[The Anaheim Resort] Infrastructures publiques, hotels tiers, GardenWalk

et il a dû empocher un beau pactole

L'ancien propriétaire a encaissé 32 millions de dollars. Pour le gérant (société), cela ne change rien sinon qu'il payera dorénavant son "loyer" (et autres obligations) à Carousel Holdings Eat, LLC., une entreprise enregistrée dans le Delaware le 18 mars dernier...

Quelle surprise!! J'ai toujours eu un coup de coeur pour cet hotel mais n'y ai pas encore séjourné...

Des nouvelles des hotels tiers en construction:

Great Wolf Lodge




Nouvelle entrée du Ramada Maingate


Homewood Suites (vue aérienne)


Homewood Suites (de la rue)


Futur Hyatt House

A l'avenir, le Carousel Inn & Suites pourrait être simplement rasé pour créer un accès piéton aux parcs depuis le futur parking à étages: http://micechat.com/107199-fab-news-disneyland-3rd-park/

Citation :

So the question I keep getting is “What is Disney going to do with the Carousel Hotel that they just purchased across from Disneyland on Harbor Blvd?” Nothing, for now, except give MiceChat readers a great rate until August 15th. Down the line? They’re gonna knock it down to make room for an egress to the great big beautiful 5,000 car parking garage that’s going to go on all the land they own behind the hotels over there.

“But Fab!” you say, “There’s not enough room for cars to go in and/or out of a parking structure with that little, narrow space, and also Harbor Blvd. is not equipped to handle that kind of traffic!”
Okay, no one would say that sentence in real life.
But it won’t be a driveway, it will be a walkway. To get cars in and out, they’ll do a flyover from the freeway, much like with the Mickey and Friends lot. There will be some street access as well; if you’ve taken the Toy Story shuttle, you have some idea of the layout of the surface streets and the real estate that Disney owns.

pourquoi pas, ça fera un parking de l'autre côté comme ça si je me goure pas

Excuse moi J. Thaddeus TOAD mais je n'ai pas compris où sera le futur parking ??

mr Fantasy Toad a écrit:

Excuse moi J. Thaddeus TOAD mais je n'ai pas compris où sera le futur parking ??

Je t'invite à voir ce sujet: https://www.disneycentralplaza.com/t5518p40-disneyland-resort-projet-de-troisieme-parc-et-nouveaux-parkings#2660323

Le projet de tramway ne verra sans doute pas le jour. En tout cas, Disney n'en tient plus compte dans ses plans: http://micechat.com/108619-disneyland-rumors-starwars/

Citation :

Although the news that Disney had purchased that land north of Pumbaa was known to our readers 13 months ago, what’s changed in the last year is the strategic plan to cross Harbor Blvd. via a sky bridge. A year ago the city of Anaheim was still moving forward on their plan to build a streetcar line from the then under-construction ARTIC train station to the Disneyland area. The original plan had the streetcar, known as ARC for Anaheim Rapid Connection, zipping beneath the new parking structure towards a station along Harbor Blvd. that was to be built on the site of the current Park Vue Inn. The city planned to take that motel property via eminent domain, and then partner with Disney on getting an ARC station and maintenance facility attached to the parking structure.

But that plan backfired when the owners of the Park Vue Inn angrily went to the media about the plan, and since then the entire ARC project has been put into the deep freeze by a decision from the federal government that the ARC project isn’t eligible for federal funds, and the fact that the ARTIC transit center opened last December to tiny ridership numbers and a $4 Million annual operating deficit now being paid by Anaheim taxpayers.

That led Disney to abandon plans to partner with Anaheim’s dying ARC streetcar project and troubled ARTIC, and instead go off in their own direction. In April Disney purchased the Carousel Inn, a block north of the Park Vue Inn, and reconfigured their parking structure plans to link it to the parks via sky bridge a bit further north. The current plan is to demolish the Carousel Inn and build the sky bridge facility there, linking the 8 story parking structure on its north end and sending Disneyland visitors over Harbor Blvd. where they would be deposited past the monorail beam in the current bus loading area.

