Land Sale November 18

J

JT3000

Well-Known Member
Disneyhead'71 said:
5 years sounds about right.
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I think that's too optimistic of a timeline. Even if they already have everything planned out and ready to go, I suspect they have too many things planned for the current parks, and even the WnW property, between now and then for a third park to open. Too much capital expenditure at once. Whatever they have planned will probably be open 10 years from now though.

And I would rather they make the current property as good as it can be before expanding anyway. Don't repeat WDW's mistake.
 
Disneyhead'71

Disneyhead'71

Well-Known Member
JT3000 said:
I think that's too optimistic of a timeline. Even if they already have everything planned out and ready to go, I suspect they have too many things planned for the current parks, and even the WnW property, between now and then for a third park to open. Too much capital expenditure at once. Whatever they have planned will probably be open 10 years from now though.

And I would rather they make the current property as good as it can be before expanding anyway. Don't repeat WDW's mistake.
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By the time Secret Life of Pets opens in 2018, the 2 existing parks will be in pretty good shape. They will have Fallon, F&F, and Nintendo open in the Studios. And Hulk, Kong, and Secret Life of Pets in IOA. There will still be some things to take care of after that, but nothing urgent.

If the 3rd gate is to the level that it is rumored to be, UOR will be legit competition to the Mouse. 3 parks, 10 hotels, 3 entertainment/dining districts, 1 (maybe 2) water park(s).
 
s8film40

s8film40

Well-Known Member
Corey P said:
Whole point of adding hotels, attractions and a water park. Universal will be a 3-4 possible 5 day vacation destination by 2017. Add a couple of side trips from Universal as your base and you can have a nice 7 day vacation. On the other hand the less adventurous like to stay put in one environment that has everything to keep them busy for X amount of vacation days. Universal has upped it's game but I don't know if it is worthy of the 14 day foreign vacation crowd. In fact I know it's not at this point or any time in the near future.

Let Disney do their thing let Universal do their thing. Just because WDW is leaning to the 7-14 day vacation crowd doesn't mean Universal has to do it. Plenty of money to made by the second biggest resort in Orlando. Like GM use to say "GM makes the most autos in the world.", they went bankrupt.
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I don't know that WDW is leaning to the 7-14 day crowd as much anymore. The parks as far as attraction count have been stagnant if not actually reversing for about the past 10 years. A lot of those extra things that make a long vacation appealing have been leaving the resort as well like Discovery Island, WDW Speedway, Disney Quest, Pleasure Island, Disney Institute, etc. These are the type of things in the "what else is there to do" sections of the videos that play in the hotel rooms. While it's good that they seem to be focusing on the parks a little more right now, I personally think they've lost focus on viewing the "vacation" as a whole the way they used to. I would say at this point Universal is quickly approaching WDW in terms of the amount of time needed. They just need to get through the psychological barrier of there's only two parks. It's similar to Disneyland, people think they can go there for just 2 days and see everything and that really just ins't possible. Likewise most people don't realize they could likely condense their WDW trip to 3 or 4 days and do everything.

Assuming Universal adds a park and some other recreation activities I could easily see Universal get to a 6-7 day resort While WDW stays at a 4-5 day resort.
 
s8film40

s8film40

Well-Known Member
JT3000 said:
I think that's too optimistic of a timeline. Even if they already have everything planned out and ready to go, I suspect they have too many things planned for the current parks, and even the WnW property, between now and then for a third park to open. Too much capital expenditure at once. Whatever they have planned will probably be open 10 years from now though.

And I would rather they make the current property as good as it can be before expanding anyway. Don't repeat WDW's mistake.
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I'm pretty sure they just spent a ton of money already. While it's good to spread large capital expenditures out I think they are going to want to ensure their investors that they will get a return on this investment as soon as possible. I don't think they are going to just intentionally wait to start this project.
 
J

JT3000

Well-Known Member
s8film40 said:
I'm pretty sure they just spent a ton of money already. While it's good to spread large capital expenditures out I think they are going to want to ensure their investors that they will get a return on this investment as soon as possible. I don't think they are going to just intentionally wait to start this project.
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Universal has already owned this land previously, and they just sat on it, after spending quite a bit of money cleaning it up (it was a superfund site.) The fact that they've now bought it back isn't any sort of indication that you're going to see shovels hit dirt ASAP. I know people are excited, but expectations need tempering.

