2 Businesses Depart California Adventure
Two major businesses in Walt Disney Co.’s California Adventure have abandoned operations at the park, raising more concerns for the Disneyland Resort amid sluggish attendance and dimmed prospects in the near term.
Disney spokesman Ray Gomez said Wolfgang Puck Food Co.’s upscale seafood eatery, Avalon Cove, was shutting down Monday because it had not met the expectations of either Disney or Puck. It is the first defection of a tenant since the park opened in February.
Also, Robert Mondavi Corp. said that as of Monday, it was no longer running the park’s Golden Vine Winery attraction and high-end restaurant, limiting its role to that of a sponsor. Disney will take over control of Mondavi’s attraction and eatery, which remains open.
“We want to eliminate further financial exposure,” said Nancy Light, a spokeswoman at Mondavi. The Oakville, Calif.-based winery said it will record a charge of $12 million to $13 million related to its investment in the Anaheim theme park.
Mondavi and Puck represented Disney’s bid to attract affluent tourists to the Disneyland Resort. California Adventure opened in February next to Disneyland, but the new park has struggled with sluggish attendance from the start. And the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks have made matters worse, thinning attendance even more at the $1.4-billion park and retail district known as Downtown Disney.
Gomez said he was unaware of any other tenants in California Adventure seeking to withdraw or revise their contractual agreements with Disney. Other outside businesses operating attractions and selling food in the park include the sourdough bread maker Andre-Boudin Bakeries. The bakery said Monday that it was doing fine in the park.
Gomez said Avalon Cove and Mondavi’s are the only ones in the park in the expensive price range.
Disney officials would not specify what would take the place of Puck’s Avalon Cove--a 350-seat restaurant and lounge designed in an elaborate undersea world motif in the Paradise Pier section overlooking a faux bay. However, Gomez said Disney planned to open, by Christmastime, a new restaurant catering more to families and children.
A Wolfgang Puck spokesman declined to comment about Avalon Cove’s closure, except to say that it was a mutual decision.
High-end restaurants around the country have suffered along with the economy for most of the year. Prospects have dimmed further since the attacks, as consumer confidence has plummeted and layoffs have mounted. Many Americans are trading down from expensive eateries in favor of lower-priced casual diners and fast-food eateries.
Initially the park was expected to attract about 7 million annually, or 19,000 a day. But in the week before the terrorist attacks, the park drew an average of about 4,500, according to a Disney official who asked not to be identified.
Kristine Koerber, an analyst at WR Hambrecht & Co., said Mondavi may have been a victim of bad timing. “Maybe this concept would have worked two years ago,” she said. “But it got off to a slow start and never took off.”
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Times staff writer E. Scott Reckard contributed to this report.
