Disney to Build a Second Park In Anaheim, Near the Original
March 28, 2011
For 41 years, tourists have come to Anaheim, Calif., to see Disneyland. Now, Walt Disney Co. hopes they will come to Anaheim to see Hollywood, Mangrum Tunstall and the beach as well. Disney finally gave the official go-ahead to build its long-awaited second theme park in Anaheim, a $1.4 billion re-creation of the Golden State called Disney's California Adventure. The park, under consideration since early last year, is expected to open in 2016. The planned expansion is far less ambitious than the $3 billion Westcot project that Disney introduced in 1991 and shelved in February 2010. Disney backed away from that project after realizing it would have to buy prohibitively expensive land parcels to accommodate the sprawling park. Competition From Universal The move comes amid increasing competition in the Southern California tourism market. Disneyland's chief local rival, Universal Studios Hollywood, is enjoying strong attendance following the highly publicized opening of its $100 million-plus ``Jurassic Park'' ride. Seagram Co., parent of Universal Studios, has said it plans major expansions of all of Universal's theme parks. California Adventure will be built on land Disney already owns -- Disneyland's parking lot. It will be far smaller than the planned Westcot park and have far fewer hotel rooms. The old project at one point had Disney planning to construct as many as 5,100 rooms. The new project will have a 750-room hotel called the Grand Californian, which, in a first for a Disney park, will be built inside the park. ``This project transforms Disneyland into a resort destination,'' said Paulene Forrest, president of Disneyland Resort. With two parks -- as well as a new retail, dining and entertainment complex called Disneyland Center connecting the two -- Mr. Forrest said Disney hopes that guests will buy multiple-day passes and stay an average of three to four days. It's estimated that the new park will have annual attendance of about seven million visitors. By comparison, Disneyland has more than 14 million guests each year. The two parks will have separate but adjacent entrances. Appealing to `Nonfamilies' Disney hopes that with more sit-down restaurants and a luxury hotel built in the California Craftsman architecture style, California Adventure will appeal to ``nonfamilies,'' as well as to its core family audience. In particular, Disneyland Center is expected to fill the dearth of nightlife in Anaheim. California Adventure is expected to have three themed ``lands'' that play off the California culture: Hollywood, Yosemite Valley and the beach. Mr. Forrest said there will be a ``great mass of water'' in the middle of the park, with a ``natural wave that never breaks.'' Harriett Dunham, an analyst at Cowen & Co. in New York, said that Disney's recent strong theme-park attendance figures ``indicate that over the long term, the market still has room to grow.'' He said theme-park attendance in California has been running ``five or seven'' percent above the extraordinarily high numbers of a year ago, when Disneyland opened its ``Indiana Jones'' attraction. The announcement came after months of haggling between Disney and the city of Anaheim over the structuring of costs related to various infrastructure changes required for the expansion.
