Conference koolit::disney

    {The Wall Street Journal, 1-Aug-1990, p.B1}

    By Richard Turner, Staff Reporter of the WSJ

    LONG BEACH, Calif. -- Walt Disney Co. unveiled preliminary plans for
    its third major U.S. theme pard development, "Port Disney," a proposed
    $2.3 billion waterfront resort in this city of 400,000, 20 miles south
    of downtown Los Angeles.

    The development, which Disney says it will build only if it can cut the
    right deal with government officials, would include five hotels with
    nearly 4,000 rooms, a retail/entertainment center and a theme park to
    be called "DisneySea," centered on a cluster of futuristic bubbles
    called "Oceana."

    The plans include a whole new set of creations from Disney's
    "Imagineering" unit, with names such as Mysterious island, Pirate
    Island, Nemo's lava Cruiser, and Heroes' Harbor.  The complex would
    include the world's largest aquarium, a Caribbean lagoon, a Grecian
    village and an Asian floating market.  Guests would be lowered in a
    steel cage into a tank full of sharks.

    The plan, laid out in a 70-page booklet and submitted to meet two
    deadlines on operations on city land, also includes a waterfront
    promenade, a "port" with ferry service and harbor excursions, a marina
    and public parkland, and marine research facilities.

    But negotiations with bevies of city, state, and federal officials are
    yet to come, and Disney is coyly saying it might not go to Long Beach
    at all but instead build a second gated attraction 15 miles away in
    Anaheim, adjacent to Disneyland.

    As if to remind Long Beach officials that "Port Disney" isn't a foregone
    conclusion, a report surfaced over the weekend that an Anaheim plan
    being readied for next year includes among its concepts a theme park
    similar to Epcot Center, part of Walt Disney World near Orlando, Fla.

    "We have not yet begun discussion on how to structure the financial
    arrangements," said Alan G. Epstein, Disney Development Co. vice
    president.  Disney Chairman Michael Eisner said in January that the
    company would build one new attraction, not both.  "It depends which
    community wants us more," he said.

    Disney will begin "community briefings" on the plan this month, but so
    far no organized opposition seems to have emerged.  The complex could 
    attract 10 million visitors in its first year, Mr. Epstein said.

    Once a seedy navy town with peep shows and tattoo parlors, Long beach
    is newly fat with Japanese development money, drawn by a seaside
    location fit snugly between the Los Angeles basin and Orange County. 
    The port of Long Beach is part of the nation's largest port complex.

    Nevertheless, the city still hopes Disney will help bail it out of a
    host of urban problems: a dearth of popular retail complexes (the city
    has no major shopping mall) and the resulting weak sales tax revenue,
    sprawling low income neighborhoods full of drugs and crime, the
    challenge of integrating a burgeoning community of new immigrants,
    including the largest Cambodian population outside of Cambodia, and
    declining income from city-owned oil wells.

    Traffic may be one of the major incentives for Disney to come to Long
    Beach rather than to Anaheim: Disneyland is located near heavily
    trafficked thoroughfares, whereas the Long Beach Freeway is one of the
    least-used freeways in the Los Angeles area.  Even so, the plan
    requires that two lanes be added to it.  The plan also calls for the
    sewer system to be expanded, natural gas pipelines upgraded,and other
    infrastructure improvements.

    Long beach port officials said the permitting and review process is
    expected to take two years to complete.  Then, up to 250 acres of
    landfill would have to be constructed, which would take another three
    years, Mr. Epstein said.  In all, it would be "at least 10 years"
    before the complex would be open to the public.

    By owning hotels and operating a retail complex in Long Beach, Disney
    would avoid the situation in Anaheim that still galls it: Because it
    didn't won the land surrounding Disneyland, independent motels and
    souvenir shops sprouted like weeds around the park.  On its 28,000
    acres in Florida, Disney urges visitors to buy a four-day pass and
    never leave the grounds.

