Disney Pulls Out Of $1B Florida Investment Amid DeSantis Feud

Amidst a contentious disagreement with Florida’s Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, The Walt Disney Co. has decided to pull out its $1 billion investment in the state. The dispute originated from Disney’s public opposition to Governor DeSantis’ proposed legislation, which sought to impose restrictions on the teaching of s*xual orientation and gender identity in public schools.

Josh D’Amaro, Chairman of Disney Parks, Experiences, and Products, announced the company’s change of plans in a memo addressed to Disney employees.

Disney Pulls Out Of $1B Florida Investment Amid DeSantis Feud — Twitter

The memo stated that the construction of a new Disney campus in Lake Nona will no longer proceed. The scrap of the development comes less than a week before DeSantis is expected to announce his presidential campaign. On Friday, the editorial board of the Miami Herald wrote that national voters should take Disney’s cancellation of the project as a warning.

The editorial board then said, “Floridians are the losers here. We’ve lost jobs and investment, and we could lose even more, all because DeSantis picked a petty fight with Disney.”

The Lake Nona complex would have employed 2,000 Disney workers that would have been relocated from California to Florida. The decision to scrap the Lake Nona project also comes as Disney cuts more than $5 billion in costs. Recently, CEO Bob Iger mulled on an investor conference call about his company’s frayed relationship with Florida, which led to Disney suing DeSantis.

Disney in its lawsuit alleged that the governor had overseen a “targeted campaign of government retaliation.” According to CBS News, Iger pondered on the May 10 conference call, stating “Does the state want us to invest more, employ more people and pay more taxes, or not?” He also noted that Disney is the largest taxpayer in Central Florida, providing over $1.1 billion in state and local taxes in 2022.

The Lake Nona described as arguably Orlando’s most anticipated project would have added about 1.8 million square feet of office space.

The New York Times reported that most of Disney’s employees who were to move to Lake Nona work in the company’s Imagineering department. “Given the considerable changes that have occurred since the announcement of this project, including new leadership and changing business conditions, we have decided not to move forward with construction of the campus,” D’Amaro said in the email. “This was not an easy decision to make, but I believe it is the right one.”