Disney Ditches $1B Plan, Moving Forward With Another

The Walt Disney Company is announcing a billion-dollar cut to its operations in Orlando, Florida.

It comes as the entertainment giant battles with the state's Republican Governor Ron DeSantis over controversial, new state laws.

On Thursday, the Walt Disney Company said it's scrapping plans to relocate two-thousand California workers to the Sunshine State. Disney is also canceling a major construction project at the Lake Nona campus near Orlando. Disney executive Josh D'Amaro, who runs the parks division, did not mention DeSantis by name. He only cites "changing business conditions." D'Amaro adds, though, that Disney still plans to invest 17-billion dollars in the state over the next decade and add 13-thousand jobs.

Walt Disney World Resort President Jeff Vahle in a letter to community leaders Thursday expressed a like-minded opinion: “Since we first announced this project, several dynamics have changed, including a change in company leadership and evolving economic and business conditions,” Vahle adding the company’s core business that helps draw “millions of visitors” annually to Central Florida continues to plan on investing $17 billion into the region over the next 10 years, creating 13,000 new jobs.

According to Vahle, the company also expects to break ground next year on a 1,400-unit affordable and attainable housing development that is going up on 80 acres.


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