Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser

[Parkscope Joe]

Well, we can't expect full admission of failure. Personally, I would hope that they either tear it down or repurpose the building for something useful.

When they say they're doing a tax write off they literally can't continue to use it. See: the tax write-offs for Batwoman.

 

[UniversalRBLX]

The Starcruiser will be utilized for an immersive Florida swamp 2-night experience. The building will be torn down and replaced with a swamp, natural wildlife, and mosquitos. A new DVC resort will open on the site - with standard hammocks or premium cabanas (the same ones from Tomorrowland).

 

[Nick]

When they say they're doing a tax write off they literally can't continue to use it. See: the tax write-offs for Batwoman.

Just because he says we’ll hear about something doesn’t mean the building will continue to exist. I expect it to be a ground up DVC.

 

[Alicia]

That dinner show is soooo going into Galaxy's Edge.

 

[Jerroddragon]

If they did use the hotel (or part of it for GE) would that most likely be Exclusive to Florida? I mean its a good deal of land they can use

 

[UniversalRBLX]

That dinner show is soooo going into Galaxy's Edge.

Space 221 - A Star Wars Experience

 

[Parkscope Joe]

That dinner show is soooo going into Galaxy's Edge.

Like it was originally supposed to! Just took them 5+ years and $300 million wasted to figure that out.

 

[Grabnar]

When they say they're doing a tax write off they literally can't continue to use it. See: the tax write-offs for Batwoman.

Different types of tax write off, they're depreciating the asset early. They *could* keep using the hotel it would just have substantially higher taxable income later.

My guess is that they gut this thing and pull a series of "immersive experiences" into SWGE just like Alicia was saying.

 

[Alicia]

Like it was originally supposed to! Just took them 5+ years and $300 million wasted to figure that out.

We all have our own journeys in life. Sometimes it takes us a little while to find our way (and hundreds of millions of dollars).

 

[Parkscope Joe]

We all have our own journeys in life. Sometimes it takes us a little while to find our way (and hundreds of millions of dollars).

Happy I didn't waste that much figuring out I'm gay.

 

[UniversalRBLX]

I wonder if corporate has decided to slow down on the "IPs or nothing" initiative for the parks.

All of their recent projects with "shoved-in" IP requirements have failed terribly - Harmonious, Enchantment, Starcruiser, Rivers of Light 2.0. While I don't expect anything original to happen soon... I bet their willingness to listen to a few original ideas has increased recently.

 

[Grabnar]

I wonder if corporate has decided to slow down on the "IPs or nothing" initiative for the parks.

All of their recent projects with "shoved-in" IP requirements have failed terribly - Harmonious, Enchantment, Starcruiser, Rivers of Light 2.0. While I don't expect anything original to happen soon... I bet their willingness to listen to a few original ideas has increased recently.

[Laughs in DinoLand USA]

 

[Nick]

I wonder if corporate has decided to slow down on the "IPs or nothing" initiative for the parks.

All of their recent projects with "shoved-in" IP requirements have failed terribly - Harmonious, Enchantment, Starcruiser, Rivers of Light 2.0. While I don't expect anything original to happen soon... I bet their willingness to listen to a few original ideas has increased recently.

RoL 2.0 happened bc RoL OG failed.

 

[Disneyhead]

Just leave it a SW themed hotel, but really just a hotel. Run the shuttle to the park constantly. Have busses out front to the other parks. Have the hotel open to the public, but only if they have dinner reservations. Have R2-D2 and Chewie do M&Gs in the lobby 3 times a day, but no equity actors except rework the dinner show into an upcharge show like Hoop-Dee-Doo.

Maybe even expand it a bit with an indoor pool/fitness center addition. Extra points if there is a space themed tiki bar by the pool.

$450/night.

 

[UniversalRBLX]

Just leave it a SW themed hotel, but really just a hotel. Run the shuttle to the park constantly. Have busses out front to the other parks. Have the hotel open to the public, but only if they have dinner reservations. Have R2-D2 and Chewie do M&Gs in the lobby 3 times a day, but no equity actors. Maybe even expand it a bit with an indoor pool/fitness center addition.

