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Disney buys Carousel Inn for 32 million
- Thread starter Suspirian
- Start date
Animaniac93-98
Well-Known Member
This sentence is the one I found most interesting:
"Because the current management will continue to operate the Carousel Inn, Disney does not consider the hotel part of its hotel portfolio. Disney officials are more like landlords."
Maybe Disney is waiting to buy up more properties on Harbour Blvd before they change anything? Or maybe it's overall more beneficial for them to keep everything as is and just collect rent and a % of sales.
"Because the current management will continue to operate the Carousel Inn, Disney does not consider the hotel part of its hotel portfolio. Disney officials are more like landlords."
Maybe Disney is waiting to buy up more properties on Harbour Blvd before they change anything? Or maybe it's overall more beneficial for them to keep everything as is and just collect rent and a % of sales.
NiarrNDisney
Well-Known Member
I wonder if the Mouse will give it a Disney makeover instead of just knocking it down and building a new hotel.
George Lucas on a Bench
Well-Known Member
It's really interesting move considering it's such a small property.
GiveMeTheMusic
Well-Known Member
It's a valuable link to what almost certainly will become a new parking structure in the future. If only they could buy up the rest of the block - it's all ugly.
dweezil78
Well-Known Member
Kind of far fetched idea... but what if they buy all that land up and use it for a Tomorrowland/Star Wars Land expansion that is somehow connected to the rest of the park w/ traffic running underneath it?
Either that or, as you say, they want to build a new parking structure there so they can free up the Toy Story lot for Gate #3.
westie
Well-Known Member
dweezil78
Well-Known Member
Can't imagine they'd spend the money on this if they didn't already have a solid plan and conversations in place on how to acquire more of the surrounding properties. My guess is that they are already well underway with those talks.
Just thinking blue sky here -- but what if they turn the carousel theater into a space port of sorts that takes you across the street to Star Wars Land? Would be an interesting way to have Tomorrowland and Star Wars Land co-exist.
GiveMeTheMusic
Well-Known Member
Star Wars Land is almost certainly a done deal for Toontown/backstage areas - that is not just some rumor flying around; it's the plan that's currently slated to be announced at D23 this August for a 2019 opening. Expanding the park across Harbor Blvd in particular is incredibly far-fetched, especially since Pumbaa is ear-marked for a new parking structure.
NiarrNDisney
Well-Known Member
I see a lot of parking for just a few hotels and a McDonalds...
Wasn't there talk of a water park being built soon?
This might have just been opportunistic -- family was willing to sell so Disney picked it up with no particular plans. If there are any specific plans, I guess it has to do with a pathway to the forthcoming Pumbaa parking structure. The property is very narrow.
dweezil78
Well-Known Member
lazyboy97o
Well-Known Member
I am more surprised that Disney does not own the land under more of the smaller properties around the Disneyland Resort. It'd be an easy way to just make some additional revenue while also getting to play the good neighbor.
ght
Well-Known Member
I would prefer they didn't. I like being able to stay close to the parks without having to pay $300 a night.
sfmichaelo
New Member
This sounds to me like Disney will demolish the Carousel Inn and make it into a straight path for a Monorail or new type of Public Transit System for a new parking structure that would be located directly behind the Inn and will also connect to Disney 3rd Gate.
sfmichaelo
New Member
I can easily see a straight path for the Monorail to connect into a new parking structure or even maybe another land like a Star Wars Land only accessible by Monorail or Star Tours Shuttle kind of like the Florida Harry Potter Land.
GrumpyFan
Well-Known Member
Not a bad idea, but there's a lot more land in the area they will need to acquire before this can happen.
Stevek
Well-Known Member
This was my thought. Not a new land but access to add'l parking at some point. Build a new structure on the old Grand site, figure out a way to buy the land north of that and you have a nice route to the Harbor entrance. Of course, it could just be one of those opportunistic things. Buy the hotel if it becomes available and figure out what to do with it later. They could also choose to redevelop into a new hotel...the long rumored boutique hotel. Small but higher priced. Will be interesting to see what happens.
TP2000
Well-Known Member
Disney owns all the land on the east side of this narrow hotel. The hotel would be demolished and a skybridge would be built from a massive new parking structure over Harbor Blvd. to the Resort property.
This isn't Disney's first choice, but they are using it as leverage with the city in case the Anaheim Streetcar project falls through, and since the family that owns the Park Vue Inn (where it says "Anaheim Desert Inn and Suites" on the map above) raised holy heck with the media when they found out Anaheim was going to take their property via Eminent Domain to build the skybridge over Harbor.
This is Disney buying a key piece of property that links the Resort with the sprawling property they already own on the back side of this hotel. It's a very smart move as it eliminates the need for federal mass transit funds or messy Eminent Domain land grabs of family businesses to get a big new parking structure connected to the Resort.
And since the Feds have been very cold to giving Dept. of Transportation funds to the Anaheim Streetcar project, it now makes it even smarter. Disney knows what they are doing here. It's very strategic.
Oh, and the new parking/transit center connected via skybridge then frees up all that space in the East Esplanade currently used for shuttle buses and the abandoned tram route. A swanky hotel with high room rates would fit nicely there, which suddenly makes it palatable to the sharp pencil boys in Burbank. Zing!
It's amazing what you can learn when you go to the right cocktail parties in Villa Park.
This isn't Disney's first choice, but they are using it as leverage with the city in case the Anaheim Streetcar project falls through, and since the family that owns the Park Vue Inn (where it says "Anaheim Desert Inn and Suites" on the map above) raised holy heck with the media when they found out Anaheim was going to take their property via Eminent Domain to build the skybridge over Harbor.
This is Disney buying a key piece of property that links the Resort with the sprawling property they already own on the back side of this hotel. It's a very smart move as it eliminates the need for federal mass transit funds or messy Eminent Domain land grabs of family businesses to get a big new parking structure connected to the Resort.
And since the Feds have been very cold to giving Dept. of Transportation funds to the Anaheim Streetcar project, it now makes it even smarter. Disney knows what they are doing here. It's very strategic.
Oh, and the new parking/transit center connected via skybridge then frees up all that space in the East Esplanade currently used for shuttle buses and the abandoned tram route. A swanky hotel with high room rates would fit nicely there, which suddenly makes it palatable to the sharp pencil boys in Burbank. Zing!
It's amazing what you can learn when you go to the right cocktail parties in Villa Park.
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