Disney Purchases Carousel Inn for $32M

[bookgirl]

Parking lot was my first thought. When I was looking at hotels I thought I remembered that one being by a parking lot area.

On one hand I think Disney is smart enough to know that they cannot compete with the plethora of hotels that border the property price wise. They might build a value or even a moderate level, but it would be just a few rooms (comparably) that would be sold out quickly and just cause more frustration with visitors.

At WDW the worth of a value is more than monetary (proxiemity, transportation, alternative entertainment venues all within property), no offsite hotel can get close enough to the action to offer any serious competition, so Disney can offer all three levels and still make money on all of them. At DLR there are more off site alternatives, within walking distance that Disney cannot control. Unless they close the Harbor Blvd entrance those hotels will always be cheaper and closer and there's not much Disney can do about it other than buy them or make access to the parks more difficult.

On the other hand I've pretty sure that there would be a market for people wanting the inclusive feeling of staying "at the parks". I think even if they were still higher than offsite, but significantly lower than the current 3 choices there would be people who would buy into the Disney Bubble effect. Demand would be high and that's never bad for a business, even if they technically lose money for a year or two due to purchase price. In the long run many of it's core visitors, just can't resist staying onsite, and those family suites are so so popular in WDW I can see DLR wanting to give it a shot.

 

[agamble]

There is supposedly a planned parking structure just to the East, so it's conceivable the Carousel Inn will be torn down to create some kind of pedestrian linkage between that parking structure and the parks.

Could this be where they put the new transit center. Weren't they looking to take over the Park Vue Inn last year?
http://voiceofoc.org/2014/02/anaheim-hotelier-dont-take-my-family-legacy-for-streetcar/

This was exactly my thought when I first heard this.

 

[VandVsmama]

This was exactly my thought when I first heard this.

They could just relocate DL's transit center to the Carousel Inn location & build a moving walkway (Las Vegas-style) over Harbor Blvd, thus leaving them room to take the existing DL transit center and turn it into Star Wars Land...or another hotel.

 

[whjensen]

They could just relocate DL's transit center to the Carousel Inn location & build a moving walkway (Las Vegas-style) over Harbor Blvd, thus leaving them room to take the existing DL transit center and turn it into Star Wars Land...or another hotel.

I like the idea. I wonder if there's enough footprint in either place for that. If they were to create a Star Wars/Marvel land in the existing transit center, it would create a pedestrian choke point coming in from the east. And the Carousel, by itself, is not a big enough footprint to replace the transit center. Also, I think there'd be architectural/engineering nightmares due to the presence of the monorail.

I think they're playing a long game as well. I don't see a Disney-branded hotel opening up along Harbor until they gain enough of the land to create a Disney-fied zone. There's just too much variability along there along with some interesting characters. They really need to get their hands on that big piece of property immediately behind the Carousel.

 

[ehrawn]

If I'm not mistaken, Carousel Inn is set back from Harbor. There is a very narrow entrance with the existing structure. It's too small and too far away from other Disney infrastruture to be used as another resort property. From a use perspective, it's a poor acquisition. While the location is quite ideal, directly across form the park, they would need neighboring properties to turn it into anything of significance. It's neighbors (Fairfield Inn and Ramada Main Gate) are pretty significant properties in their respective owner's portfolios. It's hard to imagine they would sell any time soon. My take: strategic and nothing more. From a business standpoint, it's smart to grab any available property in the Resort District. Don't hold your breath for any changes.

 

[agamble]

Thanks for the pic. Those hotels on Harbor are all so long and skinny. It's kind of odd. It probably is just strategic (they own a bunch of low class apartments around the area too), but still it made me think about the rumored idea of a bridge overpass. It's certainly better to own the property that closes than to force a local business to close.

 

[JadeDarkstar]

They could be waiting to buy up a few more before really doing something. Isn't Tropicana and Camelot inn a part of the old owners of Carousel? if so those three could give Disney a big piece of land (maybe the third park? or a value hotel)

 

[ehrawn]

Note from another Disney blog: "Disney also owns the Candy Cane Inn property on the Resort side of Harbor, and many additional parcels around Anaheim. The company is currently developing one 11-acre parcel at Ball and Harbor into a new 1400-space cast member parking lot."

That Disney owns Candy Cane Inn surprised me. with it bordering the DCA, how is it still standing. Does anyone know what parcels of land Disney owns? I'd like to make a map and try to infer what they could be thinking for expansion.

