Hopes Up for Downtown Disney
Today’s opening of Downtown Disney--an eclectic collection of 28 stores, snazzy restaurants and nightclubs--marks the latest entry in Southern California’s burgeoning entertainment-retail market.
Like Universal CityWalk and the Block in nearby Orange, Walt Disney Co. is betting that Downtown Disney--wedged between Disneyland and its new California Adventure theme park--will give a young-adult edge to the family-oriented resort area.
The retail and food promenade is part of Disney’s $1.4-billion expansion in Anaheim aimed at enticing tourists to visit longer by offering them somewhere to shop, play games, catch a movie or hang out at a bar without getting in their cars--as long as their wallets hold up.
Downtown Disney packs a powerful punch. It features the hip House of Blues, chef Joachim Splichal’s new Catal Restaurant & Uva Bar, and the West Coast’s first ESPN Zone, a sports bar, restaurant and game center.
Like CityWalk, Downtown Disney figures to draw tens of thousands of people spilling from nearby theme parks. Disney also hopes its retail hub--which has no admission fee--will be a draw apart from the theme parks, stealing customers from other so-called shoppertainment venues that have emerged in recent years, such as the Irvine Spectrum.
It’s not clear yet how successful Downtown Disney will be in drawing locals, once the curiosity wears off. After all, many Southlanders go out of their way to avoid both traffic and tourists.
Although Disney has a similar attraction in Florida, it is now immersing itself in increasingly crowded waters that others have found difficult to navigate. And it’s taking the plunge amid signs of a retail and economic slowdown.
In the Anaheim area alone, two groups are struggling to bring major projects to life. Gotcha Glacier’s backers have repeatedly delayed their project as they seek critical financing for the towering indoor snowboarding and surfing park.
Pointe Anaheim backers also are trying to line up financing for the shops and hotels they hope to build across the street from Disneyland.
Some developers say that Orange County is a fertile field, and that the additional projects--especially the new Disneyland expansion--will benefit a wide range of businesses by drawing more people.
Indeed, the Disney Resort (as the entire theme park-entertainment mall complex is dubbed) is expected to generate about 20 million visits a year--with strong connections between the retail complex and new theme park that are designed to encourage visitors to stay longer.
Parking-lot trams tempt theme park-goers with views of eye-catching storefronts; a monorail is positioned to whisk shoppers back to Tomorrowland.
Cheryl French provides an example of how the strategy can work. The Rancho Santa Margarita homemaker was riding a tram from the complex’s parking lot to Disneyland when she caught a glimpse of the huge World of Disney store.
“It really attracted us away from Disneyland,” said French, 37, as she roamed through the retail hub with her two daughters. “How did that happen?”
Tourists also were feeling the tug of the shopping and entertainment district even before it officially opened. The last time New Yorkers Tim and Dawn Etta visited Disneyland, they spent two days at the theme park, a day at Universal Studios and checked out Laguna Beach and Beverly Hills. But this year, they barely needed a car.
“Because they opened Downtown Disney, we stayed here as opposed to leaving,” said Tim Etta, a 34-year-old engineer. “We thought we would go to Laguna Beach, but we decided to stay in Anaheim for the week.”
Disney is clearly ratcheting up the stakes in the fiercely competitive shopping and entertainment arena.
Its noisy, pulsing ESPN Zone, for example, figures to be a magnet for young males, as Van’s Skate Park has been for a slightly younger crowd at the Block.
“It’s new, it’s different,” said Michael Keegan, a 21-year-old Chino Hills resident who hangs out at the Block but this week sampled Downtown Disney. “The Block’s been around for a couple of years now.”
None of Downtown Disney’s competitors admit to significant concerns about the new arrival. And some are eager to capitalize on all the hoopla.
Universal Studios said this week it intends to begin free daily shuttle service from Anaheim to Universal City to anyone who buys a ticket to Universal Studios.
