I was curious about those apartment complexes. I figured Disney would be quietly making efforts to acquire the remaining pieces of property surrounding the parking lots, but wasn't aware of the additional acquisitions. Any progress with the surrounding commercial properties (e.g., Best Western, Zagby's Travelodge)?
Also, I thought I read some rumors about the Anaheim Garden Walk having difficulty staying afloat and possibly being put on the market. That would be a lot of land for another resort, parking structure and/or Downtown Disney 2. Are you aware of anything going on with that property?
Without going too far OT here on the Orlando side of the house (but it all ties back to the American parks in general and Lucasland in WDW)....
I have a neighbor who is a big-wig "suit" in TDA and has worked at Disneyland for 25+ years. She has shared some stuff (often just funny stories, and sometimes juicy gossip) with me over the years over evening cocktails, and without spilling the beans too much she has mentioned that Disney owns several large chunks of land around the Resort area that are not reflected on public maps. Several of these pieces are currently being used as small office parks or light industrial uses on the periphery of the "Anaheim Resort District", and several are some of the 1970's apartment complexes to the east and south of the existing Toy Story Parking Lot. There is particular sensitivity over the apartments and their lower-income residents due to the housing issues that came out of the huge SunCal drama that Disney and the Anaheim City Council went through in 2007-08. You can Google up SunCal and Save Our Anaheim Resort for more info.
As for GardenWalk, there's new news there. In early October it was bought by a wealthy New York group who plans to
"revamp operations and marketing, and complete an aggressive re-positioning plan" according to their press release. To make such a sale more lucrative, about a year ago Anaheim rezoned the mall to allow for a lot more dining and entertainment options to go in after the huge amount of retail space the mall has failed to find tenants. In theory, this would allow GardenWalk to turn itself more into a Downtown Disney type property instead of the more traditional mall it was originally set up to be. Lots of work there to be done at GardenWalk, so it will be interesting to see what the new owners can get done in 2013.
The newspaper article on the GardenWalk deal...
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/mall-373627-property-group.html
The Zaby family sold their property to a San Diego based hotel developer, who was approved to build a mid-sized luxury boutique hotel there on that corner. There are "Coming Soon" signs up on the Zaby land now, but I have heard through an investment friend (who in '07 tried to get me to invest in Brian Wilson's GardenWalk
Beach Boys theme restaurant that never got off the ground) that the San Diego guys are having a hard time getting financing approved.
Hotel occupancy is up strongly in Anaheim due to Cars Land, so the numbers must look stronger now than they did in 2009-11 when GardenWalk went through a series of bank owners and property developers who couldn't pull anything together. That would help the Zaby deal too, I imagine. Still no word on the two large plots of empty land meant for hotels on each end of the mall.
Which bring us to Lucasland and Marvelland and Anaheim's third theme park, on the 100+ acres Disney has set aside for the third park in Anaheim just south of GardenWalk...
My own personal amateur thoughts are that both the large scale use of Lucas and Marvel franchises in Disney theme parks are destined for Anaheim before Orlando. I say that because I think Anaheim will get a third Disney park long before Orlando gets its fifth Disney park. There is so much work to do at the existing four Orlando parks, but all work that only requires single-attraction additions or superficial land updates a la' New Fantasyland, that I don't think they'll try to shoehorn in Lucas into existing expansion pads at the WDW parks.
The exception is if DHS gets a major DCA-style redo of 1+ Billion dollars, and they are willing to bulldoze both stunt shows and the surrounding land to create a multi-attraction Star Wars land in that space. But that's the type of development that would best be served by an entirely new park for logistical and marketing purposes, and a new park would come to Anaheim before Orlando. And of course there's the pesky issue of the
No Marvel East Of The Mississippi legal clause which favors Anaheim for at least a decade or two.
I found it hilarious to read the media reports on the Disney/Lucas deal in the mainstream media this past week. They acted like it was a new alliance that would have far-reaching implications for Disney's theme parks and consumer products divisions.
Um, hello, mainstream media idiots?! Disney and Star Wars have been married since January, 1987 when Star Tours first opened at Disneyland. This isn't a new concept, it's been around for over 25 years.
George Lucas at Star Tours Opening Ceremony, Disneyland USA - January 9th 1987
), everyone wears silver and rainbows and has life-sized dancing teddy bears.