Why Disney Is Scrapping Its ‘Star Wars’ Hotel and $900 Million Florida Campus | WSJ

Walt Disney Co. is reversing course on a nearly $900 million corporate campus and shutting down a costly new hotel amid growing tensions with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. The campus would have relocated more than 2,000 employees around 20 miles outside of the Walt Disney World Resort to a town in Orlando called Lake Nona.

WSJ’s Jacob Passy explains the reasons behind Disney’s decisions and the economic benefits lost as a result.

0:00 Disney is reversing course on two of its major investments
0:26 What was the plan?
1:43 Disney’s reasons for scrapping the plan
3:05 Economic impacts

#Disney #Florida #WSJ

[bakerstreet]

Disney seriously overestimated how many millionaires there were who would rent the Star Wars suites.

[johnklin]

As soon as I heard how expensive the Star Wars hotel was is the day I knew it would fail.

[onehorseopensleigh]

Maybe the WSJ should also report on the thousands of Imagineers and other employees who were told if they didn’t agree to move to Lake Nona without the guarantee of the same job and position, they’d be considered to have voluntarily quit the company. Are they being rehired?

[rogergriffin]

It's shutting down the hotel because its been losing money hand over fist. Nobody has been going there. $6000 per night. The simple fact is nobody watches their losing movies the last 10 years. The latest Indiana Jones 5 movie is going to lose a couple hundred million.

[BTC]

WSJ made no mention Disney wasn't able to keep those 100 room full.

[ophs]

Disney's dive is not due to something DeSantis has done. Spending hundreds of millions of dollars on movies that flop, 5 billion dollars to George Lucas for the Star Wars franchise. Paying way too much for 20th Century Fox. Disney+ has lost millions of describers. Pricing theme parks and hotels beyond the price that average families can afford. They've closed all 1000 Disney stores. And jumping into a controversial issue that pits parents against activist. Their "family friendly" image has been shattered. None of this was caused by DeSantis.... They were all self inflicted by Bob Iger and ilk.

[mikestanzel]

The WSJ never explained why Disney is scrapping its’ plans, the comments were more informative.

[aljacobs]

Disney is he bleeding money, I don’t know how you leave that part out . The workers did not want to relocate. This had more to do with operating costs and cash flows then it did with Ron Desantis.

[Tallacus]

Interesting how they all blame Desantis when the failing of the Galactic Star Cruiser is entirely their fault. No one can afford six grand to stay in a little box

[ivannightly]

The ‘Star Wars’ Hotel was $2400 a night only the truly rich were ever going to shell out that. It didnt lend its self to repeats, so people were unlikely to go again any time soon. But most importantly there is a similar hotel in a french park for $240 a night even with the flight still cheaper. And the jobs lost with the campus, were not likely to come. Disney is heading in to financial issues and people and projects need to be cut. It wouldn't of added new jobs just tax revenue on people coming from California and I'm sure they prefer being there anyway why tear up people from their homes.I am happy for them.

[lauriewood-peters]

I wish people would take the time to research the true history and legal issues of Disney and Reedy Creek. Also, Gov. Desantis had nothing to do with the failure of that Star Wars hotel. People were predicting it wouldn't last before it even opened because of the cost.

[manuelcorrea]

Disney trying to blame its failures on others.

[chadleach]

Because it needs to cut costs and where better to start than a project that's been on hold for over a year now and a dying hotel?

[eddieg]

The PRICES for the Star Wars hotel were INSANE!!! Hard PASS!!!

[pinkyndebrain]

As another commenter said, it was an immersive geek fest. A YouTuber who spent his $ to get in there described weird stuff like being woken up to report for duty (I guess), immersive activities being poorly done, and two tiers of customers - whoever paid more to begin with had access to obviously better food! What a way to feel like a Poor after spending thousands to get in there.

[ryanlarson]

As a multi-millionaire with three kids, I can tell you they are out of their minds charging per guest instead of per room. You want to stay for 4 nights and visit the park? Try paying $20k + just for your room and some cool-looking costumes.

[rovermiles]

Disneys not pulling out because of DeSantis (although his actions of late leave little remorse). Disney is cutting costs because before Igor turned the reigns over to Chapek; he led Disney to take on a bunch of debt to buy the Fox Intellectual Properties (overvalued) which has turned out to be terrible for Disney and has caused the company to hemorrhage money; and the board wanted this guy back....why?

[pravinshingadia]

This is Disney trying to put a spin on things and blaming Desantis. Truth is the project was never going to get off the ground as employees didn’t want to move.

[thejacobite]

Why did Wall Street Journal intentionally avoid the details that Disney's campus had a capital investment of $864 million, not $900 million & the deal actually involved a subsidy value of $570 million. So Disney backed out of building a campus for only $294 million in which almost 2/3rds the investment is covered by state of Florida tax payers.

[Gretsch]

It appears like Disney is trying to shield its miscalculations behind Ron DeSantis.