Disney Buys 96 Acres in Glendale

The Walt Disney Co., which has done the design work for its theme parks in rented office space here for three decades, has become one of the city’s largest landowners after purchasing 96 acres in south Glendale, officials said Thursday.

Neither Disney nor the seller, Prudential Insurance Co. of America, would reveal the price paid for the patchwork of properties within the Grand Central Business Centre, where Walt Disney Imagineering has rented space for more than 30 years. Escrow closed Tuesday.

“We’ve been renting there for a long time, and it made more sense for us to own it rather than to lease it,” Disney spokesman Ken Green said.

The 96 acres, about 60% occupied by Disney and the rest by other businesses, includes about 70 low-rise buildings and about 1.8 million square feet of space. The land is included in the 750-acre San Fernando Corridor Redevelopment Project Area.