Disney Plan Could Reap $250 Million for Glendale

The city and its schools could reap more than $250 million in new tax revenues from Walt Disney Co.’s new creative campus over the next 32 years, according to a development agreement made public Friday.

Of that amount, the city would plow back as much as $66.3 million as part of an upgrade to public infrastructure in the area, the report said.

The draft development agreement between Disney and the Glendale Redevelopment Agency is the first to give a detailed revenue picture of the $2-billion Disney project, which is planned for 125 acres the company owns near the junction of the Golden State and Ventura Freeways.

The creative campus, which borders the DreamWorks SKG animation facility, is part of the 750-acre San Fernando Redevelopment Corridor, designed in 1992 to attract media, technology and entertainment companies to the city.

Over the next three decades, the city’s redevelopment agency, city housing authority and the Glendale Unified School District could receive as much as $191 million in new property taxes and $40 million in increased sales, hotel and utilities taxes, the report said.

Nearly $20 million is expected from additional development spurred by the Disney project, city manager James Starbird said.

Los Angeles County would get about $170 million in additional property taxes, the report said.

“The redevelopment agency and school district will get property tax money as a result of the new development,” Glendale Redevelopment Director Jeanne N. Armstrong said. “Disney will start developing first. That will be reinvested into public infrastructure, schools and affordable housing.”

The report noted the Disney project could generate 7,000 new full-time jobs in the region.

Starbird said the agreement reduced the city’s financial risk because its commitment to the project would occur only when it generated property tax revenues.

“It’s entirely self-supporting,” Starbird said. “There’s no economic risk to the city or redevelopment agency.”

Under the agreement, Disney would be allowed to develop anywhere from 250,000 square feet up to 5.9 million square feet. It also requires Disney to rehabilitate the Grand Central Air terminal.

Disney has said it plans to build 3.6 million square feet of offices, sound stages and studio production facilities.

The company currently owns 2.4 million square feet at the old terminal site, which is bordered by Western Avenue, Flower Street, Air Way and the Golden State Freeway.

About 3,000 Disney employees are now scattered in office buildings at the Grand Central Business Park, which was developed in the early 1960s on the airport site. About 2,000 more work in leased buildings on the site.

Since the July 6 release of an environmental impact report, some Glendale residents have complained the city has rushed the review of the project and ignored problems ranging from seismic safety to potentially dangerous chemicals buried at the site. Residents also fear increased traffic and noise.

Ed Chuchla, development director of Disney’s Imagineering division, and other Disney executives have downplayed some potential effects of the project, saying these will be addressed through increased on-site parking, phased construction, improvements to freeway exits and local intersections as well as height restrictions on buildings near residences.

Chuchla said the tax revenues represented significant benefits that the project would bring to the city of Glendale.

“The project will generate revenue to fund public infrastructure improvements that were defined in 1992 but due to lack of revenue were never implemented,” Chuchla said. “Now with the [Disney] project, the revenue will be in place to fund a transformation and become a catalyst to ignite activity in the corridor.”