The Disney parks aren’t the only places you can find Disney Magic. And we aren’t just talking about Adventures by Disney or the Disney Cruise Line either!
Main Street, U.S.A., in Disney World
Disney has been invested in several real estate projects outside of their theme parks for a while now, including the Florida communities Celebration (which is no longer managed by Disney) and Golden Oak. Now, they’ve announced a NEW project that will bring Disney magic to communities in many areas across the country. And they’ve already picked out the location for the first community!
Disney introduced their new Storyliving by Disney project, which will create “vibrant new neighborhoods that are infused with [their] special brand of magic.” We heard a little bit about this project last year, but now we know a LOT more about the new communities.
©Disney
Storyliving by Disney is meant to bring the convenience, high-quality service, and luxury of the theme parks to residents’ everyday lives. The master-planned communities will have “distinctively designed spaces” as well as unique amenities like wellness programs, entertainment (such as live performances and cooking classes), seminars, and more.
Clubhouse Area ©Disney
Disney has said that these amenities will be available to those who hold a voluntary club membership. So it sounds like you aren’t required to have this membership if you live in the community, but the experiences are only available to those who hold one.
Cotino Amenities ©Disney
Some Storyliving by Disney neighborhoods will be reserved for residents ages 55+.
©Disney
The very first Storyliving by Disney community is going to be in the Coachella Valley in Rancho Mirage, which is in Palm Springs, California. This community is called Cotino, and it will have 1,900 housing units, including condominiums, single-family homes, and estates.
Cotino ©Disney
According to Disney, this area was frequented by Walt Disney himself and served as a creative outlet and inspiration for many of his projects.
Cotino entrance concept art ©Disney
Disney hasn’t announced yet what the pricing will be for the housing. From their announcement, it sounds like Disney will be working with other development and home building companies, but Disney will be the face of the project. In addition, Disney’s Cast Members will be running the communities once they open, providing residential services and managing the entertainment offerings.
Commons area ©Disney
You can watch this video to learn more about the upcoming community or visit the Storyliving by Disney website.
Disney is exploring more locations for future Storyliving by Disney communities.
Cotino Clubhouse ©Disney
Want to learn more about these communities? Click here to listen to the D23 podcast featuring Imagineer Michael Hundgen as he discusses Storyliving.
We’ll be keeping an eye out for more information about these Disney communities, so stay tuned with DFB for all the latest updates.
Click here to see a home designed by a Disney Imagineer!
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Since California is in a Mega drought, the worst drought in 1200 years, where is the water coming from for those 1900 new homes and their occupants?
Not gonna lie, this creeps me out a little.
And in 5 years it will be bought out by some hedge fund group & prices of everything will double & services/amenities will be cut. Hey, sort of like WDW now!
Like the Golden Oaks community, I would be interested if Disney’s next project Is building a little less upscale 55+ community within WDW.
Between the price of the homes, the HOA fees, the impact fees the California state income tax, and the high cost of living in California very few people will be able to afford to live there.
Haha! Jackie, you hit the nail on the head!
I hope some of the amenities include lifetime access to the Disney Parks. THAT would be an enticement for me to consider the “Disney Living” experience.
I’m with you, Rachel. As a long time Disney fan and past cast member, this actually makes me uncomfortable. Constantly selling the brand waters it down, as well as the problems associated with being stretched too thin. Then they will have the brand mired down in unpleasant experiences. There’s enough of that difficulty already with the properties they own not being able to achieve relative consistency in product and experience. Nostalgia of what Disney was will only carry for so long.
While this appears to be an impressive community (can only imagine the pricing and HOA fees), it seems everyone other than the key Disney decision makers can see that this will turn out to be one of those decisions that in a few years everyone makes jokes about and Disney pretends never existed.
As a Disney fan and a shareholder, please focus on what you are good at which is entertainment. While obviously desperate to find new revenue sources, a residential community is not in Disney’s wheelhouse. We can cut them slack on Golden Oak because everyone can understand that living within the property is desirable, but building developments in random locations makes zero sense. The disappointing thing about this pointed out by many others is that Disney has placed increased emphasis on conservation and the environment. Building a community in an area that already struggles with natural resources is shocking. Please Disney leadership, start actually listening to others rather than just saying that you do. You might avoid blunders like this one is likely to become.
If they don’t name a community “Stepford” they will have missed an opportunity.
These sketches are just ugly modern boxes… want something like Celebration, Florida that looks like Main Street USA at Disneyland or else what is the point???
It looks like once you’re there , you’re stuck. I don’t see any roads or cars and I bet the only thing you can drive is golf carts. What happens when you get tired of drinking the Disney kool-ade and want to get away to somewhere authentic for a while?
I am with you Dianna, I love the architecture of the Main Street buildings.
What seniors are going to settle in CA?
Pass
Bob Paycheck once again ignoring the core competency of the Disney Company . This is yet another failure. Nothing special about these homes. If I were in the market for a home I would look elsewhere. The architecture looks pedestrian at best. Extra fees for the club. Not interested.
California 🙄
Why California???? Makes no sense….
As a writer who has covered Disney along with a spouse who was a former Cast Member, I agree with so many of the concerned comments regarding this first “planned” community. It’s desert location is number one but there are many other issues that we have regarding yet another money making project driven by anything other than Pixie Dust.