by company executives as the resort’s hub, where visitors could enter the gates that would separate Disneyland from the WESTCOT addition.
Lindquist said park visitors would be charged separate gate admissions, but he said admission costs have not been determined.
Another proposed feature of the resort is a planned 5,000-seat amphitheater called the Disneyland Bowl. To be located between the main plaza and the Harbor Boulevard entrance to the park, the facility would be used for live entertainment events.
Spacestation Earth--probably the most ambitious attraction--would be spread over what is now the Disneyland parking lot.
Expected to capture the concept of a futuristic “global village,” the Spacestation would sit on a grassy island at the center of the park. Using a network of thrill rides, visitors would be able to travel to theme areas representing “the four corners of the earth.”
Beneath the Spacestation, visitors would be able to explore the wonders of nature in Ventureport. The attraction is planned as a “futuristic gateway” to pavilions dedicated to space exploration, biology, contemporary living and the environment.
Disney’s selection of a theme that is nearly a decade old was no surprise to entertainment industry analysts, some of whom predicted months ago that the company would not stray far from its successes of the past.
Bruce E. Thorp, a Philadelphia-based Disney analyst with Provident National Bank, said the EPCOT theme has “shown itself to have tremendous lasting power that lends itself to the development in Southern California.”
“There is nothing in their plans that disappoints me or surprises me” Thorp said. “I would be more concerned if Disney went off on a tangent they had not done before.”
The only downside to the Anaheim development, Thorp said, was the limited amount of space. The current Disneyland site is spread over about 80 acres, while plans for the WESTCOT addition call for up to 100 acres of theme entertainment, more than 100 acres for hotels, and dozens of acres reserved for parking. The company now has only a portion of the needed acreage and is still negotiating for more.
“Because of the limited acreage, everything would have to be much more compact,” Thorp said.
By comparison, Euro Disneyland, under construction outside Paris, has about 5,000 acres; Disney World in Florida has 28,000 acres. The company is eyeing a 360-acre site in Long Beach near the Queen Mary, but a substantial amount is under water and would have to be filled.
Thorp said the scope of Disney’s plans in Anaheim have the potential to accomplish what company executives are aiming for: a tourist destination with the potential to keep visitors at the resort for up to a week. Company officials say visitors usually remain at Disneyland only one or two days.
“This would strengthen Anaheim’s drawing for people who wouldn’t otherwise plan to make a trip to Disneyland,” Thorp said.
From a business standpoint, analysts say, directly linked theme parks could amount to the closest approximation to Disney’s successful formula in Florida. There guests stay for up to a week--often without ever leaving Disney property--spending millions in company-owned parks, hotels, restaurants, golf courses and shops.
While enthusiastic about the project, Anaheim officials say there is still much to discuss.
The project must pass muster with area residents who are expected to get views of the plan in a series of community meetings to be staged by Disney executives. The times and locations for those meetings have not been announced.
In addition to negotiations over public contributions to the plan, city studies are under way to gauge the environmental impact such a massive development would have on the city. Results of that study are expected to be complete by late this year.
“For a project of this magnitude, the city must be prepared and that will be a long process,” Hunter said.
Disney Plan Unveiled
Highlights
* Attractions: A giant entertainment center-more than five times the size of the current park. Includes the WESTCOT Center, a futuristic world centered around a huge golden sphere called Spacestation Earth. Themed pavilions will focus on human biology, the natural environment and the universe. Also a 5,000-seat amphitheater and a shopping, dining and leisure center.
* Hotels: A renovated Disneyland Hotel and three new hotels totaling more than 5,100 rooms. Each hotel will have a distinctive style evoking different Southern California hotels and landmarks.
* Transit: Three off-site parking garages, each four to five stories tall, housing a combined total of 28,000 cars. Also, electrically powered people-movers and moving sidewalks.
* Cost and size: $3 billion on 470 acres.
* Employment: 37,000
* Construction time: Six years
Next step
* Disney seeks reaction at community meetings. City of Anaheim negotiates with Disney over transportation system improvements and possible additional land acquisitions. City examines environmental impact in a study not likely to be complete this year.
A Comparison: Long Beach vs. Anaheim
With the unveiling of the Anaheim project, the Walt Disney Co. now has two major Southland parks on the drawing board with immediate intentions of building only one. Here is how Anaheim’s second attraction stacks up with the proposed Port Disney in Long Beach.
Long Beach Anaheim Port Disney Theme Disneyland Resort $2.8 billion Cost $3 billion 360 acres Size 470 acres 37,000 jobs Employment 37,000 jobs 10 million Annual visitors 13 million DisneySea, a mix of thrill Attraction WESTCOT Center, a futur- rides and attractions de- istic world centered on a signed to introduce tour- giant golden sphere called ists to the undersea world. Spacestation Earth, in- cluding themed pa- vilions focusing on human biology, the environment and universe. Five New hotels Three 3,900 Hotel rooms 5,100 Queensway Bay to be Amenities Hotel district connected to retail center of shopping, shopping and dining dining and entertainment district called Disneyland complex. Center. A network of street Transportation Expanded monorail shuttles, water taxis and system, moving sidewalks possible monorail system. and new people-mover system. Five years Construction Six years
Source: Walt Disney Co.
