Hot Rumor about land purchase!!!!!!

[HFC1969]

Being a Missouri native, this rumor really hits home!!!

I have first hand information that Disney has just purchased 3500 acres near Silex Missouri.

Whats the story? Can anyone shed some light on this?? Silex Missouri is about 60 miles from St. Louis.

 

[SteveS]

Why would Disney ever want to go to Missouri? I wouldn't bet the farm on that rumor.

 

[HFC1969]

I just talked to a gentlemen that is the sales manager of a large heavy construction equipment company and he said that he has heard that there are already excavating companies that have heard of the purchase.

To reply to the Why Missouri question - - Walt almost picked St. Louis before Florida, but after a little dispute with Gussy Busch, who owned Anhueser Busch, he decided to go else where. Oh Busch world head quarters is located in Missouri.

I am still checking........

 

[HFC1969]

Just talked to a friend of the family who is an attorney / real estate broker! He said that everything he has heard is that it is a done deal. It is approximately 3500 acres in Eolia Missouri, which is north out of St. Louis on Hwy 40/61.

Dang this is exciting!!!!inkbounc

 

[YoHo]

Marceline Ms Is Walt's Boyhood home. So it is certainly conceivable.

 

[Sarangel]

Thanks for the info HFC1969. We'll all be interested to hear what Disney may have in mind there...

Sarangel

 

[DanG]

Not every Disney land purchase is for a park. Consider whether they might be opening a technology or call center. That said, 3500 acres is a decent chunk of land.

DanG

 

[HFC1969]

I never said anything about a park. I am just curious about what is going on in my home state.

Anyone heard anything yet?

 

[Barbruka]

This is a nice central location in the US. How many acres is WDW total?

 

[JeffJewell]

...I see with assuming this might be a park is that Disney parks typically need year-round attendance to be a good investment (Unless they're about to unveil the new style Disney parks, you know, the ones they designed after learning from the mistake of spending so much money on California Adventure). Doesn't it get prohibitively brisk during those plains winters?

It certainly is a central, if not historically significant, location for a Disney's America park. Smack in the heartland, as they say.

Not sure what non-park plans might warrant that size land acquisition. Power Ranger rerun storage complex? Is there anything near enough by to warrant a DVC property/mini-gate?

Jeff

 

[YoHo]

Emu Ranch

 

[KnightsQwn]

WIth everything that Disney is capable of, I wouldn't be surprised if they were able to change the weather in that section!

Is there anything coming from Disney? you know, like a press release?

 

[HFC1969]

I talked with a lumbering company that goes in and clears land before excavators can begin to clear. This one was told to me by the owner of the company who is "a good ol boy" so this might be a bit of a stretch. He said, "It is a new park and it is called the MidAmerica Disney" and that they are shootin for a 2012 opening date. It sounds real juicy but this one I will leave at the rumor level. He did say that the land purchase is complete and that nothing has gon public at the county court house..


The saga continues

 

[doubletrouble_vb]

I have no idea where Eolia is but...Disney's America was going to be built in Virginia so maybe they are reviving the idea in a locale that won't kick up as much of a fight. I think St. Louis might be on par with Virginia as far as winters go so it might make sense.

Of course an easier possibility is that they are building a studio there.

PS...out of curiousity I checked out the average daily temperature and it appears to on par with Washington, DC. So depending on what they do they would have at least as good a chance of running a year round facility as Williamsburg.

From the point of view of people in the northern half of the country Washington temps would only be uncomfortable in January. Of course we are talking coats but not heavy winter gear.

 

[carterman_12]

I remember hearing on the monorail from EC to MK that Disney World is approx. 29000 acres. And no, I didnt push down the zero button too many times.

 

[wdwguide]

Figures for the size of WDW tend to range from 28000 to 30500 acres, and nobody seems to know what the latest correct figure is, but either way - it's enormous. DLP is about 4800 acres, Disneyland about 400, Hong Kong Disneyland about 300 acres, and I have no idea about Tokyo (these numbers are for the whole resorts, not just the parks, of course).

 

[BRERALEX]

I believe i read that the percentage of the land in Florida developed from what they own is not even half.

 

[Werner Weiss]

Originally, Walt Disney started with 160 acres in Anaheim. Through a series a acquisitions, the site was expanded, especially in recent years. I don't know how much land Disney owns in Anaheim, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's still only around 400 or 500 acres.

Walt Disney secretly acquired around 27,400 acres in Florida in the 1960s. Central Florida land was very cheap back then, and Walt had ambitious plans for a city called EPCOT. Today, WDW it's somewhere around 30,000 acres. The town of Celebration will eventually use around 5,000 of the acres.

Disneyland Paris sits on a site that's somewhere around 4,800 acres (although I've seen numbers ranging from 1,500 acres to 5,000 acres). Euro Disney SCA, the company that owns Disneyland Paris, is actively developing the land.

In Virginia, The Walt Disney Company planned to build Disney's America on a 3,000 acre site.

The theme parks themselves vary in size. DCA is only 55 acres, but that's because Disney has so little land in Anaheim. But figure 100 to 150 acres for a theme park, not including the parking lot.

So "3,500 acres in Eolia, Missouri" is in the right ballpark for a theme park resort development.

But I don't think it will happen.

 

[wdwguide]

Werner,

Are you sure that Celebration's acreage is still included in the property size? I have been getting contradictory responses to this. I think it really shouldn't be included since Celebration was de-annexed from the RCID in the mid-1990s and is now considered part of Osceola County.

The range of numbers at DLP is most likely due to the fact that Euro Disney SCA doesn't technically own the entire property yet - they pretty much absorb the designated land as they need it, while the undeveloped parts remain under government custody and are leased to farmers, etc.
Others also don't include Val d'Europe in their numbers, and others still just don't know how to convert from hectares to acres correctly.

 

[Werner Weiss]

From the official Celebration FAQ at http://www.celebrationfl.com/press_room/faq05.html

When complete, the community is anticipated to have 12,000 to 15,000 residents on 4,900 acres surrounded by a 4,700 acre protected greenbelt.

My understanding is that the Disney continues to count Celebration in its "47 square miles" publicity. (47 square miles = 30,080 acres.) The number didn't go down when Celebration was launched. Actually, it makes sense. Celebration is clearly part of Disney's little empire in Florida, even if it's not governed by the RCID. The number also includes thousands of acres that are set aside for preservation. At the same FAQ:

The plan for Celebration was coordinated with the long-term buildout plan of the adjacent Walt Disney World Resort. Disney's original preservation commitment, which totaled 7,500 acres of preserved environment, has been substantially increased to include 8,350 acres within the Walt Disney Resort, adjacent to Celebration and 8,500 acres in its overall Walt Disney World properties at the Disney Wilderness Preserve.

WDW is really an exception to the amount of land required for a Disney project. 3,500 acres would do nicely for a destination resort with multiple theme parks, resort hotels, and other real estate development.

That said, I don't believe that Disney wants to build a destination resort near St. Louis. Even if Disney were willing to build in an area with a poor winter climate, there are much better locations within the United States in terms of population within an 8-hour drive, such as Ohio (which is much closer to the true population center of the United States). Also, although I don't believe any of the current rumors about Texas, you can actually make a pretty good case for a Disney park in Texas based on Texas' huge (and growing) population. I'm not criticizing Missouri, but I just don't think it's a good location for a Disney destination resort.