Storyliving by Disney - a Disney-branded, master-planned home community

Californian Elitist

Well-Known Member
Nope. At least not in any normal gated and HOA community I've ever heard of. I know a couple from Seattle who retired to La Quinta nearby Rancho Mirage in one of these master planned places. You can't rent your place out. If it's summer, it just sits there.

That said, I am continually surprised at how many retirees live in the Coachella Valley during summer. Especially the northerners, they just love it. It honesly helps that as humans get older our blood thins and we get cold easy.
That’s what I figured. Should that be the case here, I assume they will rely on outside visitors for revenue.

My grandma was always cold. “I’m frozen,” she used to say.
 

mlayton144

Well-Known Member
The more I think about it , isn’t this a seriously low risk/investment by Disney? Hire someone designers with the builder taking all the risk- kind of like a Donald trump investment - don’t really deliver anything but a name to slap on the property. Disney does pay its taxes though lol
 

lazyboy97o

Well-Known Member
The more I think about it , isn’t this a seriously low risk/investment by Disney? Hire someone designers with the builder taking all the risk- kind of like a Donald trump investment - don’t really deliver anything but a name to slap on the property. Disney does pay its taxes though lol
It all depends on how the deals are set up. Disney ended up developing Golden Oak because Four Seasons backed out when the economy tanked. It could just be a licensing scheme or they could be more involved.
 

mlayton144

Well-Known Member
It all depends on how the deals are set up. Disney ended up developing Golden Oak because Four Seasons backed out when the economy tanked. It could just be a licensing scheme or they could be more involved.

does Disney own the Palm Springs real estate though? Should be interesting, can’t imagine Death Valley living in the summer but folks seem to like the phoenix area for retirement - plus only 2 hours from DLR
 

Lilofan

Well-Known Member
I wonder how much the community association and other taxes will be for privilege of living there. Will there be a lightening lane at the supermarket?
In a number of communities including mine, one can create an account on line with the local grocery store, order everything they need with the click of the mouse then in a few hours have all the items they ordered delivered to their front door.
 

No Name

Well-Known Member
In a number of communities including mine, one can create an account on line with the local grocery store, order everything they need with the click of the mouse then in a few hours have all the items they ordered delivered to their front door.
Sure but I don’t want to pay a delivery fee.
 

TP2000

Well-Known Member
This is just.... Who? Why? What, now?

I can't wrap my mind around this one. At. All.

I thought the same thing. Then I read the USA Today article and realized it's all a bit overblown, as per usual for USA Today. (How are they still even in business?)

What this boils down to is Disney is licensing out it's name and some of it's business practices to a development home builder who is opening yet another new master-planned community south of Palm Springs. There's dozens of those things out there. This will have a light veneer of "Disney!" attached to it via "storytelling" (AKA landscaping and mid 2020's color schemes explained by lotso words written by a 27 year old intern who didn't research very well). Topped off by a bizarre claim that the community management will be trained by Disney in "guest service". And as we know, "guest service" from Disney in the 2020's is about the same as a circa 1998 Kmart on a good day.

This is similar to Disney licensing Tokyo Disneyland to the Oriental Land Company in 1983, except it's a retirement community and there's no rides and no shows and the CM's will have very low standards just like Disneyland does now.
 
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Disney Irish

Premium Member
I thought the same thing. Then I read the USA Today article and realized it's all a bit overblown, as per usual for USA Today. (How are they still even in business?)

What this boils down to is Disney is licensing out it's name and some of it's business practices to a development home builder who is opening yet another new master-planned community south of Palm Springs. There's dozens of those things out there. This will have a light veneer of "Disney!" attached to it via "storytelling" (AKA landscaping and mid 2020's color schemes explained by lotso words written by a 27 year old intern who didn't research very well). Topped off by a bizarre claim that the community management will be trained by Disney in "guest service". And as we know, "guest service" from Disney in the 2020's is about the same as a circa 1998 Kmart on a good day.

This is similar to Disney licensing Tokyo Disneyland to the Oriental Land Company in 1983, except it's a retirement community and there's no rides and no shows and the CM's will have very low standards just like Disneyland does now.
This appears to be more than just a simple licensing deal.

According to Reuters -

"Disney park designers will develop the creative concepts for the communities, drawing inspiration from each region, and employees will run a community association that offers entertainment, activities, beach access and Disney programming."

The owner of Disneyland and Disney World formed a new business unit, Storyliving by Disney, to create the master-planned communities in partnership with landowners, developers and home builders. The Cotino project is with DMB Development."

"Developers and home builders will handle construction and set pricing. Disney will handle marketing and also operate the voluntary club."


So this is an actual business unit inside Disney itself, not just some licensing deal. Now it remains to be seen how successful this venture will be, but it seems like they are putting actual resources into this. We'll see in future earnings reports if they break out the line items for this project under the budget or not. But I'd say just at first glace this isn't just some licensing deal where Disney spends very little and reaps all the rewards.
 

mlayton144

Well-Known Member
Does anyone think there will be Disneyland magical express to Disneyland ? There will need to be a lot of extra space for scooters on that bus
 

No Name

Well-Known Member
Gas and travel, time, effort, etc trumps the delivery fee.
Yeah I can see that depending on how far you live from the supermarket. I like walking there for exercise, and mine’s an Amazon Fresh store where it just senses what items you’ve taken and charges your credit card when you walk out of the store, no need for any cash register stuff.
 

TP2000

Well-Known Member
This appears to be more than just a simple licensing deal.

According to Reuters -

"Disney park designers will develop the creative concepts for the communities, drawing inspiration from each region, and employees will run a community association that offers entertainment, activities, beach access and Disney programming."

The owner of Disneyland and Disney World formed a new business unit, Storyliving by Disney, to create the master-planned communities in partnership with landowners, developers and home builders. The Cotino project is with DMB Development."

"Developers and home builders will handle construction and set pricing. Disney will handle marketing and also operate the voluntary club."


Yeah, I read that. It still sounds almost exactly like the same type of licensing deal they came up with 45 years ago to get Tokyo Disneyland open. But with less oversight initially from Disney, and no castles or riverboats to build.

Disney provides Imagineering input on design and "storytelling" :rolleyes:, and then laughably trains the employees running guard gates and the community center in "guest service". The actual developers will build the homes, handle construction, and set pricing.

It's almost exactly like Tokyo Disneyland. Except it's a big housing community for upper-middle class snowbirds and retirees. But with far lower employee service standards than Tokyo has maintained since 1983.

So this is an actual business unit inside Disney itself, not just some licensing deal.

They did that with Tokyo too, and it still exists. It's called Disneyland International. They've had many business units over the decades that have come and gone; Club Disney, DisneyQuest, ESPNZone, etc.
 
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