Disney Scraps Planned Florida Corporate Campus Amid DeSantis Feud
© AP Photo / John Raoux
Subscribe
Walt Disney Co. is in the process of laying off more than 7,000 workers after losing billions of dollars in streaming revenue, on which it has heavily gambled in recent years. Disney employs some 77,000 people at the Walt Disney World Resort outside Orlando.
Disney revealed on Thursday it was pulling the plug on a planned $900 million corporate campus near Orlando, Florida, along with a popular attraction at Walt Disney World. The decisions come a day after Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed a slew of anti-LGBTQ legislation that critics have described as a “slate of hate” and over which Disney and the governor’s administration have long feuded.
According to US media reports, Disney employees received an email on Thursday announcing they would no longer be relocating to the 60-acre Lake Nona campus that Walt Disney had planned on constructing.
“While some were excited about the new campus, I know that this decision and the circumstances surrounding it have been difficult for others,” Josh D’Amaro, head of Disney’s Parks, Experiences and Products division, said in the email. “Given the considerable changes that have occurred since the announcement of this project, including new leadership and changing business conditions, we have decided not to move forward.”
The project would have required some 2,000 workers to relocate from southern California, where Disney’s other major American park, Walt Disney Land, is located. However, hundreds of Disney employees have already relocated to the Orlando area; they will now be given the option to move back to California, according to reports citing people familiar with the matter.
In a separate letter to Orlando-area community leaders, Walt Disney President Jeff Vahle pledged to “continue investing in our core business.”
“Our plans currently call for us to invest $17 billion in Walt Disney World over the next 10 years and create 13,000 new jobs to continue doing our part as a leading employer in the hospitality and themed entertainment industry,” Vahle said. “We hope those plans will become a future reality.”
Separately, it is also closing the Galactic Starcruiser experience at Walt Disney World, an attraction in which fans are immersed in the “Star Wars” universe for days. The hotel, which costs nearly $5,000 per couple for a two-night stay, will close on September 28. It opened barely a year ago, in March 2022.
Disney has given no further clarification about its decisions. However, DeSantis’ office issued a statement gloating about the decision by the company, with which it has been engaged in a feud for more than a year after being criticized for its anti-LGBTQ policies.
“Disney announced the possibility of a Lake Nona campus nearly two years ago. Nothing ever came of the project, and the state was unsure whether it would come to fruition,” Jeremy Redfern, the governor’s press secretary, said in a statement. “Given the company’s financial straits, falling market cap and declining stock price, it is unsurprising that they would restructure their business operations and cancel unsuccessful ventures.”
'Caught in the Mouse Trap'
A day prior, on the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, and Transphobia, DeSantis pointedly signed into law several bills severely limiting the rights of LGBTQ people in the Sunshine State. The four bills effectively ban all transgender children and most transgender adults from receiving gender-affirming care; ban trans individuals from using bathrooms that align with their gender identity; and further restrict tolerance for LGBTQ people and topics in public schools, including expanding the so-called “Don’t Say Gay” law that Disney protested last year.
Critics have dubbed the new laws a “slate of hate” and called for boycotts of the Sunshine State.
In response to Disney’s criticism of his policies last year, DeSantis pushed forward a doomed effort to strip the company of control over the special district that oversees Walt Disney World, replacing its board with members hand-picked by him, and pushing legislation to void Disney’s development agreements giving the company autonomy over its properties and the surrounding area.
In response, Disney sued DeSantis’ administration, claiming its actions violated the First Amendment.
DeSantis, who is favored in many polls of Republicans about the 2024 presidential election, is widely expected to formally announce his campaign next week.
In response to the news about Disney on Wednesday, Trump’s campaign issued a statement gloating about DeSantis’ “weakness,” saying “the culture of losing continues.”
“RON DESANCTIMONIOUS GETS CAUGHT IN THE MOUSE TRAP,” Trump War Room tweeted, using Trump’s demeaning nickname for his likely election adversary.
