Walt Disney scraps plan to move thousands of workers to new Florida campus

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Walt Disney has abandoned plans to move thousands of California-based employees to a new campus in central Florida, according to an internal memo, at a time when disputes between the company and the state have spilled over into the courts.

The entertainment group will no longer take 2,000 workers to Lake Nona, on the southern outskirts of Orlando and about 30 km east of Walt Disney World, where it was building a 1.8 million square foot campus to open in 2026.

“Given the significant changes that have occurred since the announcement of this project, including new leadership and changing business conditions, we have decided not to move forward with construction of the campus,” Disney Parks head Josh D’Amaro said in a statement. an email to employees on Thursday.

Former Disney CEO Bob Chapek came up with the idea for the $900 million campus, and the move would allow the company to receive hundreds of millions of dollars in tax breaks.

D’Amaro said the company still plans to invest $17 billion Florida and “create 13,000 jobs over the next 10 years”.

The memo appeared to nod to the dispute between Disney and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis that began last year when Chapek challenged Florida’s parental rights law in education, a controversial piece of legislation described as the reads “Don’t Say Gay” from his opponents.

“While some were excited about the new campus, I know this decision and the circumstances surrounding it have been difficult for others,” D’Amaro said.

The company and the state are in a legal battle for DeSantis’s acquisition of Disney’s special tax district in the area, formerly known as the Reedy Creek Improvement District.

Disney, which reinstated former CEO Bob Iger in late 2022 after accumulating losses in its streaming business, is halfway through its plan to cut 7,000 employees throughout the company.