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Disney Springs Discussion

From Orlando Sentinel

Reedy Creek to build parking garages for Downtown Disney expansion

Of all the additions Walt Disney World will make during the next few years as it transforms its Downtown Disney shopping district into the larger "Disney Springs," none will be more important than a pair of parking garages.

The twin garages, to be built at opposite ends of the 120-acre retail complex, will have a combined 6,000 spaces — and, Disney hopes, will ease complaints from guests sick of hunting for places to park their cars.

But Disney doesn't plan to pay for the garages itself. The giant resort will instead have its personal government, Reedy Creek Improvement District, pick up the estimated $85 million tab.

The arrangement is likely to save Disney — and cost Florida and federal taxpayers — millions of dollars. Reedy Creek, unlike Disney, can finance the garages with tax-free bonds. And Reedy Creek, unlike Disney, does not have to pay sales tax on the materials used to build them.

Critics accuse the Walt Disney Co., which earned a company record $5.7 billion in profit last year, of exploiting its captive government.

"Reedy Creek's ability to issue tax-free bonds and avoid paying sales taxes on construction materials gives the Disney Co. a competitive advantage over other theme parks and resorts in Florida," said Rick Foglesong, a political-science professor at Rollins College in Winter Park.

Disney defends the move. The company says the three- and four-story garages are a key component of a broader transportation overhaul that has been planned as part of the Downtown Disney expansion and will ease chronic traffic congestion in the area. That work includes a new extension off of an Interstate 4 exit ramp that will deposit cars directly into one of the garages.

The company also noted that the Florida Legislature, which created Reedy Creek at Disney's request more than 40 years ago, specifically gave the district the ability to build parking garages — along with everything from an airport to a nuclear-power plant.

"The infrastructure work we are planning in coordination with the Reedy Creek Improvement District will provide easier access to Disney Springs while helping to minimize the impact on surrounding roadways at no cost to local taxpayers," Disney spokeswoman Andrea Finger said. "Consistent with its charter and its historic mission, Reedy Creek has funded and continues to fund infrastructure projects across our property."

Disney would not say how much it expects to save by financing the project through its government.

Officials at Reedy Creek, whose governing-board members are all chosen by Disney, said the garages are a valid public project. District Administrator Bill Warren, a former Disney executive, said lawyers for the district vetted the proposal and found a precedent in Miami, where a development district financed a parking garage for a commercial development known as "Midtown Miami."

The garages are "serving an area that's not a gated attraction," Warren said. "We believe it serves a public purpose."

Other Central Florida governments have built parking garages before. But they usually serve broader commercial areas, such as Winter Park's Park Avenue boutique-and-restaurant district, or publicly owned buildings, such as Orlando's Amway Center.

Recently, the city of Orlando gave its preliminary approval to a plan to spend about $9 million to pay for improvements around Universal Orlando — including a pedestrian bridge that will be used almost exclusively by guests of a new Universal hotel. Some citizen activists, such as CountyWatch, a local government-watchdog group, have criticized that move as a corporate giveaway.

The city did not provide any financing assistance to Universal when the resort built its two giant parking garages in the late 1990s, according to a Universal spokesman.

Though the Downtown Disney garages are still in the design stage, Reedy Creek's Warren said that one will be a four-story structure with about 4,000 spaces, and another will be three stories and have about 2,000 spaces.

Warren said Reedy Creek expects to spend $85 million on the garages. The district will continue to own them after they are built.

Reedy Creek has tentatively budgeted about $250 million total for all the infrastructure upgrades — including widening Buena Vista Drive — that will be made as part of Downtown Disney's expansion.

Having its government agency build the garages will help Disney in several ways.

First, Reedy Creek will pay for all of the work with tax-exempt bonds. Because investors do not have to pay federal income tax on the interest they earn on municipal bonds, they will accept lower interest rates than they would with conventional, corporate bonds. Finance experts say the difference is likely to amount to at least several hundred thousand dollars a year over the life of the bonds, which will have a 20-year term.

Also, local governments in Florida do not have to pay state sales tax; Reedy Creek, like other local governments, often makes direct purchases on behalf of its construction contractors to take advantage of the exemption. Reedy Creek said it expects to save roughly $1.4 million in sales tax. Other local government officials told the Sentinel the tax savings could be anywhere from $1 million to $3 million.