$450/night.

They should have done this but actually placed it along the border of the land so you could just stroll in/out of SWGE easily.

Still amazes me that it will take until 2025 to get a proper hotel inside a theme park in Orlando. Cabana's towers don't count since that's not in-theme of the park's environment.

 

[Cygnus]

When they say they're doing a tax write off they literally can't continue to use it. See: the tax write-offs for Batwoman.

Clive is right, this is not true. To modify the facility in any way (office space, guest facing experience, etc) comes with a capex spend with its own depreciation. WB can still release that movie, all it takes is a reversal and no big deal at all.

I don’t recommend getting tax information from Twitter “experts”

 

[Parkscope Joe]

Clive is right, this is not true. To modify the facility in any way (office space, guest facing experience, etc) comes with a capex spend with its own depreciation. WB can still release that movie, all it takes is a reversal and no big deal at all.

I don’t recommend getting tax information from Twitter “experts”

Haha fair point. I just know depreciating the assets doesn't mean this is coming back in anyway and Josh is being cute with his wording here.

 

[HandsomePete]

Clive is right, this is not true. To modify the facility in any way (office space, guest facing experience, etc) comes with a capex spend with its own depreciation. WB can still release that movie, all it takes is a reversal and no big deal at all.

I don’t recommend getting tax information from Twitter “experts”

The movie was probably a bad example and I don’t understand movie accounting - so you’re right in the sense that when you spend capital on an existing thing that capitalized item is on its own depreciation schedule that starts from the in-service date of the new item. However, the number Josh threw out when talking about the write-off implies that they’re going to shut it forever and probably bulldoze it.

The tax implication is secondary to the real purpose of a write off, which is to remove the asset from the balance sheet all at once instead of slowly on the normal depreciation schedule. While there’s a lot that’s been capitalized that will be worthless if the hotel was repurposed (costumes, all of the WDI labor to come up with the story, probably the tech backbone of the choose your own adventure bit, etc.), there’s a lot of expensive stuff that wouldn’t be worthless - the foundation, the driveway, the earthwork to prep the site, the walls, roof, etc. You can’t write that stuff down to zero if you’re going to reuse the building. That’s why I referenced the number that Josh threw out a few weeks ago - based on the rumored overall cost of the hotel, it sounds like a scrape to me.

But I could be wrong - they could just paint it green and let it sit there instead of paying to tear it down.

 

[Cygnus]

The movie was probably a bad example and I don’t understand movie accounting - so you’re right in the sense that when you spend capital on an existing thing that capitalized item is on its own depreciation schedule that starts from the in-service date of the new item. However, the number Josh threw out when talking about the write-off implies that they’re going to shut it forever and probably bulldoze it.

The tax implication is secondary to the real purpose of a write off, which is to remove the asset from the balance sheet all at once instead of slowly on the normal depreciation schedule. While there’s a lot that’s been capitalized that will be worthless if the hotel was repurposed (costumes, all of the WDI labor to come up with the story, probably the tech backbone of the choose your own adventure bit, etc.), there’s a lot of expensive stuff that wouldn’t be worthless - the foundation, the driveway, the earthwork to prep the site, the walls, roof, etc. You can’t write that stuff down to zero if you’re going to reuse the building. That’s why I referenced the number that Josh threw out a few weeks ago - based on the rumored overall cost of the hotel, it sounds like a scrape to me.

But I could be wrong - they could just paint it green and let it sit there instead of paying to tear it down.

At that time of the closure announcement and probably still, the Accounting and Controllership team doesn't know the future of the asset so you still just do the entire accelerated depreciation at once, and any future evaluations can get that adjustment entered. It equals out

 

[Grabnar]

However, the number Josh threw out when talking about the write-off implies that they’re going to shut it forever and probably bulldoze it.

$200-250M is the cost of site prep and buildout with Disney’s insane costs, Len and Jim threw out almost $1B for the entire thing which I would believe.

You could write off the building and infrastructure and still repurpose a lot of other tech/props well within that estimate range assuming your accountants play along.