    Anaheim, however, is "optimistic" about winning a new Disney park, said
    City Manager James Ruth.  "We've had a 35-year working relationship
    with Disney which has been very productive for both of us," he said. 
    "We've demonstrated an ability to manage tourism."

    Disney gained a foothold in Long Beach when it bought the 72% of 
    Wrather Corp. it didn't already won in tow transactions for about $200
    million in 1987.  They included the lease on the Queen Mary and Spruce
    Goose, Howard Hughes's massive flying boat, both of which are tourist
    attractions in Long Beach.

    In Disney's proposed park, the fate of the Queen Mary, currently
    operated as a tour and hotel, is up in the air.  The Spruce Goose isn't
    included in Disney's plans.

    Reprinted without permission from The Boston Sunday Globe,
    August 26, 1990, p. 2
    
    Animated opposition greets a Disney plan for big California Park
    
    By Bill Girdner (special to the Globe)
    
    LONG BEACH, Calif. - The Walt Disney Company wants to turn this old
    beach city into a magic kingdom, and create a magnificent resort and
    theme park from a fading, industrial waterfront at the port of Long
    Beach.
    
    The corporate parent of Mickey Mouse and Daffy Duck is proposing to
    "theme" the fifth largest city in California by constructing Port
    Disney.  The project would dwarf Disneyland, located a few miles away,
    with a price tag of $2 billion and 350 acres of rides, hotels, stores
    and a cruise ship port, all centered on "the mysteries of the sea."
    
    But the idea of another Disney theme park - an idea that has been
    welcomed from Tokyo to Paris to Orlando - is not generating as much
    enthusiasm here.  People are familiar with Disney operations in nearby
    Anaheim and are protective of their coast line and neighborhoods.
    
    "These gentlemen of Disneyland are going to restrict our lives," one
    resident, Stanley Kaufman, said at a neighborhood meeting last week. 
    "We are going to be part of Disneyland."
    
    "A rosy future," he concluded to strong applause from 200 residents,
    "is a rosy future for Disney, not for us."
    
    Advance men and women from Disney are trying to start a dialogue with
    about 80 neighborhood organizations in Long Beach, a
    turn-of-the-century resort that has lapsed into a sun-washed, but
    tax-poor, city of ethnic communities, beach devotees and commuters.
    
    Earlier attempts to develop the downtown have resulted in increased
    traffic and a few skyscrapers separated by empty lots, giving central
    Long Beach what one commentator called "the bombed-out look of a sunny
    Detroit."
    
    One result has been a well-organized coalition of neighborhood groups
    that are skeptical of the Disney project, fearing that they would lose
    their seashore, their streets and their identity.  The majority of
    letters to the editor of the Long Beach Press Telegram have run against
    the project.
    
    Disney is trying to allay that opposition while negotiating with a city
    manager and other city representatives who favor a project that would
    draw tourists back to Long Beach.
    
    The proposed Port Disney is breathtaking in scope.  It would include a
    theme park four times the size of Disneyland, called Disney Sea, with
    the largest aquarium in the world, and theme rides such as Captain
    Nemo's Lava Cruiser, which would hurtle through caverns on a
    "Mysterious Island" that would depict the lost city of Atlantis.
    
    Around that, Disney would add a cruise ship port, marina, five hotels
    with 3,900 rooms, 250 acres of additional land by filling part of the
    narbor, retail and entertainment enclaves, walkways, lagoons and
    perhaps a monorail.  It would draw 13 million visitors a year, Disney
    officials estimate.
    
    "We want to create a unique, wonderful, distinctive resort in the
    finest Disney tradition," David Malmuth, a Disney spokesman, told the
    neighborhood group last week.  "We want lots of activities that are fun
    and engaging.  It will be a great, great fun place."
    
    Tokyo and Paris have welcomed such advances, and European cities
    competed to become the site of a Disney theme park, before Disney
    officials decided to build it outside Paris.  There was some muted
    criticism from local farmers, but most officials were eager to reap the
    tourist windfall that will inevitably result when the park is completed
    in three years.
    