 

[Gisele]

Interesting. Not surprising though, because someone told me that Disney owns so much property in the Anaheim area. More from what one may know or realize. I found that statement rather eye opening, but again not too surprising either.

 

[agamble]

Supposedly they own a bunch of "cheap" apartments not far from the park too. Someone had a map of supposed owned properties on MiceChat; it was a while back so you may have to search for it.

 

[LizzyS]

Note from another Disney blog: "Disney also owns the Candy Cane Inn property on the Resort side of Harbor, and many additional parcels around Anaheim. The company is currently developing one 11-acre parcel at Ball and Harbor into a new 1400-space cast member parking lot."

That Disney owns Candy Cane Inn surprised me. with it bordering the DCA, how is it still standing. Does anyone know what parcels of land Disney owns? I'd like to make a map and try to infer what they could be thinking for expansion.

I'm not sure what the set up is for Orange County, but here in Clark County, NV you can easily go to the County's Assessor website and click on parcels to see who the owner is, among a lot of other information about purchase date and price, etc. Just food for thought if you're really interested in knowing.

 

[superlarz]

I'm not sure what the set up is for Orange County, but here in Clark County, NV you can easily go to the County's Assessor website and click on parcels to see who the owner is, among a lot of other information about purchase date and price, etc. Just food for thought if you're really interested in knowing.

Disney often purchases land using dummy corporations. You can usually do a bunch of detective work to figure out that its Disney, which is goes back to the comments above where people or other blogs mention that Disney owns a bunch of land in the area.

 

[LizzyS]

I do know that, but I doubt it's that hard to figure out if you want to put the time into it.

 

[ehrawn]

Supposedly they own a bunch of "cheap" apartments not far from the park too. Someone had a map of supposed owned properties on MiceChat; it was a while back so you may have to search for it.

I think I found the thread. It only showed the obviously Disney-owned properties. I made a new one with the Candy Cane and the new Carousel Inn (in red) purchases. Something I didn't realized until I did: Carousel creates a thoroughfare to Harbor Blvd from the Pumba lot. If anyone knows of any other Disney-owned properties in the area, I'd like to add them to the map to see what other inferences could be made.

 

[agamble]

Something I didn't realized until I did: Carousel creates a thoroughfare to Harbor Blvd from the Pumba lot.

Yes, there was a rumor that Disney was going to use a city domain law to take over one of the hotels in the area and build a walking bridge from the parking area to the bus area. The idea I think was that they could make a new multi-level parking structure on the Pumba lot. It'd be sad to see them knock down a decent hotel though.

 

[TechGuy]

It seems to me, that as a single property, they could do several things. They could connect Pumba to the park va walk way or tramway, run street cars AND build a hotel over both the walkway/roadway and street car rails. If they made the walkway/rail/trams go under Harbor, they could do all of this with less effect on the traffic. I don't think they could make an above grade walkway/railway/tramway work in that amount of space. Any hotel could have a couple levels of parking under the building, near any right of ways and then build rooms above the walkway/tramway/railway and parking.

 

[LadyBJ]

A $32 million walkway? Wow. That's some red carpet trip to the Pumba lot.

 

[RKKUNK]

Are you sure Disney owns Candy Cane Inn? I was told it was a family owned business and that the same family has owned and run it since the beginning and that they are a farming family from Central CA.

 

[longtimedisneylurker]

Are you sure Disney owns Candy Cane Inn? I was told it was a family owned business and that the same family has owned and run it since the beginning and that they are a farming family from Central CA.

There is a thread similar to this on another message board where someone claiming to know the family that owns the Candy Cane Inn also disputes the claim that Candy Cane Inn is owned by Disney. A state business listing found on the internet for Candy Cane Inn shows that the company owning it was incorporated in 1957 and lists the Kazarian name.

When I first read the comment that Disney owned Candy Cane Inn, I wondered why if that was true they wouldn't have knocked it down and incorporated it into either backstage area or Carsland itself. It's a nice niche motel and all but not so nice that the land as theme park space wouldn't seem more valuable during that major renovation. I'm still convinced the original family owns Candy Cane Inn and not Disney. These are all mostly just opinions and speculation though too.

 

[RKKUNK]

I have to agree with you, longtimedisneylurker. I am sure it would have make more business sense to tear down the CCI and use it for DCA if Disney owned the property.