Disney Sells Land at Disney World to Four Seasons

[Melanie]

Disney sells land at Disney World to Four Seasons


LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The Walt Disney Co. said on Monday it has sold 298 acres of land to Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts for a hotel and golf course to anchor a previously announced luxury development in Florida.

Disney did not disclose the terms of the deal but said the facility would enable the company to tap into the luxury travel market. The deal was the first for the two companies.

The plans call for a 445-room Four Seasons hotel, an 18-club championship golf course, and Residence Club time shares, as well as custom single and multi-family vacation homes.

The expansion will be located on the northeast border of Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida.

[Crow]

outsourcing the land that Walt bought.....permanently.
Well some more money to add to the coffers.
does that mean no more cutbacks?

[luvdiznee]

Hoping this doesn't take away from the Magic.

[lockedoutlogic]

This is a major change in policy.....wow.....

Disney always has maintained land....and ultimate control in WDW....

i'm not shocked that they would do this for four seasons....as you can't really find anyone better to give this olive branch too....i'm shocked that they would do it at all.

perhaps it was a deal breaker? perhaps it is to completely separate itself from potential overhead and more importantly.....labor requirements.

I'm now more conviced than ever that in the somewhat near future all disney "deluxe" resort locations will be DVC/Inn type combo units.....

everyone get your cash ready for the Ohana Villas.....

[BMan62]

Walt has to be rolling in his grave. All he did to acquire the land for the Florida Project and now this.

[SFTrny]

This might not be such a bad thing. I mean, I don't think that Walt ever thought of the international appeal of Disney, so the parks have already moved beyond his expectations. In this case...we have a MAJOR luxury retailer moving onto the Disney property. Yes...they sold the property, because it would be hard to make a business justification to build a hotel on property you didn't own. But then there are all of the other things that direct revenue into Disney. Transportation. Access to EMH. Other Disney amenities that the "good neighbor" hotels enjoy. Plus, the high end hotel will naturally draw more revenue into the parks and restaurants...which means the prices will stay down for the rest of us. I am skeptically optimitstic about this.

[lockedoutlogic]

Walt has to be rolling in his grave. All he did to acquire the land for the Florida Project and now this.

I have to disagree.....

walt was like a big kid in many ways....but he was also a cutthroat business man in many others....

everyone kinda idolizes him as a visionary....and he was to a certain extent....

but let's face it....he died at a fairly young age (for someone who had cash and could get the best medical care at the time)...and we don't really have anyway of knowing what he would have turned out to be....

my guess is had he lived to 80 he would have become a stale....boring....american businessman.....

like everyother businessman

he just died before he ran out of ideas. let's not continue to canonize him as more than a man.

a very interesting, above par man....but still a man

morale of the story: don't smoke

[wdwnomad]

I am sure there is alot more to this transaction than any of us know. The company that owns the Four Seasons is owned by Bill Gates and Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal. This prince is guy who bailed out EuroDisney I think on a couple of occasions.

[lockedoutlogic]

I am sure there is alot more to this transaction than any of us know. The company that owns the Four Seasons is owned by Bill Gates and Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal. This prince is guy who bailed out EuroDisney I think on a couple of occasions.

you are correct......they actually took a public company private.....not something you see everyday....

unless you have 11 figures in net worth.

Al-Weed was one of the major players in Euro's inception as well. I believe he was also a backer of Eisner's insistence on France...as opposed to Spain or Italy were every analyst told them to go.

[Mousemates]

everyone kinda idolizes him as a visionary....and he was to a certain extent....

but let's face it....he died at a fairly young age (for someone who had cash and could get the best medical care at the time)...and we don't really have anyway of knowing what he would have turned out to be....

my guess is had he lived to 80 he would have become a stale....boring....american businessman.....

like everyother businessman

he just died before he ran out of ideas. let's not continue to canonize him as more than a man.

boo hiss boo

[lockedoutlogic]

boo hiss boo

sorry....didn't mean to set fire to the temple....


and also: if you're gonna quote somebody - quote the whole thing. creative editing is really unacceptable.

[Scar]

Walt has to be rolling in his grave. All he did to acquire the land for the Florida Project and now this.

I have to also disagree.

Although I’m not 100% certain, and this idea could backfire, I actually think on the surface this is a good thing. Many people will undoubtedly want to use the argument of “Walt wanted all of this land because he didn’t want what happened at DL to happen here.” That was only half of the reason. He wanted all this land because “he” wanted to develop it “his” way, meaning his vision of EPCOT. At the time, Orlando was a tiny city and his vision was to grow EPCOT into a large self sustaining city.