    Florida welcomed Disney World, and in the process granted Disney's
    Reedy Creek Development District an exemption from local regulations. 
    But that happy welcome has changed, and Disney is now occasionally
    described as "The Mouse that Ate Orlando."
    
    In Orange County, Fla., where Disney World is located, Commissioner
    Bill Donegan has been fighting Disney over such concerns as low-income
    housing and sewage bonds.
    
    "Don't be taken in by the pixie dust," Donegan warned.  "For them, it's
    business.  They want to protect the way they do business.  And they've
    get [sic] a competitive edge."
    
    He said Disney does provide jobs, but they are nearly all at low pay. 
    With exemption from local regulations, they do not need to bargain with
    local government and have simply ignored community projects, such as
    low-income housing, said Donegan.
    
    Disney also received $59 million in tax-free municipal bonds from
    Florida and then used the money to pay for a sewer system for Disney
    World and its surrounding development project.  "They have very long
    arms," said Donegan.  "And they will try to discredit you if they can."
    
    The split between the two images of Disney - between the hard-edged
    corporate manipulator and Tinker Bell - can be clearly seen in Long
    Beach, from the top of its political leadership down to the
    neighborhood meeting.
    
    Susan Shick, director of community development for Long Beach, supports
    Port Disney.  She is a member of the city's negotiating team, yet she
    sees little reason to examine Disney's impact on Orange County, Fla. 
    "I think Port Disney would add to the city's identity," she said.
    
    Long Beach Mayor Ernie Kell opposes Disney's plans.  City officials
    "are getting the Disney hype and they're sold on it before they know
    what they're buying," he said.  "It's a huge project and huge, huge
    developer."

re .2:
    
>    The corporate parent of Mickey Mouse and Daffy Duck is proposing to
    
    _DAFFY_ Duck???  Oy, vay!

    re: .3
    
    I just checked the article again.  It does indeed say Daffy Duck -
    pretty bad.

    My question is will Disney resurrect the Cyclone Racer rollercoaster
    that used to run at the Nu Pike amusement park? God, what a ride! The
    rollercoaster from hell!
    
    Dave
    

    
    	Folks who were looking forward to visiting Disney's proposed
    second Californian theme park / resort should consider rescheduling
    that trip to Long Beach. It appears that the legislative approval
    necessary to build the " Port Disney " project may be a long time
    coming out of Sacramento.
    	A bill designed to allow the Walt Disney Company to proceed with
    tenative plans to develop the Long Beach port area for a $ 3 billion
    theme park hit a snag when a state senator shelved the bill until next
    year. According to the Associated Press, Sen. Dan McCorquodale ( D - 
    San Jose ), Chairman of the Senate Natural Resources and Wildlife
    Committee, June 14th postponed action on the Port Disney bill until
    January of next year after negotiations with company executives
    stalled. The measure already had missed two Senate procedural deadlines
    and needed a rule waiver to proceed this year.
    
    	------------------------------------------------------------
    
    	THE BOTTOM LINE : Given that Michael Eisner had said earlier this
    year that -- sometime toward the fall -- he'd announced which of the 
    two proposed second Disney theme park/ resorts ( The " Port Disney "
    project in Long Beach or the " Westcot Center " / Expanded Disneyland
    Resort in Anaheim ) the company would be going forward with, this
    senatorial sleight-of-hand appears to give the inside edge to " West-
    cot Center. " Watch for an official announcement -- one way or the
    other -- come September.

    Thanks for the posting/update in .6!

    I, for one, am crossing my fingers and voting for Port Disney because:

    	1) I don't want them to hack on Disneyland

    	2) Sea World needs to see how the boys from Burbank do sea parks
    	   in much the same way Universal has been confronted via Disney/MGM

    	3) it sounds so much more exciting than Sea World, Marineland,
    	   et al. that *I* would pay extra to see it

    	4) The Duck needs a place to shine since Disneyland is the de facto
    	   home of The Mouse


    Sorry for wasting disk space on this drivel...


