Hear what both the mayor of Orange County and governor of Florida had to say about the canceled project. Are you surprised by Florida’s response?
Canceled
The Walt Disney Company made plans to move several offices and about 2,000 people from California to Florida. Specifically, these moves were to be to Lake Nona and take place in 2022 and 2023. Given the current relationship with Florida, some were upset by this move and wished to stay in California. Some even left the company.
After this big announcement, the Walt Disney Company had a falling out with the state of Florida. Soon after, Disney shared that the move to Lake Nona is delayed until 2026. They previously bought more acreage for this move, and some employees had already sold California homes and begun looking for Florida homes.
We learned earlier this afternoon that this Lake Nona move is officially canceled. The Walt Disney Company will not move the offices currently located in California. Disney is reportedly helping those employees who already moved to Florida get back to California.
In an email to staff, Josh D’Amaro said the company made the decision to not move forward. “This was not an easy decision, but I believe it is the right one.”
Orange County Mayor Responds
The major of Orange County, Jerry Demings, had this to say about the news:
“It is unfortunate that Disney will not be moving forward with construction of the Lake Nona campus. However, these are the consequences when there isn’t an inclusive and collaborative work environment between the state of Florida and the business community. We will continue to work closely with our valued partners at Disney.”
It sounds like the mayor is siding with Disney on this issue and places the blame on the state of Florida.
Florida Governor Responds
The press office for Ron DeSantis responded to the canceled project:
“Disney announced the possibility of a Lake Nona campus nearly two years ago. Nothing ever came of the project, and the state was unsure whether it would come to fruition.
Given the company’s financial straits, failing market cap, and declining stock price, it is unsurprising that they would restructure their business operations and cancel unsuccessful ventures.”
What do you think of these comments? Are Florida’s comments surprising to you? Let us know in the comments below. Be sure to pass this post along to a friend who will find this information beneficial.
Caring about prices being high implies wanting what Disney is selling. If Disney leaves, that won’t be available at any price.
Not true. Covid-19 set things back. It was still in the works until the hostile Business TACTICS OF THE GOP here, are now having many companies rethink being based in Florida. It was very much in progress..until now. Know personally some impacted by this change.
You can spin it anyway you want but your glorious governor is to blame for this and he deserves it because he is a my way or the highway kind of guy and when you are over people, that’s the worst thing you can be. It works for a little while due to fear but the fear leaves and the anger builds.
Free market
For those complaining about “Californians” holding those jobs…where do you think the taxes they pay will go after they and their job MOVE to Florida? Not California. And those taxes, not just income tax but property tax and sales tax and use tax and fuel tax and and and, would be coming from some of the HIGHEST paid employees Disney currently has in California. These are low to mid six figure jobs not minimum wage. People making $250,000 pay a whole lot in taxes. Some where between 300,000,000 and approximately 500,000,000 in capital from salary alone will not be going into the FL economy now. Is FL so wealthy that it can blithely turn away from a 300 MILLION dollar boost to its economy? And that’s before one penny of increased corporate tax is paid.
For those of you calling for Disney to leave FL, what do you think is going to happen to a state of 20,000,000 people when the largest employer and largest tax base leaves? Only 70,000 people will leave (assuming they all leave FL – which is absurd, most will stay) so you’ll still have 20 MILLION people to support (including a whole lot of old sick ones that drain the economy rather than build it up) but you’ll lose 1.146 BILLION in tax revenue. Where does FL make up a hit like that to its tax base? And that’s just the direct corporate taxes paid to FL…what about the literal BILLIONS removed from the economy from lack of tourism? The 21 year old spring breakers are not going to make that up, nor can it be made up through retirees.
FL is at risk of literally not existing if all the climate doomsayers are correct…but Disney doesn’t want to lose that investment if it stays in FL…Disney is where the money to build sea walls will come from. Before Disney, FL was a backwater swamp and pretty much looked on as backwards. Without Disney FL literally drops under water after its financial obliteration.