Disneyhead'71 said:
By the time Secret Life of Pets opens in 2018, the 2 existing parks will be in pretty good shape. They will have Fallon, F&F, and Nintendo open in the Studios. And Hulk, Kong, and Secret Life of Pets in IOA. There will still be some things to take care of after that, but nothing urgent.
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This would be optimal, but given the rate it's taking them to merely give us details, I don't expect to see Nintendo open by 2018. Assuming it's designed to be on the same scale as Wizarding World, they would need to start construction in earnest within the next year.
 
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s8film40

s8film40

Well-Known Member
JT3000 said:
Universal has already owned this land previously, and they just sat on it, after spending quite a bit of money cleaning it up (it was a superfund site.) The fact that they've now bought it back isn't any sort of indication that you're going to see shovels hit dirt ASAP. I know people are excited, but expectations need tempering.
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That was a different company at a very different time for Universal. Comcast obviously has a very aggressive approach at this time. When they originally purchased that land the first time they were in the midst of opening their second park and City Walk and all the other expansion that came with that. I think it's fair to say they had hopes for expansion but were purchasing the land with the slightly more distant future in mind. Now they are in a much different place they have pretty much built out their existing property, meanwhile they are on the record as saying they plan to heavily invest in the theme parks as well as build 10,000 - 15,000 hotel rooms. I agree we need to temper our expectations to a certain degree, but it's clear they truly need extra land at this point to get where they have said they want to get to. Anyone who thinks they're just going to sit on this land really isn't paying attention to the current state of Universal. That being said I do expect them to take a thoughtful approach, I don't think we're going to see permits filed next week or anything. I think it's safe to say they have and/or are actively working on plans for this site. They didn't just buy it in case they need it later, they need it yesterday.
 
JoeCamel

JoeCamel

Well-Known Member
JT3000 said:
Universal has already owned this land previously, and they just sat on it, after spending quite a bit of money cleaning it up (it was a superfund site.) The fact that they've now bought it back isn't any sort of indication that you're going to see shovels hit dirt ASAP. I know people are excited, but expectations need tempering.



.
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I have to agree that it may be quite a while before you see anything built. It was a Superfund site but was not cleaned up. The contamination is still there but in containment it was not removed from the site. To do that would spread the contaminates further afield so they prefer to leave it in place and build lined spaces to put it. Universal may have to shift some of that around depending on where it was placed and what they want to build so not all the land would be available for development. Maybe they can put golf courses on top of that area but maybe not. We shall see.

Meantime they have a few other things to attend to in other parts of the world. Word is Nintendo will not be coming to Orlando first.
 
redshoesrock

redshoesrock

Active Member
Can anyone create a Google map of Universal Orlando and its relation to its recently acquired land? I know in my head both are relatively close to one another, but having a visual would, I feel, help me and others.
 
BubbaQuest

BubbaQuest

Well-Known Member
This is my understanding. The blue area is the existing park, including the Wet n Wild area at Universal Blvd and I Drive. The red area is the new land. Note to self: turn off traffic before screen cap next time :). The area is not exact, I think there are actually three separate plots there. 350 acres and a 20 acre and 15 acre plot closer to Uni Blvd.

Hope this helps. P.S. 482 is Sand Lake Road.

new_land.png
 
Jahona

Jahona

Well-Known Member
Bringing this back up as it appears that Universal/Comcast has indeed purchased the land for sale.
The Orlando Business Journal is reporting that Comcast paid $130 million for 475 acres of land off of Universal Boulevard.

The article also includes quotes from Comcast on the purpose of the land purchase. And in great corporate fashion they state that something will be done but aren't sure what.

Link to Article: http://www.bizjournals.com/orlando/...corp-confirms-130m-land-purchase.html?ana=twt
 
Voxel

Voxel

President of Progress City
celluloid said:
If they could clean up what was once where IOA is, than they can do this.
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If this is the area I think it is, I believe it's already been cleaned up. I thought the government got involved and demanded Lockheed Martin to clean it up after dumping there for years.
 

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