Lake Nona is a planned community near Orlando, Florida, where Walt Disney World Resort — Disney’s flagship theme park property — is located.
Although nothing has been confirmed by Disney, it seems that this first round of job relocations, which will take place over approximately 16 months, may just be the tip of the iceberg.
Moving 2,000 employees in a single phase is perhaps the top end of how many people a company can move at once due to the complexities around the endeavor, according to site selection expert John Boyd, a principal at Boca Raton-based The Boyd Co. Inc., who is not involved in Disney’s relocation…
…”The business cost advantages of Orlando versus Southern California and the overall business climate advantages of Florida versus California are very compelling for Disney,” Boyd said.
As a prime example of why Disney probably isn’t done moving operations from the Golden State to the Sunshine State, OBJ cited Toyota’s North American relocation out of California to Plano, Texas. The move to Toyota’s current 2.1 million square foot office space on over 100 acres occurred in multiple phases.
While it is highly unlikely that The Walt Disney Company will ever have zero presence in the State of California — particularly with the existence of Disneyland Resort in Anaheim — there certainly is a case to be made for Disney continuing to move operations to the East Coast, if only for financial reasons.
At this time, Walt Disney Company CEO Bob Chapek and other executives have remained mum on further relocations.
What do you think about Disney’s relocation of thousands of jobs so far?
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Credit: Disney
