how much did the land prices go up when FL discovered it was walt disney buying the land??
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walt disney question
- Thread starter MiCkEyROCKSxalp
- Start date
PotterGirlSC
New Member
Actually, when Walt Disney decided to buy land to build Walt Disney World on, the company bought it under a different name to prevent the price from being raised.
Bluewaves
Well-Known Member
According to married to the mouse the property disney is on the majority of it was bought for about $200 an acre in the 60's , after the deal was announced land prices shot up to the $1000 range , that is all in 1960's dollars, no inflation calculations for me today, lol.
Oh and yes they bought it under cover and the whole bit a few people that founded the CIA were working for Disney back in those days.
Oh and yes they bought it under cover and the whole bit a few people that founded the CIA were working for Disney back in those days.
Walt's Florida Land Deal....
In the years following the NY World's Fair in '64 & '65 Walt moved forward with the creation of a Disney World on the East coast. Requirements were weather, affordability of land, and convenience of location. Orlando filled the bill. (If you want to see the plane Walt, Roy, Card Walker and other execs of the time flew around in while checking locales go on the Backlot Tour in MGM/Disney Studios)
From !965 until the "formal" announcement due to leaks, land was CHEAP, some deals were 4 less than $100 an acre. After the announcement the average went up to $!0,00 an acre for those who held out.
In the years following the NY World's Fair in '64 & '65 Walt moved forward with the creation of a Disney World on the East coast. Requirements were weather, affordability of land, and convenience of location. Orlando filled the bill. (If you want to see the plane Walt, Roy, Card Walker and other execs of the time flew around in while checking locales go on the Backlot Tour in MGM/Disney Studios)
From !965 until the "formal" announcement due to leaks, land was CHEAP, some deals were 4 less than $100 an acre. After the announcement the average went up to $!0,00 an acre for those who held out.
unkadug
Follower of "Saget"The Cult
PotterGirlSC said:
This topic has always fascinated me.
Actually, Disney bought the land under several different names (dummy corporations.)
Some of which were:
Latin-American Development and Management Corporation
Reedy Creek Ranch Corporation
M.T. Lott Co. (empty lot :lol: )
Tomahawk Properties
Ayefour Corporation (I-4 :lol: )
Bay Lake Properties
Compass East Corporation
unkadug said:
If I remember correctly, these names can be found on the second story windows of the businesses on Main Street.....either the companies or the men instrumental in purchasing the property.....
GrandFloridian1
New Member
MiCkEyROCKSxalp said:
You should check out some of the WDW programs on the Travel Channel. I think they are called Undiscovered Walt Disney Word or Inside Walt Disney World or something like that. Anyway, they talk briefly about how Walt wanted to build a new park where the bright city lights and neon signs surrounding his park wouldn't interfere with his vision as it did with DL. It also discusses how he bought up the land for WDW and the construction of the Magic Kingdom and other parks. It's very interesting.
I highly doubt something like that could have been pulled off in todays environment....
bgraham34 said:
And we all know that whatever the government does, there is a 99.9% chance they will screw it up and it will cost more than it should have....
Enderikari
Well-Known Member
Hi there, perhaps I could be of some assistance.
When Walt Disney knew he was going to start purchasing land in central Florida, he saw that the land was cheap. Real cheap... to the tune of $180 (on average) worth of cheap. But Walt was a smart man, and he knew that if he approached the mulititude of real estate investors who owned that land and said, "Hi there, I'm Walt and I want to buy your land," he wouldn't be able to get that land for $180 an acre. SO he created a bunch of subsidiaries and dummy corportations like the ones mentioned above to start buying that land. And buy land they did, after purchasing a little over 20,000 acres of land, the people of central Florida began to wonder who was buying all of that land. So, the Orlando Star, which later became the Orlando Sentinel, sent a reporter by the name of Emily Bevar Kelly to the major businessmen of the time; like GM, Ford, Howard Hughes, and finally Walt Disney. As she approached Walt Disney she asked him straight out if he were the one buying land in central Florida. Walt was a pretty honest man, and did not like to lie, so instead he said to her, "Emily, Why would I want to buy land in central Florida." He then began to list off the reasons why one would not want to buy land in the area, like average rainfall, depth of swamp...etc. In short, he knew far too much about the central Florida area. Emily went back to Orlando and filed her report, saying she thought it was Disney. In less than a month, Walt was forced to reveal his plans to the world, but he still had land left to purchase. It was only a few hundred acres, but he wasn't able to buy that land for $180 an acre anymore, oh no... The price had shot up to an average of $80,000 an acre. The last 350 acres cost as much as the first 25,000. But in the end, Walt was able to purchase 27,445 acres of land, an area twice the size of the island of Manhatten, an area about the same size as San Fransisco, without the suburbs. All for under $15 million dollars.
When Walt Disney knew he was going to start purchasing land in central Florida, he saw that the land was cheap. Real cheap... to the tune of $180 (on average) worth of cheap. But Walt was a smart man, and he knew that if he approached the mulititude of real estate investors who owned that land and said, "Hi there, I'm Walt and I want to buy your land," he wouldn't be able to get that land for $180 an acre. SO he created a bunch of subsidiaries and dummy corportations like the ones mentioned above to start buying that land. And buy land they did, after purchasing a little over 20,000 acres of land, the people of central Florida began to wonder who was buying all of that land. So, the Orlando Star, which later became the Orlando Sentinel, sent a reporter by the name of Emily Bevar Kelly to the major businessmen of the time; like GM, Ford, Howard Hughes, and finally Walt Disney. As she approached Walt Disney she asked him straight out if he were the one buying land in central Florida. Walt was a pretty honest man, and did not like to lie, so instead he said to her, "Emily, Why would I want to buy land in central Florida." He then began to list off the reasons why one would not want to buy land in the area, like average rainfall, depth of swamp...etc. In short, he knew far too much about the central Florida area. Emily went back to Orlando and filed her report, saying she thought it was Disney. In less than a month, Walt was forced to reveal his plans to the world, but he still had land left to purchase. It was only a few hundred acres, but he wasn't able to buy that land for $180 an acre anymore, oh no... The price had shot up to an average of $80,000 an acre. The last 350 acres cost as much as the first 25,000. But in the end, Walt was able to purchase 27,445 acres of land, an area twice the size of the island of Manhatten, an area about the same size as San Fransisco, without the suburbs. All for under $15 million dollars.