On Thursday, Disney announced that it would be nixing a $1 billion development plan near Orlando, marking another front in the bitter battle between the corporate behemoth and Governor DeSantis.
Ron DeSantis is discovering that he can’t push Disney around the way he can public-school teachers and transgender teens.
On Thursday, Disney announced that it would be nixing a $1 billion development plan near Orlando, Florida, marking another front in the bitter battle between corporate behemoth and far-right governor. In an email to employees, Disney Parks chairman Josh D’Amaro cited “changing business conditions” as a reason for exiting the deal. He did not need to elaborate further.
Per the Orlando Sentinel, Disney had paid $46.4 million in 2021 for 58 acres of land in Lake Nona, Florida, that was meant to house hundreds of members of its “Imagineering” team, many transplanted from California, who would make an average of $120,000. According to the New York Times, a number of employees didn’t want to move to Florida — some quit rather than relocate — but Disney stuck with the deal until now because of the hundreds of millions of dollars in tax breaks the state had agreed to.
