{"id":46069,"date":"2024-05-30T16:55:54","date_gmt":"2024-05-30T20:55:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=46069"},"modified":"2024-05-30T16:56:01","modified_gmt":"2024-05-30T20:56:01","slug":"disney-can-build-fifth-park-under-a-new-agreement-with-the-florida-board-and-set-to-invest-up-to-17b","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2024\/05\/30\/disney-can-build-fifth-park-under-a-new-agreement-with-the-florida-board-and-set-to-invest-up-to-17b\/","title":{"rendered":"Disney can build Fifth Park under a new agreement with the Florida board and set to invest up to $17B"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

An upcoming developmental agreement between Walt Disney World and the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District permits the construction of a fifth major theme park, billions in investments, and more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Magic Kingdom, Bay Lake, Fla., June 3, 2020. (Photo\/David Guerrero, Pexels)
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Specifically, it notes how Disney currently has four \u201cmajor theme parks\u201d constructed, but the new plan allows for five.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fifth park would come in addition to the Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom. None has been officially announced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It also involves investments up to $17 billion in Walt Disney World over the next 10-to-20 years, consistent with past statements by CEO Bob Iger that Disney planned to dump large sums of money into its Florida properties even amidst the company\u2019s ongoing battle with Gov. Ron DeSantis and Florida.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cUpon board approval, the development agreement underscores [the district\u2019s] commitment to responsible oversight, public infrastructure, and long-term planning, ensuring taxpayer funds are used efficiently,\u201d said Stephanie Kopelousos, the district administrator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to attraction investment, the agreement includes Disney funding a minimum of $10 million in affordable housing projects, and the board agreed to continue bolstering infrastructure in the area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWith Walt Disney World\u2019s substantial investments, we anticipate economic growth, job creation, and support for local businesses, alongside environmental stewardship and workforce housing initiatives, benefitting Central Florida\u2019s community,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Overall, the latest agreement involving the fifth park is for a 15-year period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Disney also agreed to create a program that ensures expansions lean on Florida-based businesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The next board meeting is June 5, where the agreement will be officially presented.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Disney\u2019s legal battle with Florida ended this year after a settlement was reached earlier this year. The company\u2019s federal case against DeSantis also did not prevail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rumors of a fifth park at Disney World came especially as nearby Universal Orlando Resort is slated to open its own third theme park, Epic Universe, in 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DeSantis had been calling for Disney to respond to Universal\u2019s actions with a fifth park of its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just gonna be a huge game changer,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s bigger than [Universal\u2019s] other two parks combined. I\u2019ve got to think that Disney would want to answer that [to] keep up with the competition.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ve got to think Disney would have an interest in maybe offering another one,\u201d DeSantis said. \u201cThe district will be ready to negotiate something.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Indeed, not long after the remarks were made emerged the new agreement that includes a fifth park.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Regarding infrastructure, the board is eyeing major infrastructure improvements at Walt Disney World as well, to the tune of $100 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWith the continuous growth in surrounding population and anticipated development within the district, there is a pressing need to expand and enhance our roadway network to meet the escalating traffic demands requiring the funding and execution of large capital projects,\u201d the district administration\u2019s request said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An upcoming developmental agreement between Walt Disney World and the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District permits the construction of a fifth major theme park, billions in investments, and more. Specifically,… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":46070,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"17","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[17],"tags":[8665],"class_list":["post-46069","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-regional-and-world-news","tag-disney-can-build-fifth-park-under-a-new-agreement-with-the-florida-board-and-set-to-invest-up-to-17b"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46069","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46069"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46069\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46071,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46069\/revisions\/46071"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46070"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}