Well, as we know, that didn’t happen. Instead Disney (the Company) decided to build a large theme park resort, and kept expanding it. Orlando grew to be a big city, and with it came jobs that pay a lot better than that of a Disney Cast Member. So now Disney has this huge resort it must maintain and staff (and we all know they have been having a hard time doing this lately,) and still keep it profitable. The original vision of Walt's is long dead, so why not sell off a little land in hopes that doing so will help WDW, and the Disney Company as a whole.

[Dixie Springs]

Check the Orlando Sentinel blog for more detail and a rendering of the hotel. Looks nice, but still a generic I-4 feel to it.

[Tekneek]

Business trumps "magic." Disney has decided to bank on their brand and exclusive intellectual property (a lot of which was built from the public domain, oddly enough), rather than control of the experience and stellar customer service. No big surprise there, I suppose, since it is much easier to "monetize" the new approach.

[ayeckley]

my guess is had he lived to 80 he would have become a stale....boring....american businessman.....

like everyother businessman

Yeah. Richard Brason is a real snoozer. Same with Howard Hughes - BORING. Steve Fosset flying around the world in a balloon, then dissappearing under mysterious circumstances - YAWN. C'mon, there's no way to predict what Walt would have been like in his older years.

he just died before he ran out of ideas.

And how can anyone know this either? You've compiled some index of his creativity vs. time, and it was dropping off exponentially at the end?

and also: if you're gonna quote somebody - quote the whole thing. creative editing is really unacceptable.

Is that an "official" rule? I checked the TOS and FAQs and couldn't find anything. Near as I can tell they didn't modify your original intent, just narrowed the scope to specifically what they were disagreeing with.

[Vito]

It's 298 acres on the corner of the property... not 5,000 acres in the middle. They're not selling the land off to Motel 6.

Not to mention that I'm betting part of the sales agreement requires Four Seasons to maintain the property, and if they don't the land would go back to Disney or some similar agreement to maintain quality standards.

Why let 300 acres in the NE corner sit unused when they can tap into an international luxury market of guests and clients who will throw money at the parks and restaurants?

Look at it this way - Disney could sit by and let Four Seasons build somewhere else in central/south Florida, or they can sell some land to Four Seasons for BIG money, as well as reap the benefits of having the luxury resort directly on property to directly tap into those heavy spending consumers.

[TheRustyScupper]

Walt has to be rolling in his grave.

You mean "ole pinwheel Walt"?

[LauraleeH]

I am excited! I will be much closer to Disney than when I stay at the Omni, and the Omni really messed up a lot last year. I like Disney's Wilderness Lodge, but for the amount of money I'm paying, I'd like something CLEAN!

[Mousemates]

sorry....didn't mean to set fire to the temple....


and also: if you're gonna quote somebody - quote the whole thing. creative editing is really unacceptable.

Your apology is accepted....but not really necessary since i don't go to WDW for religious reasons but recreational ones. ( I’m actually a good old ford ranger drivin’ Southern boy who does his “churching” on Sundays with the Baptists )

By the way, I wasn't overtly trying to be creative by the way I quoted ...just trying to concisely assemble the particular lines that were a bit unseemly (IMO)….if it appeared to you that I did not capture the gist of your post and was trying to mischaracterize your position then I do humbly beg your pardon. I simply figured that given the fact that my reply followed yours so closely that a complete listing of your post would be a bit redundant. I suppose I could have (and perhaps should have) done multi-quotes and responded point per point, but that seemed to border on overkill and would have required more time than my level of disagreement with it warranted.

A mild booing was plenty. Happy trails

[lockedoutlogic]

Your apology is accepted....but not really necessary since i don't go to WDW for religious reasons but recreational ones. ( I’m actually a good old ford ranger drivin’ Southern boy who does his “churching” on Sundays with the Baptists )

By the way, I wasn't overtly trying to be creative by the way I quoted ...just trying to concisely assemble the particular lines that were a bit unseemly (IMO)….if it appeared to you that I did not capture the gist of your post and was trying to mischaracterize your position then I do humbly beg your pardon. I simply figured that given the fact that my reply followed yours so closely that a complete listing of your post would be a bit redundant. I suppose I could have (and perhaps should have) done multi-quotes and responded point per point, but that seemed to border on overkill and would have required more time than my level of disagreement with it warranted.

A mild booing was plenty. Happy trails

we're not on the same frequency.....but we're in the general bandwith

bravo! nicely played.

(it seems a nice gentleman/woman from ohio has taken me too literally )