Projet pour un hôtel Marriott de 466 chambres à côté du GardenWalk Mall, à l'emplacement d'un actuel terrain vague qui jouxte le Cheesecake Factory sur South Clementine Street.

On apprend également dans l'article du Orange County Register que le restaurant House of Blues quitterait Downtown Disney pour s'installer à l'emplacement des anciens cinémas UltraLuxe du GardenWalk Mall.

Citation :

Four-diamond JW Marriott proposed for Disneyland area

ANAHEIM – A developer has submitted plans to build a luxury hotel at the GardenWalk mall near Disneyland, becoming the first to take advantage of a hefty city subsidy that aims to entice more-affluent tourists to stay in Anaheim.

The JW Marriott Anaheim would rise 12 stories with 466 guest rooms, ballrooms and meeting rooms on a 2.8-acre dirt lot near Katella Avenue and Clementine Street, within walking distance of Disney’s theme parks and the Convention Center.

It would cost $150 million-plus to build the hotel, financed in large part by a 70 percent return on bed taxes collected there over 20 years. Opponents have challenged the deal in court.

Despite the ongoing legal battle, developer Bill O’Connell Sr. said that “the time was right to move ahead,” and an application was filed Wednesday with Anaheim’s Planning Department.

“With the JW Marriott, we are bringing a highly respected hotel brand that will do great things by creating jobs, boosting the hotel industry and attracting bigger and better conventions to Anaheim,” said O’Connell, head of O'Connell Hotels & Hospitality. He is developing the hotel with Prospera Hotels. “We look forward to moving ahead with this project, which will provide tremendous benefits to the city of Anaheim, its visitors and residents.”

The hotel would be the first JW Marriott in Orange County and the fifth in California. The luxury chain meets AAA’s stringent guidelines for four-diamond ratings.

It is unclear what JW Marriott Anaheim would charge for rooms, but the rates are expected to be high. For example, the prices listed a month from now at the JW Marriott Los Angeles L.A. Live range from $359 to $439 for a Saturday night.

Jessica Berkin, a JW Marriott spokeswoman, declined to comment.

For now, the Disneyland Hotel and Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel & Spa are the only hotels in Anaheim that meet AAA’s coveted four-diamond rating.

“This is going to be a high-end, luxury option for people who visit Anaheim but prefer to stay in the coastal areas to get that caliber of hotel,” said Alan X. Reay, president of Atlas Hospitality Group in Irvine, which provides research on the state's hotel industry.

“I know that when I hear four-star hotel, I think of the higher-end places you see in Newport Beach or Costa Mesa, but not in Anaheim,” Reay said. “Anaheim’s three-star hotels and restaurants have typically catered to family travelers, so it’s going to be interesting to see how this hotel will capture the luxury market.”

In May 2013, the City Council awarded a $158 million room tax subsidy to help O’Connell build two luxury hotels at the struggling GardenWalk mall. He owns the land where the hotels would go.

O’Connell would receive a maximum $81.1 million subsidy for the JW Marriott, while the rest would go to a yet-announced, second four-diamond hotel.

O’Connell gets that funding by receiving 70 percent of the hotel’s bed taxes for up to 20 years. Another 20 percent would go to help cover massive improvements made to the resort area in 1996, with the remaining 10 percent going to the city.

“To have the JW Marriott choose Anaheim as its first location in Orange County shows a lot about their confidence in our city and the caliber of our economic initiatives,” Councilwoman Kris Murray said.

Despite objections from the mayor, a councilman, and a handful of community activists, the City Council voted 3-2 in June to adopt a policy offering the same deal to any other developer building a four-diamond hotel. Existing hoteliers wanting to overhaul their properties to meet the higher-quality standards would receive lesser subsidies.

Supporters say such deals generate additional revenue for the city, while opponents say they give away too much money to developers.

Mayor Tom Tait voted against the GardenWalk hotel deal in 2013, saying that room taxes generated by luxury hotels should pay for additional police officers, parks, road repairs and other city needs.

Hotel taxes are projected at $133 million through the current fiscal year, accounting for nearly half of Anaheim’s revenue.

