Walt Disney Co DIS has its eyes set on real estate as another area of growth for the company in the future.
What Happened: Storyliving by Disney was unveiled by Josh D’Amaro, the chairman of Disney Parks, Experiences and Products, in a video highlighting the first location and future plans.
“I’m proud to announce our next Disney experience, Storyliving by Disney,” D’Amaro said.
The first Storyliving location will be Rancho Mirage, just outside of Palm Springs, California, around 2 hours from Disneyland. The residential community will be called Cotino, featuring 1,900 housing units. Rancho Mirage is special to Disney, as it was the former home of the company’s co-founder Walt Disney.
Cotino will feature shopping, dining, a hotel, a lagoon and a clubhouse.
The public will be able to visit Cotino by purchasing day passes. A portion of the Cotino community will be for residents 55 years of age or older.
Related Link: Disney Q1 Earnings Highlights: Parks Segment Up 100%, Disney+ Hits 129.8M Subscribers, ARPU Increases
Why It’s Important: The new launch will bring new residential communities that have the same attention to detail and innovation as Disney has included in its theme parks, cruise ships, resorts and other experiences.
“We’re exploring a variety of locations in the U.S. first.”
D’Amaro said Storyliving will strengthen the Disney brand.
Disney is working with real estate developers and homebuilders on the Storyliving concept.
The creation of residential villages ties in a dream of the company’s founder Walt Disney. A utopian city of the future called Epcot was once envisioned by Disney. Epcot stood for “experimental prototype community of tomorrow.” Epcot is the name of one of the theme parks inside Walt Disney World in Florida.
Disney has tried its hand at real estate over the years with ownership of several themed hotels and resorts nearby and on Disney theme park property. Disney also owns Disney Vacation Club, a collection of timeshare condos.
The Parks and Resorts segment has proved to be a strong growth driver over the years and with travel restrictions easing has seen a boom in visitors. The segment has turned in year-over-year revenue growth of 100% and 99% in the last two respective quarters.
Disney Storyliving could be a future growth storyline to watch for Disney shareholders. The company has been successful at many of the sectors it has entered.
With growth already secured in streaming, consumer products and theme parks, Disney now looks to real estate, NFTs, the metaverse and sports betting as new avenues of future growth.
DIS Price Action: Disney shares were down 2.16% at $152.98 Thursday afternoon.
Photo courtesy of Disney.
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