The city of Orlando has projected a sales-tax savings of about $5 million on its proposed $110 million soccer stadium.

Between the tax-free bonds and the sales-tax exemption, "it's a significant savings," said Jim Gilkeson, a professor of finance at the University of Central Florida and a chartered financial analyst.

"This decision isn't going to raise Disney's stock price by a dollar a share," Gilkeson added. "But this decision and others like it — when you add them all together — they ultimately make a huge difference. They make Disney much more profitable."

There are still other advantages for Disney.

Although Disney is by far the largest taxpayer in Reedy Creek, other landowners pay about $1 of every $10 in district property taxes.

The move also keeps the garages off Disney's corporate balance sheet at a time when investors have been pressing company executives to curtail capital spending.
 
Word is Construction for Disney Springs is set to start up on Monday.

Now that we have a construction trailer, and supposedly work walls going up soon, is it time to admit this one is actually going to happen and re-name the thread (or maybe start a new one)?
 
I thought work on a parking garage was supposed to start in April. I won't believe Disney is actually going through with this plan until I see the finished product.
 
That has been the rumors since before Disney Springs was announced. It was included in the poster for possible inclusions. That and Disney Burger. Color me curious.

I haven't been to Trader Sam's and I won't judge until I try one of their Mai Tais. If it has Pineapple Juice or Grenadine I will never step foot in the place again. A Mai Tai is not supposed to be a drink for little girls and grandmas.
 
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I haven't been to Trader Sam's and I won't judge until I try one of their Mai Tais. If it has Pineapple Juice or Grenadine I will never step foot in the place again. A Mai Tai is not supposed to be a drink for little girls and grandmas.

But, I love alcoholic drinks that have pineapple juice... I guess I'm a big girly grandma :lol:
 
I have nothing against Pineapple Juice, Orange Juice, or Grenadine but they have no place in a Mai Tai. This article explains the issue pretty well.

http://rumdood.com/2009/01/07/mai-tai-the-butchered-beverage/

A real Mai Tai should look like the one at the top of the link above.

The only place in Orlando I have found a real Mai Tai is Emeril's Tchoup Chop and Emeril's Orlando. I MAY (you can't prove it) have actually driven to Atlanta to Trader Vic's for a real Mai Tai.

I would LOVE for Trader Sam's to bring another option to town.

Some people take the Tiki Culture VERY seriously. I MAY be one of them :look:

And Caribbean and Tiki are NOT the same thing. The South Pacific and the West Indies are on opposite sides of the planet. But I love them both. My dream house would have a
South Pacific feel with Colonial Caribbean Bedrooms. I know I am weird, but the bedroom below looks like someplace I could rest my head comfortably.

sleighbed.jpg


Oh look, I went off the rails again. Shocking.
 
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That has been the rumors since before Disney Springs was announced. It was included in the poster for possible inclusions. That and Disney Burger. Color me curious.

Yeah, and it seems more and more likely that was a wish list than an actual plan. A couple of the companies flat out denied being interested in DS. And if definitely had a west coast slant.

I haven't been to Trader Sam's and I won't judge until I try one of their Mai Tais. If it has Pineapple Juice or Grenadine I will never step foot in the place again.

Rest assured, it does not. They take their tiki drinks pretty seriously--theirs seems to track the original Trader Vic's version pretty closely (orange curacao, not triple sec; orgeat, not amaretto). Mojitos made with muddled mint leaves, not Monin mint syrup, too.

[As an aside, DL takes their booze far more serious than WDW in general. I was pleasantly shocked that the Cathay bar in DCA serves strictly California microbrews. Even the Grand Floridian "has a beer list from 1992" to quote my favorite bartender--Bud/Miller/Coors, and Corona and Heineken. A couple places in DLR use "ice spheres" as well--only place I've seen that in Florida is Miami.]

As to Trader Sam's itself, it feels like a Trader Vic's decorated by Joe Rodhe. It steals a couple gags from the Adventurers Club (as well as the Enchanted Tiki Room), but it's still much more a "bar" than the AdvClub ever was.

