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In 1959

Walt Disney began looking for land in 1959 to build a second theme park to supplement Disneyland. Surveys found that most Disneyland visitors came from areas east of the Mississippi River, where most Americans lived. In 1963, Disney flew over land near Orlando, Florida and selected a site due to its central location and access to major highways. Disney used shell companies to anonymously acquire over 30,000 acres to avoid speculation. Real estate agents secretly made offers in 1964, acquiring large tracts for as little as $100 per acre, in preparation for what would become Walt Disney World.

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54 views1 page

In 1959

Walt Disney began looking for land in 1959 to build a second theme park to supplement Disneyland. Surveys found that most Disneyland visitors came from areas east of the Mississippi River, where most Americans lived. In 1963, Disney flew over land near Orlando, Florida and selected a site due to its central location and access to major highways. Disney used shell companies to anonymously acquire over 30,000 acres to avoid speculation. Real estate agents secretly made offers in 1964, acquiring large tracts for as little as $100 per acre, in preparation for what would become Walt Disney World.

Uploaded by

triwidyckh
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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In 1959, Walt Disney Productions began looking for land to house a second resort to

supplement Disneyland in Anaheim, California, which had opened in 1955. Market


surveys at the time revealed that only 5% of Disneyland's visitors came from east of
the Mississippi River, where 75% of the population of the United States lived.
Additionally, Walt Disney disliked the businesses that had sprung up around Disneyland
and wanted more control over a larger area of land in the next proje

Walt Disney flew over a potential sitn Orlando, Florida – one of many – in November
1963. After witnessing the well-developed network of roads and taking the planned
construction of both Interstate 4 and Florida's Turnpike into account, with McCoy Air
Force Base (laterOrlando International Airport) to the east, Disney selected a centrally-
located site near Bay Lake.[4] To avoid a burst of land speculation,Walt Disney World
Company used various dummy corporations to acquire 30,500 acres (48 sq mi; 123 km2)
of land.[4] In May 1965, some of these major land transactions were recorded a few miles
southwest of Orlando in Osceola County. In addition, two large tracts totaling $1.5
million were sold, and smaller tracts of flatlands and cattle pastures were purchased by
exotically-named companies such as the "Ayefour Corporation", "Latin-American
Development and Management Corporation" and the "Reedy Creek Ranch Corporation".
Some are now memorialized on a window above Main Street, U.S.A. in Magic Kingdom.
The smaller parcels of land acquired were called "outs". They were 5-acre (2 ha)
lots platted in 1912 by the Munger Land Company and sold to investors. Most of the
owners in the 1960s were happy to get rid of the land, which was mostly swamp at the
time. Another issue was the mineral rights to the land, which were owned byTufts
University. Without the transfer of these rights, Tufts could come in at any time and
demand the removal of buildings to obtain minerals. Eventually, Disney's team negotiated
a deal with Tufts to buy the mineral rights for $15,000.[5]

Working strictly in secrecy, real estate agents unaware of their client's identity began
making offers to landowners in April 1964 in parts of southwest Orange and northwest
Osceola counties. The agents were careful not to reveal the extent of their intentions, and
they were able to negotiate numerous land contracts with some including large tracts of
land for as little as $100 an acre.[6] With the

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