“This would be a good thing if these GardenWalk hotels weren’t costing the people of Anaheim $158 million from the general fund because that money is needed to improve our neighborhoods, not to write checks for developers,” Tait said. “Offering this to additional developers will multiply the harm to our city.”

Shortly after the 2013 deal was struck, Orange County Communities Organized for Responsible Development filed a lawsuit alleging that four City Council members violated conflict-of-interest laws by accepting campaign contributions from O’Connell. An Orange County Superior Court judge dismissed the suit in May.

The community-labor alliance filed a appeal. John Woodhead, Anaheim’s community development director, estimated the litigation could delay construction of the JW Marriott for up to another year.

“I think the developer is confident enough to feel as though he can run through the process with the city so that he can break ground shortly after the litigation concludes,” Woodhead said. “He doesn’t want to wait any longer than he needs to.”

Even though the land was zoned for a hotel in 1997, city officials will review O'Connell's proposal, with final consideration expected to go to the Anaheim Planning Commission by November.

At least two other developers have expressed interest in coming to Anaheim with luxury hotels, too.

“We’re establishing the viability of a product in this market, and all of the advantages that come with it,” Woodhead said.

The GardenWalk mall offers such restaurants as P.F. Chang’s, Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. and The Cheesecake Factory. Still, it has had difficulties retaining tenants since opening in 2008. After several ownership changes, there are numerous vacancies.

The UltraLuxe Cinemas shuttered earlier this month. House of Blues recently announced it would move from its longtime home at Downtown Disney and take that spot.

Jay Burress, head of Visit Anaheim, said the anticipated changes at GardenWalk, along with the Convention Center’s ongoing expansion and the recent announcement that a “Star Wars” themed land is coming to Disneyland, makes Anaheim’s resort area ripe for a major luxury resort.

“We’ve heard time and again from current and potential visitors that Anaheim needed a luxury hotel outside of Disneyland,” said Burress, whose agency promotes Orange County and books events at the Convention Center. “This news elevates the city of Anaheim to an entirely new level for all visitors.”

The Orange County Register - 31 août 2015.

Image conceptuelle du futur JW Marriott Anaheim : City of Anaheim.


Image conceptuelle du futur JW Marriott Anaheim: City of Anaheim.


Image conceptuelle du futur JW Marriott Anaheim : City of Anaheim.

Le terrain convoité sur South Clementine Street :


Photo : Sam Gangwer.


Photo : Sam Gangwer.

Superbe article pour découvrir l'ancien "The Inn At The Park": http://www.yesterland.com/innatthepark.html

Situé à côté de l'Anaheim Convention Center, The Anabella Hotel sera bientôt rasé et remplacé par ceci:


http://micechat.com/117492-fab-news-4/

sympa, ma future nouvelle résidence là bas ? :-D

Le Great Wolf Lodge de Garden Grove et son parc aquatique ouvriront le 19 février prochain.

Comme dans les autres établissements de la chaine Great Wolf Lodge, seuls les résidents de l'hôtel auront accès au parc aquatique (et leurs invités résidant hors de l'établissement).


Photo : Nick Agro.

Wiley the Wolf :

Photo : Nick Agro.


Photo : Nick Agro

(les photos ont été prises en septembre dernier).

Great Wolf Lodge est ouvert: http://ocattractions.net/news/great-wolf-lodge-southern-california-now-open/



Concernant le projet de tramway, Anaheim publie un plan avec le tracé proposé: http://www.ocregister.com/articles/streetcar-706589-anaheim-city.html

House of Blues arrive au GardenWalk cet été! Le restaurant actuellement ouvert à Downtown Disney fermera le 31 mai.



http://www.ocregister.com/articles/blues-712113-house-new.html

Le conseil municipal d'Anaheim a approuvé hier soir la construction d'un nouvel hôtel de luxe à la place de l'actuel Anaheim Plaza Hotel & Suites sur South Harbor Boulevard, en face du parc Disney California Adventure (580 chambres).