Two things about it: it's tiny (maybe 25 barstools and a half dozen tables inside). And it's dominated by CMs. I don't know how well that translates to Orlando. The AdvClub could easily absorb a dozen or twenty "regulars" a night--Trader Sam's, as it exists, could not. The first response to this I hear is "make it bigger." But much of its charm is its intimacy--you can't just upscale it to the size of an Alehouse and expect it to be the same. The effects would either go off all the time to the point of being annoying, or simply not be noticable to most patrons. Nor do the drinks lend themselves to the speed-pour techniques a high volume bar relies on; it would be like trying to prepare V&A food for a dining room the size of 1900 Park Faire.

In other words, it doesn't really strike me as an (Orlando) DTD venue.
 
@TheDailyMouse tweeted this lovely little tidbit today.

https://twitter.com/thedailymouse/status/331097401353986048

Apparently we might be getting a Trader Sam's.

Yeah, and it seems more and more likely that was a wish list than an actual plan. A couple of the companies flat out denied being interested in DS. And if definitely had a west coast slant.



Rest assured, it does not. They take their tiki drinks pretty seriously--theirs seems to track the original Trader Vic's version pretty closely (orange curacao, not triple sec; orgeat, not amaretto). Mojitos made with muddled mint leaves, not Monin mint syrup, too.

[As an aside, DL takes their booze far more serious than WDW in general. I was pleasantly shocked that the Cathay bar in DCA serves strictly California microbrews. Even the Grand Floridian "has a beer list from 1992" to quote my favorite bartender--Bud/Miller/Coors, and Corona and Heineken. A couple places in DLR use "ice spheres" as well--only place I've seen that in Florida is Miami.]

As to Trader Sam's itself, it feels like a Trader Vic's decorated by Joe Rodhe. It steals a couple gags from the Adventurers Club (as well as the Enchanted Tiki Room), but it's still much more a "bar" than the AdvClub ever was.

Two things about it: it's tiny (maybe 25 barstools and a half dozen tables inside). And it's dominated by CMs. I don't know how well that translates to Orlando. The AdvClub could easily absorb a dozen or twenty "regulars" a night--Trader Sam's, as it exists, could not. The first response to this I hear is "make it bigger." But much of its charm is its intimacy--you can't just upscale it to the size of an Alehouse and expect it to be the same. The effects would either go off all the time to the point of being annoying, or simply not be noticable to most patrons. Nor do the drinks lend themselves to the speed-pour techniques a high volume bar relies on; it would be like trying to prepare V&A food for a dining room the size of 1900 Park Faire.

In other words, it doesn't really strike me as an (Orlando) DTD venue.

I said this on the day Disney Springs was announced, but Sam's is NOT coming to Orlando. At least not to Disney Springs.

However, I was told something of a spiritual brother to Sam's, made by WDI/Disney, will come to the Springs. What it is I don't know, but I know it won't be Sam's.
 
I said this on the day Disney Springs was announced, but Sam's is NOT coming to Orlando. At least not to Disney Springs.

However, I was told something of a spiritual brother to Sam's, made by WDI/Disney, will come to the Springs. What it is I don't know, but I know it won't be Sam's.

Really? I've heard that Sams was on the table (In a long list of Disney concepts to fill in the holes if they can't fill with 3rd party)
 
Id be happy with something similar in spirit to Trader Sams

I'd love to see the idea of Trader Sam's overlaid with, say, a Mansion or Villain theme. But my earlier point stands--I'm not saying a tiki theme won't work in Orlando, I'm saying a small bar with special effects and handcrafted drinks won't work in Orlando. And everything that makes Trader Sam's into Trader Sam's can't just be "upsized." I'd love to see a stand-alone Adventurers Club, too, but it just isn't a realistic option for the market.
 
Tiki theme for sure would work in Orlando, I mean Bahama Breeze proved that tropical themes work quite well here. If there is enough options in Disney Springs, I would think they could pull something smaller off. I mean not every place has to be huge if they have enough offerings and enough of these types of places. But then again, it is Disney and they probably won't do it right.
 
I was out there on Thursday and didn't notice anything. But I was on the other side, so I would have had to seen it driving by. Didn't notice a "parking" issue either that I would think would happen if parking was closed and all parking entrances seemed opened.
 
Lots of construction walls up in PI, the entertainment that has been hired in hopes that people don't notice the clubs are closed have all been moved around to accommodate.
 
Cap'n Jack's closing down for good on july 17th

Last day to get a strawberry margarita is the 17th of July they are closing down for good to make way for a walkway : - /
 
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