AP reporting Disney plans to relocate 2K professional employees from California to Lake Nona

[NotUrsula]

ORLANDO, Fla. — The Walt Disney Co. said Thursday it planned to build a new regional campus in central Florida to house at least 2,000 professional employees who will be relocating from Southern California to work in digital technology, finance and product development.

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/d...-california-to-new-florida-campus-01626383944
This has been swirling around the internet rumor mills for months, but Disney confirmed it today. The story says that the site is in Lake Nona, which apparently has nearly 6 million sq ft of vacant office space available, that almost surely costs exponentially less than comparable facilities in Southern California.

 

[Waldorf_Statler]

Going to be losing a lot of people in that transition.

 

[goodeats]

California loses a lot of companies to high cost of doing business here. Depending on the level of employee they’ll make an attractive offer to move them. Some will accept and some will stay. Happened with Toyota and Nissan and scores of other big companies.

 

[PortMickey]

https://deadline.com/2021/07/dinsey-moving-parks-division-jobs-california-florida-1234794243/The Walt Disney Co. plans to move most Southern California-based jobs not fully dedicated to Disneyland in its Parks, Experiences and Products Division to a new regional facility in central Florida, it announced on Thursday.
“I want to share news about an exciting project that has been in various stages of planning since 2019,” wrote Josh D’Amaro, chairman of Disney Parks, Experiences and Products Division, in a letter to staff that was obtained by Deadline. “This new project will create a dynamic environment to support our expanding business – a brand-new regional campus which will be built in the vibrant Lake Nona community of Orlando, Florida.”

“In addition to Florida’s business-friendly climate, this new regional campus gives us the opportunity to consolidate our teams and be more collaborative and impactful both from a creative and operational standpoint,” he wrote.

Initially, the new campus will be home to “more than 2,000 Cast, Imagineers and employees,” according to D’Amaro’s letter – “driving further collaboration and creativity and allowing us to better integrate our business and functional teams.”


The new facility in Florida will be located near Orlando International Airport, about 20 miles southeast of the Walt Disney World resort. While the California-based company is still determining which employees to relocate D’Amaro wrote, “we expect most Southern California-based DPEP (Disney’s Parks, Experiences and Products) professional roles that are not fully dedicated to Disneyland or, in some cases, the international parks businesses will be asked to relocate to this new Florida campus.”

The move is expected to take 18 months and affected employees will be offered moving assistance, according to D’Amaro. He also emphasized that Disney remains committed to California, “including continued investment in Disneyland Resort.”
The decision comes after the company announced last winter that it was terminating approximately 32,000 employees primarily at Parks, Experiences and Products, “Due to the current climate, including COVID-19 impacts, and changing environment.”

 

[manning]

Just saw where Disney is moving 2,000 jobs from California to Orlando

 

[Dead2009]

I'm sure there's a thread about that somewhere on here...

 

[DL1WDW2]

More info : Article in “Today’s Headlines“
posted yesterday with this Topic.
Really nice community $$$ and probably will be even more now .

 

[Narcoossee11]

Lake Nona is a medical hospital/ research area here in Orlando. Right off the 417.
Disney will just be a building . They will bring nothing to the area but traffic.

 

[Liljo22]

Lake Nona is not within the Reedy Creek improvement district so the land they purchased for the wetland ratio would not be needed for anything they do there.

 

[HopperFan]

Nothing I have read or seen written via Disney executives said they BOUGHT any land. It reads as if they are working with Tavistock, the owner and developer of the planned community to build a campus. It is probably a wise move of Disney to build without commitment of owning land, they went that route with Celebration and ended up selling most of it.


Note: The South Florida Management (SFWMD) works with land use from Orlando to the Keys and is not restricted to just Reedy Creek. Any projects in their district have to go through the process, not just Disney.

 

[Cynner]

Know where I'm applying for a job in 4 years when I retire and move to Orlando ;P

 

[Suzabella]

California loses a lot of companies to high cost of doing business here. Depending on the level of employee they’ll make an attractive offer to move them. Some will accept and some will stay. Happened with Toyota and Nissan and scores of other big companies.

Toyota and Nissan both lost app. 60 % fo their workforce. You can guess how I know...

And now the first report that imagineers are leaving the company rather than take the move.

 

[middlechild]

And now the first report that imagineers are leaving the company rather than take the move.

No one, in any company, is irreplaceable.
Wonder how many applicants Disney receives for any open position in the Imagineering group? I bet thousands, regardless of the work location. That is a desirable, plum, job. Watch the video on the Last Lecture by Randy Pausch of Carnegie Mellon University. Not only is it an outstanding message of an outstanding educator, one highlight is the extent people would take to join Imagineering.

 

[Marrila]

And now the first report that imagineers are leaving the company rather than take the move.

I don't see it as a negative that jobs open up and fresh talent is brought in.

 

[Suzabella]

No one, in any company, is irreplaceable.
Wonder how many applicants Disney receives for any open position in the Imagineering group? I bet thousands, regardless of the work location. That is a desirable, plum, job. Watch the video on the Last Lecture by Randy Pausch of Carnegie Mellon University. Not only is it an outstanding message of an outstanding educator, one highlight is the extent people would take to join Imagineering.

That speech was amazing. I've watched it several times.

No one is irreplaceable but their experience is a different story. One of those automakers is still dealing with the fallout of losing years of experience in their purchasing department many years later. Learning curve in paperwork and processes is a year easily.

DH apple for a job with Disney purchasing which would have meant a move to London. We were willing to go at the time.

 

[Waldorf_Statler]

That speech was amazing. I've watched it several times.

No one is irreplaceable but their experience is a different story. One of those automakers is still dealing with the fallout of losing years of experience in their purchasing department many years later. Learning curve in paperwork and processes is a year easily.

DH apple for a job with Disney purchasing which would have meant a move to London. We were willing to go at the time.

Exactly, anyone is replaceable, but you might need 3 people to replace them as well as losing all that institutional knowledge. But that's for management to weigh the positives and negatives of such a decision.

 

[Suzabella]

Exactly, anyone is replaceable, but you might need 3 people to replace them as well as losing all that institutional knowledge. But that's for management to weigh the positives and negatives of such a decision.

The positives are usually trimming payroll. That may very well be the case with Disney. At least that's my deduction given some of their recent business.decisions

 

[Jonfw2]

It’s interesting that the entire discussion here is focused on whether Disney is doing the right thing and there’s almost no commentary about whether California is doing the right thing.

They didn’t HAVE to lose Disney. Or any of those other companies. They chose to through bad policy and high taxes.

 

[mom2rtk]

The positives are usually trimming payroll. That may very well be the case with Disney. At least that's my deduction given some of their recent business.decisions

Moving the company to trim payroll would be a terrible way to do business. You could lose your best people and keep only the worst. Not very efficient. It would be like doing surgery with a butcher knife instead of a scalpal.

 

[elmwyn]

Apparently several Imagineers have been speaking anonymously that this move is being used as an opportunity to gut Imagineering yet again. If you don't take the move, your position will cease to exist in Florida.

Unfortunately plenty of companies pull this stunt.