Disney Won’t Fight Pointe Anaheim
Walt Disney Co. gave its blessing Monday to the proposed Pointe Anaheim mall and hotel complex near Disneyland, a $500-million project it once denigrated as a tacky, traffic-snarling eyesore.
Disneyland is adding a second theme park, hotel and mall of its own across Harbor Boulevard from Pointe Anaheim, elements of which would compete with the project.
But Disney officials said the company will be as quiet as a mouse today when the project goes to the Anaheim City Council--so long as previously negotiated concessions on parking, traffic flow and sign design remain in effect.
Since February, the developer has agreed to alter designs to ease the flow of cars through the area, increase parking spaces from 4,000 to 5,200, and make exterior signs conform to standards mandated for the “garden district” around Disneyland under Anaheim’s massive redevelopment plans.
“If they do that, then this project can be a real complement to the [Disney] resort,” said Timur Galen, a senior vice president of Disney’s real estate and design unit, Walt Disney Imagineering.
The City Council is expected to approve the 29-acre Pointe Anaheim design, which includes three live theaters, three hotels, 100 shops, restaurants and a nightclub district. The city’s Planning Commission had approved the project 7-0, with commission Chairman Steve Bristol saying it “fits the vision” of the city’s ambitious plan to transform itself into a full-fledged resort.
But areas other than design must be addressed before Pointe Anaheim becomes reality. The primary area is the developer’s request for the city to subsidize public parking at the project.
To pave the way for subsidizing public parking, the City Council has authorized its staff to negotiate with Pointe Anaheim over sharing sales tax revenue generated by the project. The project’s portion would be essentially a rebate to help the developer with parking.
An analysis performed for the city by the real estate consulting firm Keyser Marston Associates said a sales-tax rebate worth $18 million in today’s dollars was justified given the high cost to build Pointe Anaheim and the projected benefits to the city.
Over the next 30 years, Pointe Anaheim will generate more than $400 million in tax revenue, mostly from hotel bed taxes, the study showed. The city needs those funds to repay more than $500 million in bond debt that funded improvements in the area.
City-subsidized parking also would help Pointe Anaheim’s developers justify their project to lenders. So far, no funding has been announced for the complex. And rising interest rates are making it more difficult to raise money for hotels and other commercial projects, said Vache V. Darakjian, a hotel broker with Atlas Hospitality Group in Costa Mesa.
Robert H. Shelton, Pointe Anaheim’s project manager, was unavailable for comment Monday.
Galen said Pointe Anaheim officials seem confident they’ll obtain financing for their project and pointed out that the new Disney park, California Adventure, should bring enough tourists to the city to make Pointe Anaheim’s 1,050 hotel rooms viable.
At least one other major obstacle remains.
The 29-acre site is composed of several parcels, including a small one owned by the city. Pointe Anaheim has options to buy the largest piece of the project site, the Melodyland Christian Center, but it still must negotiate the purchase of a 10-acre parcel now occupied by the Anaheim Plaza Hotel across Harbor Boulevard from Disneyland.
Shelton has talked previously about building a smaller project if the Anaheim Plaza purchase could not be completed. But city and Disney officials noted that the Planning Commission had approved the full 29-acre project, not a scaled-down version. Disney said it would only support the larger project, to be built in one phase.
Times correspondent Crystal Carreon contributed to this story.
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Pointe up the Vote
The proposed Pointe Anaheim development will go before the City Council for approval tonight.