Après avoir approuvé le projet de nouvel hôtel Disney (700 chambres), le conseil municipal devait dans la foulée marquer son accord pour le projet de nouvel hôtel de luxe à la place de l'actuel Anabella Hotel situé sur West Katella Avenue, à côté du Centre de Convention d'Anaheim dont J. Thaddeus TOAD nous a présenté une image conceptuelle en décembre dernier (630 chambres).

Avis sur le Great Wolf Lodge à lire sur https://www.mouseplanet.com/11486/Great_Wolf_Lodge_Review

L'actuel projet de tramway ne verra pas le jour, c'est définitif: http://micechat.com/136176-miceage-disneyland-rumor-update-monorail/

Citation :

Gone is the plan to incorporate a Streetcar line and maintenance facility in that space, with that Anaheim streetcar plan abandoned by the city and then officially killed off by county authorities earlier this summer.

Changement de majorité en vue au sein du Conseil municipal d'Anaheim en faveur du maire Tom Tait. Compte tenu de l'attitude hostile de ce dernier ces dernières années, celui-ci pourrait avoir une influence significative et pas nécessairement positive sur The Anaheim Resort et Disneyland Resort :

Citation :

With new majority, Disney loses its edge on Anaheim Council

Mayor Tom Tait long has fought the use of public taxpayer money to fund resort projects in the city.

He spoke out against borrowing through bonds to pay for the expansion of the Anaheim Convention Center. He voted against subsidies to developers for a pair of four-diamond hotels at the GardenWalk, and again a year later for three more luxury hotels in the resort area, including at Disneyland.

And he’s balked at suggestions the city lease land to the Angels for $1 a year so owner Arte Moreno would improve the aging Angel Stadium.

But for the most part, since taking the helm as mayor in 2010, Tait has lacked a council majority to come out on top.

Until now.

Two candidates he endorsed are taking the dais Dec. 13 – when the council grows to seven members.

With supporter James Vanderbilt already on the council, and newcomers Denise Barnes and Jose F. Moreno in office, Tait sees a four-person majority emerging with less focus on the city’s resort district and more on neighborhoods and small businesses.

Some residents already are calling them “The People’s Council.”

“In my opinion, the other council members were Disneyland puppets,” said Victoria Michaels, 69, who said she has attended or watched every council meeting the past three years. “They never voted in favor of the people. I’m delighted that I can finally see the mayor get some work done.”

Cynthia Ward, 50, a longtime council observer, called the election “make or break” for the city. “Our current council has indebted us and obligated future revenues.”

But the 1,100-acre resort area draws some 23 million visitors a year to Disneyland, the Convention Center and Angels games, and they spill over into other Orange County cities to spend money and visit attractions.

In Anaheim’s resort district, spending by visitors at restaurants and stores and the taxes they pay on their hotel stays provide the city a $160 million revenue stream into its general fund each year. That funds nearly a quarter of the city’s spending.

Representatives from the Angels and Disney said they look forward to working with the new council.

Councilwoman Kris Murray, who has long butted heads with the mayor, said supporting the resort, and the businesses within it, is essential to providing much-needed services to residents.

“Anaheim has been successful because of the economic programs that have been set in place,” she said, adding that the money generated by the resort is one reason why the city emerged out of the recession. “The Anaheim way has always been to partner with the business industry to grow the local economy. Not only does the city benefit, but other surrounding cities and the county.”

Voters, Tait said, have been frustrated with the incentives pledged to help developers and funneled away from city services and needs such as improvements of parks and street and road repairs.

“It’s the City Council’s job to prioritize how we spend,” he said. “When you give away taxpayer money to hotel developers, we’re not spending it in the community.”

When the council convenes, Tait said one of his first steps will be seeing which of the previous council’s policies he can get tossed, ending what he calls corporate giveaways.

In the last several years, the council has awarded an estimated $650 million in future hotel bed tax subsidies to three hotel developers, including Disney, for the construction of five luxury hotels in the resort district. City leaders said Anaheim needed more higher-end properties to compete with other destinations for wealthier visitors.

The program reimburses a developer 70 percent of the transient occupancy tax collected from guests for 20 years in exchange for the development of hotels meeting AAA’s criteria for a four-diamond rating. Guests staying in the city pay a 15 percent bed tax.

