Posted on 06/15/2022 5:12:06 PM PDT by spacejunkie2001
The Walt Disney Co.'s relocation timeline to Central Florida appears to be on the rocks.
Reports from various blogs and sites indicate Disney's (NYSE: DIS) plans to move 2,000 jobs from California to Orlando's Lake Nona community are being pushed back to 2026 — a move of at least three years.
Disney Spokeswoman Jacquee Wahler confirmed to OBJ that the plans have shifted. "While a growing number of our employees, who ultimately will work at the campus, already have made the move to Central Florida, we also want to continue to provide flexibility to those relocating, especially given the anticipated completion date of the campus is now in 2026. Therefore, where possible, we are aligning the relocation period with the campus completion."
Executives Tavistock Development Co., the owner/developer of Lake Nona, were not available for comment.
WDW News Today, a theme park blog with insider knowledge, reported the news came during a Disney meeting. "This announcement came at an all-hands-on-deck meeting today. Some employees were already searching for homes and are understandably upset about the delay because they had already sold their California homes," said the post.
Last July, Disney confirmed plans to invest $864 million in a campus to build and grow its presence in Central Florida. The Disney campus would be home to imagineers and other professionals. Early timelines were for the move to occur in 2023, yet some job listings showed the move might have been by late 2024.
This latest development comes amid an ongoing feud between Disney and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis over the status of the Reedy Creek Improvement District, a governing entity of the land encompassing Walt Disney World. Disney said the Lake Nona delay is not related to the situation with DeSantis.
In April, DeSantis signed a bill into law that would dissolve various special districts including the Reedy Creek district. The purpose behind the new law, said DeSantis during several public appearances, was to get rid of Disney's special governing powers that are held by no other business in Florida.
However, some reports tie the sudden legislation to an ongoing feud between DeSantis and Disney over the controversial "Parental Rights in Education" bill, which many opponents have called the "Don't Say Gay" bill due to it banning teachers from discussing sexual orientation and gender identity in classrooms.
That feud did not have any effect on an incentive plan for Disney's move, a DeSantis spokesman previously told Orlando Business Journal.
"The governor has not taken a position against this tax credit, because it isn’t a special privilege reserved for one corporation. It is open to all companies with prospective relocation plans of similar size. In addition to Disney, many other corporations have successfully applied and qualified for the CITC program," Bryan Griffin, the governor's spokesman previously told OBJ.
Nevertheless, this delay in the relocation dampens a major win for the region that had its largest employer ready to grow its footprint and bring many new high-wage jobs.
Walt Disney Co.'s Walt Disney World — the nation's largest single-site employer, with nearly 70,000 Orlando workers — has four local theme parks: Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios. Walt Disney World alone is the top generator for visitation to Orlando, with more than 50 million people going through its turnstiles in previous years — many of those repeat visitors.
RECOMMENDED Disney also owns two area water parks, Blizzard Beach and Typhoon Lagoon, as well as several themed hotels, golf courses, a camping resort, timeshare properties, ESPN Wide World of Sports and the Disney Springs dining/shopping/entertainment district.
why do you call this a big win?
Just say “no” to Groomers.
The comment you added contradicts the article. Ask the mods to remove it and don’t modify titles.
“””Reports from various blogs and sites indicate Disney’s (NYSE: DIS) plans to move 2,000 jobs from California to Orlando’s Lake Nona community are being pushed back to 2026 — a move of at least three years.”””
We don’t need and we don’t want 2,000 Disney Lefties from California moving to Florida. They can stay in California and wallow in the pig stye they have created.
Breaking: Disney delays California jobs relocation to southeast Orlando’s popular Lake Nona community (BIG win for Florida!)
I fail to see your problem with the obvious addition to the title. It is not as if it doesn’t happen every day on FR.
The 3-year push out to 2026 seems win-ish.
Keeping 2000 CA Disney sycophant lefties outta FL for another three years is a good thing, now matter how ya slice it.
What’s not stated is that most of the people in those jobs will refuse to move and the majority of those positions will be filled by Floridans.
DeSantis disagrees with you. The state of Florida, also.
“Keeping 2000 CA Disney sycophant lefties outta FL for another three years is a good thing, now matter how ya slice it.”
Sycophant is a noun.
“””What’s not stated is that most of the people in those jobs will refuse to move and the majority of those positions will be filled by Floridans”””
One can always hope that will be the case.
That’s what happened when Toyota moved HQ to DFW from Los Angeles. About half the rank and file quit instead, either immediately or within two years. In the latter case, most of them moved back to CA.
It’s even better with Disney - prior to this announcement, most of the Disney employees in CA that were subject to moving had announced that they would not be moving anywhere that had passed a ‘Don’t Say Gay’ law.
Is Disney building The Drag Queen World ?
We need a more diversified job base here in Florida.
Not everyone here has employment grade construction, medical or legal skills, or wants to just earn low retail or restaurant wages.
Sure is interesting when a company pees into it’s own soup.
So why is the state offering Disney incentives to relocate there?
Semimojo
I quote
“The governor has not taken a position against this tax credit, because it isn’t a special privilege reserved for one corporation. It is open to all companies with prospective relocation plans of similar size. In addition to Disney, many other corporations have successfully applied and qualified for the CITC program,”
Even if they were ‘Righties’ why would you want more people...The population density of Florida is approaching that of China?
That’s not a win for Florida. That’s the left pushing more dems into the state hoping to turn it blue
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