Disney Reportedly Has Option for Nearby Hotel : * Theme park: Property is in an area near Disneyland where two parking structures for 30,000 cars could be built to accommodate a $3-billion expansion.
Continuing its search for more land to accommodate a proposed $3-billion expansion of Disneyland, the Walt Disney Co. has reportedly secured an option to buy a 66-room hotel within an area the entertainment company has planned for one of two mammoth parking structures.
The company has been negotiating with the owners of the Rip Van Winkle Hotel in Anaheim, but it was not immediately known how much Disney would pay for the option or for the 1-acre property. Disney’s recent acquisitions in the area, which have included a 28-acre former trailer park, have been valued at more than $1 million an acre.
Disney’s movement to acquire more land for Anaheim’s proposed Disneyland Resort comes as the company continues simultaneous negotiations with city officials in Long Beach and Anaheim to determine where Disney will build its next Southern California attraction.
Disney Development Co. Vice President Kerry Hunnewell said it was not the company’s policy to comment on “speculation” concerning property acquisitions in the area, but sources and hotel owners said a final deal was near involving the hotel at 301 W. Katella Ave., just east of Disneyland.
“Whatever is happening, I am not at liberty to talk about now,” said Angelo Zaby, whose family runs the Rip Van Winkle and Zaby’s Motor Lodge at the corner of Harbor Boulevard and Katella Avenue. “They (Disney) put me in the middle of their parking structure. They have showed me as part of their property. There is a good chance I might have a sale.”
The Zaby property is set at the southernmost tip of an area where company plans call for one of two parking garages that would serve the new park. The site is partially bounded by Clementine Street on the east, Katella Avenue on the south, Freedman Way and the property lines of existing hotels on the west.
The second structure is planned for a site on the northwest corner of project, off Walnut Street. Together the two structures would hold more than 30,000 vehicles and could cost up to $500 million to build.
On previous real estate shopping sprees, Disney has taken control of a number of hotels and motels ringing the park. Two of them, the Princess and Lamplighter, located along the west border of the park, have been renovated by the company and reopened. Disney officials have said they would decide by the end of the year whether to build in Anaheim--where a world’s fair-type theme park called Westcot Center is planned--or in Long Beach where the company has designed a $3-billion ocean-themed attraction called DisneySea.
