After rumors began swirling on some Disney fan blogs, it has now been confirmed by the Los Angeles Times that Disneyland’s newest hotel plans are now defunct.
The reason, of course, is the disagreement over an Anaheim city tax credit. Disney was supposed to build their new luxury resort 1,000 feet from where they began construction in the Downtown Disney District.
The LA Times has been chronicling the feud between the City of Anaheim and the Walt Disney Company in a series of articles, with the latest spelling out just exactly what went wrong.
The conditions changed in August when the city notified Disney representatives that it was killing an agreement made last year to rebate 70% of the hotel’s transient occupancy tax back to Disney over 20 years — worth about $267 million. The transient occupancy tax is 15% of the overnight rate.
Anaheim officials say Disney was to blame for ending the agreement by changing the location of the proposed hotel after the deal was struck and the economic impact studies were completed.
Disney objected, saying the new location — in the resort shopping district — was only about 1,000 feet from the old one. Disney representatives say they have not decided what to do with the site of the proposed hotel, where several restaurants and shops were closed to make way for the project.
Business leaders and others in Anaheim lamented Disney’s change of plans, saying it will mean the city will lose out on adding hundreds of construction and hospitality jobs and much-needed tax revenues.
There is no word on what — if anything — will replace the cancelled hotel project, or if Disney will attempt to build a fourth hotel at a future date.
[Source: LA Times]
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