Orange County mayor says lack of ‘inclusive’ environment reason for Disney’s project cancel
ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. (FLV) – In response to the Walt Disney Company canceling a planned project to invest $1 billion in developing the Lake Nona campus in the Orlando area to employ around 2,000 workers, Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings blamed the lack of an “inclusive” environment.
“It is unfortunate that Disney will not be moving forward with construction of the Lake Nona campus,” Demings, a Democrat, said. “However, these are the consequences when there isn’t an inclusive and collaborative work environment between the state of Florida and the business community.”
“We will continue to work closely with our valued partners at Disney,” Demings said.
DeSantis’ office responded to the news, saying the “possibility” of the project was brought up two years ago and “nothing ever came” of it.
“The state was unsure whether it would come to fruition,” they said.
“Given the company’s financial straits, falling market cap, and declining stock price, it is unsurprising that they would restructure their business operations and cancel unsuccessful ventures.”
The actions were limited to the Lake Nona campus, which would also have relocated Californian employees, and a Disney official noted that plans for $17 billion of investments in Walt Disney World remain.
Josh D’Amaro, the company’s theme park and consumer products chairman, pointed to “changing business conditions” for the project cancellation.
He said he is still “optimistic” about Disney World.
Jeremy Redfern, press secretary for DeSantis, said that the story of Disney’s $1 billion project cancellation was “corporate propaganda to distract from their failed $6000 two-night Star Wars Galactic Starcruiser experiment.”
Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser was also announced to be closing in September of this year after being open for just over a year so far.
Ongoing lawsuits with Disney and DeSantis are over Florida’s nullification of the company’s last-minute, far-reaching agreements that granted them considerable power over the district.
Disney alleged that the governor-appointed board is engaging in a “targeted campaign of government retaliation” that would threaten “Disney’s business operations, jeopardizes its economic future in the region, and violates its constitutional rights.”
They described the board’s vote to commence nullification of Disney’s far-reaching agreements, that occurred before the new board was appointed, as the “last strike.”
DeSantis’ office previously responded to the lawsuit, saying Disney has no “legal right” to “operate its own government or maintain special privileges not held by other businesses in the state.”
