Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, November 9, 1993 TAG: 9311090123
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: The Washington Post
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
Disney is considering a park that initially would be about the size of the original Disneyland in Anaheim, Calif., which covers 185 acres including parking lots, the sources said.
Disney has purchased, or has options to buy, enough land to build such a park, allow for future expansion, and still leave a buffer zone around it, according to one of the sources.
A Disney company official in Florida said Monday that the company plans to build a theme park somewhere in Virginia, but provided no additional details.
The official was commenting on a report in Monday's Wall Street Journal. It said Disney is planning a major theme park in Virginia, but did not specify where.
John Dreyer, a spokesman at Disney's headquarters in Burbank, Calif., said, "We don't comment on speculation, and we don't have any comments on that story."
Neither the exact type of park under consideration, nor its precise location, was clear Monday after repeated calls to Disney, to state and local public officials, and to commercial real estate brokers in Northern Virginia.
One of the sources familiar with the project said the company has held discussions with parties that would be involved in construction of any park built in Northern Virginia.
Disney previously has seriously considered building theme parks at other sites in the United States, only to back off after failing to win local support or encountering other difficulties.
Prince William County already is in the running to be the site of a theme park to be built in the United States by the Danish toy company Lego.
The company is expected to decide by Nov. 30 whether the "Lego World" park would be built in Carlsbad, Calif., or on a site overlooking the Potomac River on the Cherry Hill peninsula east of U.S. 1.
John Gessaman, director of the Prince William County office of economic development, said he knew nothing about any Disney plans for a park in the county.
"A lot of things happen that I don't know about," Gessaman said.
Virginia Gov. Douglas Wilder, asked about Disney's reported interest in building a theme park in the state, issued a statement saying: "Virginia consistently is interested in attracting businesses and other economic development projects that provide jobs for our people, our number one priority. . . . We are working with any number of people in that regard."
Wilder, who was in Raleigh, N.C., at a convention on business opportunities between Korea and the United States, declined to comment further.
Hugh Keough, who until last year was head of the Virginia department of economic development, said that while he is not familiar with Disney's plans, "over the last three or four years, Disney has expressed a level of interest in some large parcels of land along the I-95 corridor" in Northern Virginia.
Bill Bryant, a commercial real estate broker based in Sterling, said Prince William makes sense as a theme park site because it is easily accessible by I-66 and by rail, and has Dulles International Airport nearby to the north.
by CNB