Master-planned communities, Disney cruises, Adventures by Disney, and even a shopping and dining center. You may have thought you’d seen all that Disney has to offer, but you’d be wrong.
©Disney
Back in February of 2022, Disney announced that it would be building NEW master-planned communities. Of course, we have seen Disney get involved in real estate projects in the past, like Golden Oak or Celebration (which it no longer manages), but now Disney has announced a NEW project!
Disney recently shared that they will be earmarking almost 80 acres of land on which they will build a new affordable housing development in Orange County, Florida. According to Disney, the project has been in the works for a while and builds on their legacy of “bringing positive, lasting change to the communities it calls home” and “making an important difference locally to address one of the nation’s greatest challenges.”
The new development is still in its early planning stages and will be subject to certain approvals, but it is expected to have more than 1,300 units. It will be constructed by a 3rd party developer (which has been described as an “affordable housing developer”) and it’ll be located near Disney World’s theme parks in Orlando.
Disney World
There will be a few different home choices available in the development, all of which are meant to be affordable, and it’ll be located within close proximity to local schools and the new Flamingo Crossings Town Center area (which features a variety of stores and restaurants). The development will also offer certain amenities, though those haven’t been specified.
According to Disney, they will be working with the developer to bring their level of innovation, expertise, and attention to detail to this project.
Flamingo Crossings ©The Walt Disney Co. | Obtained via BizJournals
Who will be able to live there? Well, this new affordable housing development will actually be available for qualifying applicants from the general public, including Disney’s own Cast Members.
Jess Vahle, the president of the Walt Disney World Resort said, “The lack of affordable housing is affecting many people across our country, including right here in Central Florida. With this initiative, we’re lending a hand to make a real and meaningful impact in our community by tapping into the best of our company’s strengths. This is the right opportunity and the right time to take action.”
Thus far, Disney has shared the following concept art for the community, showing lots of trees along a central pathway, lakes, and several buildings.
©Disney
Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings has shared that he is very excited that Disney is “stepping up to the plate to help set the standard for corporate engagement in this community by building workforce housing.” Demings shared that they look forward to working with other businesses to do the same and work to “close the gap” between the housing crisis and lack of affordable housing.
Demings also said that with this new opportunity there will be workers who will be able to live there and ultimately be closer to where they work. He tweeted this in support of the housing project.
In order to end the #AffordableHousing crisis in @OrangeCoFL, we must continue to seek solutions within private, public and philanthropic sectors. https://t.co/7TrwVEMMlu
— Orange County Mayor Jerry L. Demings (@OCFLMayor) April 8, 2022
More details are set to be released in the future as Disney continues to work on the project with the developer.
Mayor Demings ©Orange County TV Live Stream
This isn’t Disney’s first time getting involved in some way with affordable housing. Disney notes that a few years ago, Disneyland Resort “led an effort to revitalize the Orange County Housing Trust that provides ‘last mile’ funding for affordable housing projects in Anaheim.” This allowed for a housing project focused on veterans and homeless individuals with mental illness to come to fruition.
Disney also invested in a second project, Finamore Place, in Anaheim, and that project is expected to be completed by summer of 2022. That will provide 100 more housing units.
Disneyland
Check out the video from Disney below about the new affordable housing development.
From its early days building the town of Celebration in Orlando (which is no longer managed by Disney) to its new master-planned communities, and now this affordable housing development, it’s interesting to see what Disney has done in terms of housing communities in the past and where those plans are headed for the future.
We’ll continue to keep an eye out for more details about this project and we’ll let you know what we find.
Click here to see about the master-planned communities Disney is building!
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What do you think about Disney’s newest project? Tell us in the comments.
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I’m curious to see their definition of “affordable” housing.
How about building a new theme park! The current ones are way overcrowded and they haven’t built a new one in years. They just keep packing rides and people into horribly overcrowded parks. This effort is admirable, but I’m afraid Disney doesn’t have the expertise to make this a success. Most affordable housing projects end in failure… for various reasons, but usually because of the criminal element that prays on these areas. Hope they are ready for this.
The sad thing is that most Disney World employees will be eligible for the affordable housing due to their low wages and lack of hours.
Disney should stick to theme parks!
Why get involved in affordable housing? Ridiculous!
They are just trying to find more ways of making money and now they’re going after the poor.
Agreed. What Disney considers “affordable” I’m sure isn’t really affordable.
Sounds like they just made a business deal with a developer to get rid of land they’re not using, and dressed it up in nice language.
If they get approved as Section 8, they can make the rent as high as they want and the government pays which means your tax dollars are paying for this.
Angela – OMG my exact thought too!
Disney is starting to take the eye off the ball. It is an entertainment company, not a property development company. This is now the second property development announcement within the past few months. By not putting complete focus on parks, media and entertainment, the value of the brand will be diminished.
With 30 year fixed rate mortgages of around 5% (and going higher) a millage rate of around 2% on property taxes (i.e. $2,000.00 per year per $100,000.00 in home value) homeowners insurance rates in the state of Florida rocketing higher, as well as the higher labor costs and building material costs to build a house this sounds like someone’s dream that will become someone else’s nightmare.
Other then that it sounds like a great idea!
Here’s the angle I see on this. It is great to consider affordable housing. It is great to give back to the community.
Here is the problem. Disney just raised prices monumentally. They did Genie+ instead of fast pass for free. No more Magical Express. Increased food costs.
Maybe they should use the money to keep prices lower so that lower income families can afford to go to Disney World. Right now they are on a trajectory to be affordable for only the wealthy elites.
They are taking my money and spending it on affordable housing. Maybe they should not raise prices, and take the money out of Bob Chapel’s and other Disney executives’ compensation packages to pay for the affordable housing!
I really wish Disney would just STAY IN THEIR LANE! Seriously! You are not there to be the champion of all human rights or to fix the worlds problems….YOU ARE AN AMUSEMENT PARK!! You are meant to entertain. I repeat, STAY IN YOUR LANE, Disney!! The world/people will never be satisfied wether Disney is involved or not…. In the meantime Disney is dying and their too worried about doing the former to save themselves😒🙄.
Does “Disney” and “affordable “ belong in the same sentence???
This is last year I will be an annual Passholder as the ridiculous prices are out of control. I have the money but it’s the principle. If we all stop the madness for 1 year and not go, maybe they’ll wake up to their greed and lower prices. I remember $500 paid for an awesome 4 day 3 nite trip, meal plan was $30/ day/pp, hotel $72/ nite, & $100 for souvenirs for two, about 7-8 years ago. Now it’s over $175/nite, $79/day/pp meal plan. That’s almost 2.5 times the cost in 8 short years. At this rate, by 2025 it will cost $5000 for this same trip. Crazy. I went to Europe for 3 weeks on a cruise for that a few years ago.
So with this affordable housing coming to Orlando, this means only $300,000 for 3/2 homes instead of $1 million homes.
I’m glad to see that Disney is taking this step. They want to be good neighbors in the area and help their cast members who have trouble affording places to live, less because their wages are low than because rents are sky-rocketing. I’m not sure this project will be finished quickly enough to really help in the current moment but will be beneficial going forward. Multi-family units are also a better use of available land than single-family homes which saves some habitat…rapidly being used up in Orange County.
Are there any updates to the project?