Friday, April 3, 2009
A Bridge Never Built...
I kind of have mixed feelings about this...
I've been hearing some rumors for a few weeks now about the property at Katella and Harbor having been bought and being developed for a new hotel. Now the news comes that it's true. So gone forever is the chance for Disney to bridge the gap between the original resorts and the area that is planned for a Third Gate someday in the distant future. I'm sure the idea of waiting close to a decade for that land to become another theme park wasn't the most comforting to Disney Geeks/Fans, but the dream of having it connect to the resort was a very nice thought. That is, presuming Disney believed some of the hotels, shops and 7-Eleven would eventually sell their land so that Disney could build out DCA and the Resort to the curb. Not a given of course, but now, were that to happen there is no chance of seeing the new park across the way... It will forever be broken and split into. Like two separate siblings.
Unless some sort of people-mover, or better yet a Monorail is built for that gate then it's not only a dream not realized, but a very uncomfortable transportation problem for future development...
Read the story here at the OC Register.
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13 comments:
I was hoping that this was the April Fool's story. Dammit, Disney should have bought this last parcel and made it their own. Now we'll have someone else's hotel, at 7 stories tall, backing onto Land O' Cars. (I've been trying out all kinds of names for CarsLand, hate all of them)
Of course the new hotel will have to deal with those very present power lines on their back porch. 4-star, with buzzing cables. CarzLand can sort of disguise them as background to the rocky wall they're building.
This should have been a Desert themed hotel run by Disney with a special entrance into CarsWorld.
Another opportunity missed.
Did you try "Radiator Springs"?
Sheesh, history repeating.
Read the article. This delusional Anaheim council hasn't learned from the mistakes made in the DCA concept 10 years ago.
DCA was introduced as hip, edgy, urban, upscale, attracting high end spenders, turning dirt into gold.
All of these are quoted in this article describing the new hotel project.
And they are using taxpayer's money, from the bed tax revenues.
I hope they don't get bank funding, and this project fails. Disney needs to buy this land to complete the corner, and as you say, link to a future 3rd property.
However with this news, this doesnt mean a Third Gate Wont happen right? all this means is a Bride isnt going to happen?
Thanks
So is this to be situated in between two plots of land owned by Disney? Is that Disneyland Resort and something else? That doesn't sound great for the WDC and fans\visitors.
The proposed 9 storey 4 star hotel is diagonally across the street from the Disneyland property. The South East corner of the Katella & Harbor intersection. It's currently occupied by the closed Zaby's Motor Lodge. The other parcel(s) in question are on the North West corner of the intersection, which backs onto the driveway and future Cars o rama Land. A monorail connection through those sites, and through the intersection would have linked DLR to the possible 3rd gate.
It sounds like this hotel could cause serious sight problems in the backdrop of Carsland. I hope that, somehow, this won't be a problem.
And can't Disney, in theory, run a monorail or PeopleMover down Harbor from Disneyland into the new property?
but there have been rumors floating around that if gardenwalk doesn't make it, it might be bought by disney and made into another version of downtown disney... so if that was the case (and considering disney might operate 2 hotels in gardenwalk) there would indeed be a link between the resort and the 3rd gate.
It seems to me that Disney really doesn't think they're going to be able to ever buy the properties behind Cars Land anyway, so this bridge was just never likely to happen. I think the long term plans are to support Garden Walk as a connection between the existing and third gates. I think a new People Mover System to transport people around the whole resort district should be built though. It's pretty walkable now but the with this proposed expansion to the southeast it will be a pretty large area.
can anyone make a map showing where this is going to be? im kind of confused about the specific location
what bothers me more is not that the third park will never have a direct connection with the rest of the resort but that it will have a huge ten story building right at the edge of its property.
Disney really screwed up in not buying that large chunk of partially undeveloped land.
Now a third gate will not only have an odd shape but have motels and hotels on one side and hosues on the other two sides.
So what?... It doesn't matter. Look at what's happening at the ticket policies. In WDW, they don't offer park hoppers by default for 2 day or more tickets. Park hoppers are "add-on" premium pricing.
At Disneyland, they do offer park hoppers, but for discounted rates like 2Fers, park hopping is not even an option. I expect when the third park comes, park hoppers will be an "add-on" price.
Another thing, Disney didn't jump on the property. Why should be property sit fallow for no reason? Disney has other options and perhaps none, but to suggest that there's a way to connect the parks is a good thing probably is misguided.
And they are using taxpayer's money, from the bed tax revenues.
If you actually read the agreement the city gets the taxes equivalent to a 3 star hotel, thus taxes off of approx. $200 per night per room. The hotel gets to keep the taxes on anything above $200.
Since the city wasn't making any money currently, plus the previous hotel was only at $100 per night, this gives the City new taxes of approx. $30 per room per day with many more rooms. Thats new tax revenue, not an increase in taxes.
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