About a year ago, Disney announced major plans to build a fourth on-site hotel that would open at the Disneyland Resort sometime in 2021. As reported by Inquisitr , it was going to be a massive luxury hotel that would bring forth 700 guest rooms along with a huge shopping and dining location on the lower floors. Now, none of that will take place as a financial battle with the city of Anaheim has caused everything to be entirely canceled.
Back in August, the plans were put on indefinite hold after a big issue came up between Disney and the city of Anaheim. Construction was scheduled to begin in July on the west end of Downtown Disney where a number of business locations had already been closed down.
Original plans for the hotel at the Disneyland Resort were approved with the construction site being in a different location. Once Disney moved it, the city of Anaheim advised that Disney was no longer eligible for a massive tax break that would have saved the company a whopping $267 million over 20 years.
Disney states the new site was around a mere 1,000 feet from the old site which was agreed upon. Officials from the city of Anaheim blame Disney for cancellation of the project saying they did not stick to the site agreed upon in the deal.
That caused the delay in the project about two months ago and left everything in limbo. According to the Los Angeles Times , a new agreement is not something that the two sides could come to terms on and the hotel project has been canceled.
On Wednesday, Disney made the official announcement that the project is no longer moving forward. Disney spokeswoman Lisa Haines released a statement expressing their disappointment.
“While this is disappointing for many, the conditions and agreements that stimulated this investment in Anaheim no longer exist and we must, therefore, adjust our long-term investment strategy.”
Construction on the new hotel was slated to begin on July 1, 2018, and that led to a lot of changes in the Downtown Disney entertainment district. Over the course of the last few months, these locations closed down:
- Earl of Sandwich
- Rainforest Cafe
- ESPN Zone
- AMC Theatres
In the last couple of weeks, Earl of Sandwich did reopen for what was said to be a “temporary” amount of time while the details of the deal were ironed out. With the project being fully canceled now, it’s not known what will happen to the other closed locations in Downtown Disney.
The Disneyland Resort was preparing for a major addition with its fourth on-site hotel that would be huge and luxurious in so many ways. Unfortunately, things simply couldn’t be worked out when problems with the city of Anaheim came into play. The original contract was no longer valid and now, the fourth hotel is not happening. Disney has not yet revealed any new plans for the hotel or for the closed businesses at this time.