Overturning the promised subsidies would most likely result in legal challenges, but shutting the door to future deals wouldn’t.

Harder to challenge, but still something Tait said he wants to revisit, is the council’s 2015 agreement with Disney that it won’t tack a tax on theme park tickets for up to 45 years in exchange for Disney investing $1.5 billion in improvements at the theme park and surrounding resort area. A “Star Wars” land was announced soon afterward.

Tait reiterated he doesn’t support a gate tax, but said he did not want to limit a future council’s decision to implement such a tax on the theme park.

“We’re going to question the legality of some of these policies,” Tait said. “We’re going to make sure things are done legally.”

Tait will also now likely be the driver of negotiations with the Angels, said Matthew Cunningham, a political strategist and editor of OCDaily, a political blog.

Tait wants to keep the Angels in town but has opposed the framework of a proposal under which the Angels lease the 150-acre parking lot surrounding Angel Stadium for $1 a year for 66 years, letting owner Arte Moreno develop the space and use the profits to cover the estimated $150 million in much-needed improvements to the city-owned stadium.

“Tom has the majority. He has the four votes. If he wants to repeal the hotel incentive policy and probably get rid of anything that’s left of the streetcar, he could accomplish that with the new council,” Cunningham said, referring to a controversial $300 million streetcar proposed to connect the city’s regional transportation hub, ARTIC, to Disneyland and the Convention Center.

“With the Angels, who knows?” Cunningham added. “It was Tom who shook up the negotiating team from a few years ago and brought in a new lawyer. But I’m not sure what’s going to change with the election results.”

Angels spokeswoman Marie Garvey said “Angels baseball has been part of Anaheim for 50 years and we look forward to working with the new council.”

Disney officials congratulated the new council and “look forward to Anaheim’s continued growth and success under their leadership.”

Barnes, the newly elected councilwoman, said one of the reasons she ran for the City Council is she noticed “a lot of one-sidedness in the council,” and that was reflected in the lack of attention to her west Anaheim neighborhood.

“It’s laughable,” she said. “Even before ARTIC, we have had a carousel of things. It’s always about the giveaways.”

Tait said he wants to usher the council into a new era.

“We want to be very business-friendly,” Tait said. “We don’t want to be just about giving to Disney or big businesses in the resort. We want to equally support small businesses and make it easier for them to grow, expand and create jobs.”

The Orange County Register - 30 novembre 2016.

Cela se confirme... Les projets d'hôtels annoncés pour The Anaheim Resort (dont le quatrième hôtel Disney) remis en question avec l'annulation du programme incitatif à l'attention des promoteurs hôteliers ?

Citation :

Anaheim's new city council sets about reversing Disney-friendly past

Anaheim’s new city council signaled its intention to make a sharp break with its Disney-friendly past during its first, full-agenda meeting this week.

In one of its first salvos, the council — dubbed by some “the people’s council” — voted unanimously Tuesday to ditch a program that promised generous tax breaks for luxury hotels. The program had offered a tax rebate equivalent to 70 percent of the occupancy tax collected by any new luxury hotel for 20 years.

Renovated luxury hotels would get back 50 percent of the occupancy tax.

Since the plan was adopted in June 2015, the city has approved three luxury hotels for the program, one of them planned by Disney. Once opened, those hotels will still get the rebate, on a grandfathered basis, despite the program's being cancelled.

In total, they’re expected to receive some $550 million in tax rebates.

Newly elected council members Jose Moreno and Denise Barnes promised during their campaigns to put Anaheim residents and neighborhoods ahead of Disney and the city's resort district. Along with Mayor Tom Tait and Councilman James Vanderbilt — who have often been opposed to subsidies for the resort district — they now form a majority on the city council.

In November, Anaheim residents voted for the first time for city council representatives by geographic district rather than at-large. The switch to by-district elections came after Moreno and several other individuals filed a lawsuit against the city under the California Voting Rights Act, alleging that at-large elections diluted the power of Latino voters.

Moreno has painted the switch to district elections and his victory in District 1 as a step towards lessening the influence of big money on local politics. According to an analysis from the online news site Voice of OC, Disney spent more than $900,000 in November to try to sway Anaheim city council races in their favor.

