It's starting to look like Star Wars land may have been cut up a bit at DL. $1 billion, as large as it may sound, isn't enough.
To do something size of taking up TT, the backstage areas, and the ranch, it would need to be north of $500 million by itself. My understanding is that's about the same amount also going toward FL's project (SW only, not Pixar and the other improvements).
It sounds like the bulk of the $1 billion is going to be infrastructure improvements, including the parking garage. Based on my understanding, that leaves room for one or two attractions. Since a Marvel attraction is likely to be one of them, that just doesn't bode well for a whole new state of the art land.
The 10,000 space Mickey & Friends Parking Structure cost $90 Million to build 15 years ago. The proposed new structure is apparently planned to have half that; 5,000 spaces. Assuming costs have doubled (they haven't, but for arguments sake), the new structure would likely cost around $100 Million.
Point Of Reference: John Wayne Airport just built a new 2,500 space parking structure. It's state of the art, with real time monitoring of every open space, and required some tricky engineering and logistics to be wrapped around an existing airport terminal. It cost $48 Million.
I bet Disney's 5,000 space structure built on an open field, even with some design extras, doesn't top $100 Million to build.
Not sure what other infrastructure they need to build, aside from minor changes to existing roads leading to the new parking structure. The massive freeway offramps and access are already there as well, built by Caltrans in 2000 and very lightly used today compared to the original design load they were built for. And as seen here, Disney Way is already built out at six lanes wide to accommodate its original purpose of leading to a big parking garage.
I would imagine at most that $200 Million would be spent on the new 5,000 space garage and adjustments to existing streets around the Resort. That leaves $800 Million for Star Wars Land in Disneyland and Marvel Land in DCA.
Also buried in the story is the news that Disney will commit to spending
an additional $500 Million if Anaheim agrees to ban the gate tax for an additional 15 years. That takes investment to 1.5 Billion by 2024, and likely includes the new deluxe hotel rumored for the East Shuttle Zone.
But like
@GiveMeTheMusic says, this is a rather brazen money game being played by TDA. They already know they are going to spend this money and build these rides and a new parking structure. They are tying it to the convenient City Council vote next month on the gate tax.
The inclusion of Official Bozo Jim Hill in this article as some sort of insightful expert kind of damages the OC Register's credibility, however.
