Disney Buys Land in Washington DC!

[KeithS]

Hot off the press - Disney looks like they are going to build a resort hotel in Washington DC.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... id=topnews

Here are some quotes from Jay Rasulo - Chairman of Disney Parks and Resorts:
"...it will be a project of significant scale and put a recognizable Disney footprint in the Washington area..."
"...the project is not an attempt to build another Disney's America..."
"The National Harbor resort is a completely different kind of project. It's specifically zoned for hotel, residential and other commercial development. This project is a hotel resort. It is not by any stretch of the imagination a theme-park project and never will be. We have no intention of building a large-scale theme park in the Washington area."

Looks like another destination for a potential club trip - maybe 2014? hehehe.

EDIT:
Here are the official press releases...
http://corporate.disney.go.com/news/par ... arbor.html

[KeithS]

Well this one died with a whimper.

After the big press release two years ago about buying the land in Washington DC with the view to building a nice resort close to the US Capitol, Disney yesterday announced that they've sold off their interest in the land. It would seem that Disney's Hawaiian resort hasn't been as successful as hoped (and that's on top of the debacle over unit pricing for the DVC suites that saw heads roll - including the boss of DVC). I guess they probably think there is a better return on investment by building resorts where the parks are from now on, which means I doubt we'll see a resort complex built here in the future.

[churros]

Maybe if they made the resort more accessible and not just for high income families

[ajp]

That is a fair call Beth, they do need to make these resort hotels better value.

Perhaps Washington DC wasn't the best option for a Disney style resort hotel anyway, not too much family tourism anyway. I hope they don't turn their back on the whole concept, I would have thought there is some merit in it. It'd be a tough one for management because their core business is entertainment and not hospitality, but they do hospitality well, given their experience in cruise lines and the "on-site" hotels.