At Tuesday’s meeting, council members Kris Murray and Lucille Kring, who voted for the hotel incentive program in 2015, defended it but said it had fulfilled its purpose.

Kring said executives and others visiting Anaheim for reasons other than to go to Disneyland tend to stay in luxury hotels outside of the city, often in nearby coastal communities, because Anaheim doesn’t have enough luxury rooms.

“I’m glad I supported the hotel incentive, and now it’s time to say goodbye to the hotel incentive,” Kring said before the vote.

Newly elected council member Steve Faessel, whose candidacy was endorsed by the pro-Disney PAC Support Our Anaheim Resort Area, voted with the rest of the council on scrapping the incentive.

Bickering on the dais

Despite the unanimous vote on ending the hotel subsidy program, tensions between the pro-Disney faction and the less friendly one on the council flared numerous times throughout the nearly 8-hour meeting, with Faessel largely staying neutral. The majority approved several items intended to restore power to the populist Mayor Tait, who had largely been marginalized by the previous council.

After much debate and a bitter defense from Murray of the previous council’s action, the council voted to restore the mayor's ability to put items on the city council agenda outside of an open council meeting — a privilege that was taken away in 2013 — and to restore the mayor’s staffing budget in order to bump his one aide from a part-time to a full-time position.

The council also voted to end the city’s agreement with the local Chamber of Commerce under which the city contributed $167,000 to chamber-sponsored events, including a job fair, business awards luncheon and a golf tournament.

“I think with a healthy chamber of commerce, there’s not a contract between the city and the chamber,” Mayor Tait said. That item also passed unanimously, despite Murray and Kring’s defense of the agreement.

In its final action, after 1 a.m. on Wednesday, the council voted 5-2 to terminate the contract of interim City Attorney Arturo Fierro, who was appointed for a one-year period just a week before the November elections. Fierro is the father of former city councilman Jordan Brandman’s campaign manager and policy aide. Brandman narrowly lost the election for District 1 to Moreno last month.

Tait and Moreno had accused the former council of hiring an allied city attorney in anticipation of a switch in the council’s balance of power and potential attempts to undo previous council actions.

Murray and Kring voted against terminating Fierro’s contract.

Tait did agree, in the holiday spirit, to keep Fierro on staff until Dec. 31 rather than end his contract immediately.

KPCC - 22 décembre 2016.

Je ne pense pas que le quatrième hôtel Disney soit remis en question car on peut lire:

Citation :

Since the plan was adopted in June 2015, the city has approved three luxury hotels for the program, one of them planned by Disney. Once opened, those hotels will still get the rebate, on a grandfathered basis, despite the program's being cancelled.

Donc les hôtels de luxe déjà validé dont le quatrième hôtel Disney aura bien droit a ses réductions de taxes, par contre il y'aura je pense beaucoup moins de nouveaux projets d'hôtels de luxe.

Tu as raison, les projets déjà approuvés bénéficieraient bien des avantages du programme et l'annulation de celui-ci n'aurait pas d'influence sur la réalisation de ces projets.

Nouveaux projets d'hotels dont un voisin direct des terrains Disney situés au sud de Katella Avenue. Sur le site de l'ancien Arena Inn & Suites (à l'angle de Katella Avenue et Haster Street) va être construit un Hampton Inn & Suites de 178 chambres sur 4 étages. Lire http://www.ocregister.com/2017/03/17/3-more-hotel-projects-planned-around-disneyland-in-anaheims-resort-area/

La façade nord donnant sur Katella Avenue (et Haster Street à gauche de l'image)


La façade sud donnant sur les terrains Disney


L'autre nouvel hotel, Element by Westin, remplacera des boutiques (sur Arlo Way) pour un total de 174 chambres


Pour les situer rapidement:

L'Anabella Hotel vient de fermer et sera bientôt rasé pour laisser place à un hotel de luxe...



http://www.ocregister.com/2017/08/15/anabella-hotel-near-disneyland-closes-developer-to-begin-construction-on-four-diamond-resort-in-september/