There are no surprises here. Disney deep 6’ed that idea of moving all those people to Florida a long time ago. It has nothing to do with the feud. It’s just a convenient story to throw out there and act like it’s because of the feud. With the real estate condition and the mortgage rates being high, it’s not a good time to try and move a lot of people that don’t want to move anyway. That would have resulted in too much key employee fall out for Disney. Add that to the cost of building the complex in Lake Nona and it doesn’t make any sense at all. That is why Disney decided not to make the centralization move.
Plus, Disney needs to make up for that $2+ billion blunder they call Galactic Starcruiser that fell on it’s face. You have to cut back somewhere to make up for that mistake and here is half of it. $1 billion recouped by not building the complex in Lake Nona.
Right out of Trumps playback!
We didn’t lose 2,000 jobs. They already were going to Californians. I wish they’d leave Florida. Prices are too high and with all the rides down a lot, admission stays the same. Why? Adults walking around with mouse ears is nauseating.
For a guy that went to Harvard law school, DeSantis does not seem very bright. From picking a fight with the biggest employer in the state to signing an immigration law that from what I read has idled construction sites all across southern Florida and, if you can say one thing about him, he’s bad for business. Playing the anti-woke culture warrior may be popular with his base, but it’s certainly going to alienate him with the deep pockets, corporate donors that he will need for a serious run for the presidency. I understand he intends to announce his run in the next week or so, and I expect the whole thing is going to be a huge embarrassment, but embarrassing himself doesn’t seem to be something that bothers DeSantis very much.
The country went to shit a long time ago unfortunately. They won’t admit it. We lost control of the country back in 2007 and it crashed in 2018 and won’t ever recover from the peak in 2018.
DUHSantus is not capable of admitting he was wrong.
Ron is just another orange nightmare. His arrogance and bullying are too much for Florida and the US. What a joke
the employees at Disney don’t want to live in DeSantis’ Florida and Desantis doesn’t want Disney employees in Florida. Let them part ways.
Once they move the Florida they become Floridians.
What do you call someone who lives in Florida, works in Florida, shops in Florida, and pays taxes in Florida? A Californian!
You’re really not from this planet, are you?
The construction workers and the workers that would continue to service the campus were going to be Floridians. So yes, jobs were absolutely being created for Floridians and every Floridian who cares about the well-being of the state should care.
Who cares? The jobs weren’t being created for Floridians, they were for Californians. Let them continue ruining their own state and leave that crap (literally) out of ours.
Desantis is a big bully and person driven by revenge. Instead of helping jobs come to Florida,he is pushing them away
Long after Ron Quixote is gone and has finished with attacking the woke windmills, Disney will still be there. DeSantis is bad for business, bad for Florida and would be terrible for America.
DeSantis is a moron, and God forbid if he ever became president. The whole country would go to sh*t.
Disney should take away the Florida Residents Special Tickets, Passes & Offers and you would probably see an immediate recall of Santis as the governor.
What he said.
So, De Santis, you admit that if your a business trying to operate in Florida, your venture will fail. Hmmmm… Many other businesses are watching this, and wondering if Florida is a loosing venture. How many people will be out of work in your state if Disney leaves? It will be on you. Disney can move if you make them, and they will take their jobs with them too..
Neither Disney’s decision nor De Santis’ response are surprising. Disney had no real need to move that operation to Florida so when the business climate turned hostile they did what any rational person would do and de ided against endangering more assets and decided not to make the move. As for De Santis reaction, he seems to be operating in a dream world of his making, so of course he’s going to pretend nothing negative happened because if he acknowledged Florida was hurt by Disney’s decision, he would have to acknowledge that Disney has power too and more importantly, he would have to acknowledge that his poor decision cost the state and him.
Ron DeSsntis is grand stander that thinks he is smarter than most people in his state. He hasn’t realized that Disney has smarter lawyers and deeper pockets than he ever thought about having. He should be impeached for what he is doing.