    David.

    
    	The Walt Disney Company continues to have a tough year in regard
    to its long range plans. The variance that Disney needs to put together
    its " Port Disney " project ( The state of California does not look
    kindly on those who wish to create buildable land by dumping soil off
    its coast line ) remains stalled in committe, unlikely to see any
    action in Sacramento 'til 1992. So -- with the hope that'll speed up
    the confirmation process -- Disney's now talking about down-sizing its
    plans for its Long Beach project. No one's officially spoken on record
    regarding the revised plans for " Port Disney, " but rumors out of 
    Glendale say that the proposed " Disney Seas " theme park as well as the
    seaside resort hotel complex may be cut back as much as 25 % ... With
    the hope that a smaller project will be that much easier for the
    Californian legislature to okay ...

    
    	Well, this is what happens when you tick off the Walt Disney
    Company.
    	After several years of trying to get the community of Long Beach
    behind its plans for a Disney theme park / resort in and around the
    Queen Mary and the Spruce Goose ( And encountering endless hassles
    from the local government and the feds ), Eisner and crew have thrown
    in the towel. Late Friday afternoon, the Walt Disney Company announced
    that -- later this year -- it will abandon its Long Beach holdings.
    	Under the current plan, the Walt Disney Company will operate the
    Queen Mary / Spruce Goose until September 30th. At that point, the
    lease on the property will revert to the city of Long Beach -- which 
    will then have the responsibility of managing and maintaining the 
    complex.
    	Why did Disney give up on the Boat and the Bird ? The official
    party line is that -- seeing as they had been running the complex at
    a loss for three or four years now -- Eisner felt that there was no
    point in throwing more Disney Dollars down the hole.
    	Unoffically, Eisner and crew were still smarting from the
    less-than-enthusiastic reaction the Long Beach community gave to
    the " Port Disney " resort plan. And -- if truth be told -- if the
    " Disney Seas " theme park had been built, the Queen Mary would have
    only played a marginal role in the package, more an ornament than an
    attraction. The Spruce Goose ... Well, Disney had always planned to
    get rid of the plane. They were going to offer it to any prestigious
    air museum on the West Coast who was willing to underwrite the cost
    of transporting the Goose.
    	But -- once the " Disney Seas " project sank -- it was only a 
    matter of time before Eisner and crew were to bail out. From an 
    operations point of view, the Queen Mary is the Disney Company's
    ultimate nightmare : A 60 year old ship with narrow, steep stair-
    ways for people to fall down. Not squeaky clean or cute with no easy
    way to fold Disneyesque entertainment into the mix. Almost nothing
    up to " Disney " standard ( Which is why -- in its three years of 
    officially operating the Long Beach complex -- the Disney name NEVER
    was attached to the place ... )
    	The real shame of it is that -- judging by last year's " Haunted
    Passages " tour -- Disney could have really done something special with
    the Queen Mary if it had really tried. This walking tour of some of the
    spookier spots on the boat had a lot of humor and style, with snazzy
    special effects along the way. Very reminiscent of the more adult fun 
    one can have when visiting Disney's studio theme park in Orlando, this
    tour was supposedly the prototype for some of the other stuff the
    Imagineers wanted to try in the future ... But that won't happen now.
    	Soooo -- if you're headed out to LA this summer -- you might want
    to take a trip down to Long Beach and pay your final respects to the
    Boat and the Bird. Community officials in Long Beach have stated that 
    they'll try to run the complex on their own 'til they find a firm 
    interesting in running the place. But -- given all the troubles Disney
    had operating the Queen Mary and Spruce Goose -- it could be a while
    between management teams.
    	Remember -- Disney pulls the plug on September 30th. Plan to visit
    before then.

    Spin from the local newcasts out here is that Eisner (replete with
    Mickey necktie), made the announcement in order to also subtly warn
    Anaheim about their expected "cooperation" in the plans for WESTCOT
    (which will require major road changes).
    
    tom