Boardwalk Times: Stories from the Seashore —Disney's Delayed Plans for Lake Nona
What happens now with Lake Nona?
Welcome back to Boardwalk Times: Stories from the Seashore! In this month’s newsletter, we will be discussing Disney’s now delayed Lake Nona plans, Marvel Studios news from San Diego Comic-Con, and Disney CEO Bob Chapek pulling off a big extension that locks him in until at least July 2025. All that plus of course LINKS OF THE MONTH.
Disney’s Lake Nona Plans Are Paused
Disney is delaying its plans to move its cast members and Imagineers from California to Lake Nona, Florida. The relocation was set to occur in 2023 and was postponed to 2026. 2,0000 Disney Parks, Experiences, and Products cast members —including Imagineers—were set to relocate. According to Disney, the move got delayed to 2026 to “provide flexibility.” Disney’s Lake Nona campus isn’t scheduled to be completed until 2026, Disney cited construction delays as another reason they delayed the move.
The whole Lake Nona delay is wild from the standpoint that when the move was first announced in July 2021, Disney gave 18 months to relocate to Florida with the likely assumption that they would have temporary offices ready to go and campus construction happening.
It seems like Disney jumped the gun when they announced Lake Nona, and they had to of known that building a state-of-the-art campus was going to take longer than 18 months, and putting pressure on your employees to make a lifechanging move before you have all your ducks in a row isn’t good business either. Add in factors like labor shortage and inflation, and building a new campus probably isn’t at the top of Disney’s priorities. So, they kicked the can down the road. Disney probably doesn’t want to pay $860 million to $1 billion to build a new campus to their standards — at least not right now.
The delay doesn’t just mess up the talent that left Disney on a deadline. It also screws up talent who left for Florida and could’ve had a couple more years in California. The delay also messes up realtors in Central Florida who were going to benefit from some of the deep-pocketed Disney execs making the move and shopping for luxury homes.
"I was like, this is gonna cause some stir in our clientele, cause so many of the people we work with were with Disney," said Ken Pozek of Real Broker told Fox 35. The delay has caused a ripple effect on the real estate market. “We had nine people cancel," which Pozek explained to Fox 35 "about $5 million dollars in sales – well over six figures in commissions."
Disney also has gone on the record to say that the dispute with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis had nothing to do with the delay. I’m sure the Disney-DeSantis dispute didn’t help the cause though. We then also have to factor in that the Reedy Creek situation is still uncertain. The district is supposed to dissolve on June 2023. Yet no plan has been given on how Florida will take care of the 25,000-acre Reedy Creek District which includes fire protection, emergency medical services, trash collection, water, sewer, electricity, and road maintenance. There have been no updates on the elimination of Reedy Creek either. What will happen to all those services when Reedy Creek dissolves? Will it fall on local residents? Government officials claim that won’t be the case but it’s hard to imagine how county taxpayers wouldn’t be picking up the bill for Disney. Maybe this whole thing blows over and Reedy Creek stays alive because it may be more complicated to undo it. Still, this had to be a minor factor in the delay right?
Another factor in this delay is that Disney may be in a better spot come 2026. Although many Imagineers and cast members left Disney due to the Lake Nona move, it seems like there were still a ton willing to make the leap from California to Florida. Disney has bought them some time though, and it will be fascinating to see who makes the leap to Florida full-time in 2026.
The delay is already messing with a lot of life and school plans for Disney employees and reasonably, people are upset. In an excellent piece from TheWrap, one employee described the move as “pure chaos.” Many employees for Disney are now stuck in a state of limbo. Disney is also not allowing employees to reconsider after they’ve moved to Florida even with the delay in place.
The 2026 move could also lead to more departures, layoffs, and overall confusion.
Disney was intrigued by the $570 million tax break to move to Lake Nona (plus being close to your top resort isn’t a bad call). Could the massive tax break be in jeopardy? Hence Disney’s delay on the move? Maybe the move and the tax break will just work better for Disney come 2026?
You have to assume the new relocation time period will be having cast members decide if they want to move by 2025 ahead of 2026? Also, could Disney potentially bring the move ahead of schedule again? Instead of 2026, say like the campus could get completed in late 2024? The three-year delay is still wild to me. I’d also like to see Disney reveal actual concept art for this campus, and a legitimate plan for this to happen.
As long as Disney CEO Bob Chapek and Disney Parks Chairman Josh D’Amaro are at Disney this move will happen. If new leadership comes in at both positions then I would say all bets are off. Although I don’t see a leadership change in those positions for a long time.
I’ve said many times before that Disney Parks, Experiences, and Products still need a nice campus in Florida even if it’s just for the Florida Imagineers and cast members. Even if Disney doesn’t force its California-based employees/Imagineers to move I still think the Florida team deserves a creative campus to work at.
I just want to see the campus happen. But there are others who believe that it won’t happen. “There are some people already in Florida who think they’ll never see the campus,” one current DPEP employee told TheWrap.
Lake Nona isn’t the only Disney Florida project to have some turbulence. Brightline is no longer going to have a rail station at Disney Springs. The hits just keep on coming for Disney in Florida but one has to hope Disney’s luck will change for the better soon.
Marvel Studios at San Diego Comic-Con
Here’s our coverage….
Marvel Animation went crazy with updates on X-Men ‘97, Spider-Man: Freshman Year, What If…? season two, and Marvel Zombies. What If…? is getting a third season, X-Men ‘97 is getting a second season, and the followup to Freshman Year will be Spider-Man: Sophomore Year.
Kevin Feige then dropped a ton of news… Just an embarrassment of riches. Let’s take a look at a few…
Charlie Cox and Vincent D’Onforio are back in Daredevil: Born Again.
Marvel Studios revealed the entire Phase 5 slate which includes Secret Invasion, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.3, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Captain America: New World Order, Agatha: Coven of Chaos, Thunderbolts, and more.
Marvel Studios then did the unthinkable and revealed three titles from PHASE 6! Fantastic Four will kick off the final phase of The Multiverse Saga. The saga then will conclude with Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and Avengers: Secret Wars.
Post-Comic-Con, The Hollywood Reporter would break the news that Shang-Chi director Destin Daniel Cretton would helm Avengers: The Kang Dynasty.
Three More Years for Bob Chapek
Disney CEO Bob Chapek received a contract extension. Chapek will now be in control at the Mouse House until July 2025, unless something crazy happens. Despite his various battles, Chapek now has the opportunity to lead Disney through its historic 100th anniversary. Chapek will now attempt to grow Disney+ to Disney’s own lofty projections of 230 million to 260 million subscribers. Chapek will also have to handle various tasks like Disney’s theme parks, its studios, ESPN, and even Disney’s desire for The Metaverse.
Podcast Plugs 🎙
It was a heavy Marvel month for our podcast network.
— We reacted to Thor: Love and Thunder. (Apple) (Spotify)
— Check out the Multiverse of Marvel crew discussing Ms. Marvel’s Finale. (Apple) (Spotify)
— Richard Nebens of The Direct and I fantasy booked the Fantastic Four into the MCU. (Apple) (Spotify)
LINKS OF THE MONTH
— The Former Electrical Engineer Leading Disney’s Streaming Strategy (The New York Times)
— Spider-Man was originally going to be in the Disney Wish’s Avengers: Quantum Encounter show but was replaced by Ms. Marvel. (The Direct)
— Patent from Universal Could Create Harry Potter Wand Battles with Real Energy Beams. (Orlando ParkStop)
— What it’s like to build a theme park from 8 industry professionals. (Morning Brew)
— Having reservations about theme park reservations by former Imagineer Eddie Sotto. (Blooloop)
— An excerpt from the new book 'The Disney Revolt: The Great Labor War of Animation's Golden Age.' (The Hollywood Reporter)
— THE MEOW WOLF UNIVERSE: One-on-one with CEO Jose Tolosa. (Albuquerque Business First)
— What will the Thor: Love and Thunder director Taika Waititi have in store for the galaxy far far away? We speculate! (Boardwalk Times)
— Other Classic Disney Attractions That Could Receive Modern Reimaginings. (Boardwalk Times)
Thank you all for reading and supporting Boardwalk Times: Stories from the Seashore.
We will see you next month! Please follow us on social media @BoardwalkTimes and visit boardwalktimes.net for more commentary, news, and opinions on the worlds of Disney and themed entertainment.
Knowing how the Reedy Creek Building department operates, and how the Orange County (or City of Orlando depending on the actual location) building Departments operate, may also have an impact on how quickly the Lake Nona Campus. The Creek is familiar with the standards that the property owner uses for their facilities and how the construction documents are developed and presented for permit review. The county/city Building departments get drawings from hundreds of different owners and designers, so it takes longer for them to review the permit requests. And then there is also the volume of permits each office will see during a given period. I would think that the Creek probably sees less than 10% of what the City sees and maybe 5% of what the County sees in a given period of time. (BTW, as a contractor, I've applied for permits at all three building departments. The creek is the easiest to navigate through, the City has a great system and you can get connected with the plan reviewers to answer questions. The county has so much volume, they really are " put your documents in that box and we'll call you when we get it checked out" kind of place. It's been maybe 10 years, but I don't think that things have changed much.)