by Lacey Pfalz
Last updated: 9:50 AM ET, Mon June 3, 2024
A more peaceful era for Walt Disney World and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis might be coming as a new development deal would allow for $17 billion worth in expansion and development for the park, which might include a long-speculated fifth theme park.
According to Business Insider, The Walt Disney Company’s $17 billion development plan is up for a public hearing with DeSantis’ appointed Central Florida Tourism Oversight District, which had replaced the Reedy Creek Improvement District during the most tenuous times of the Disney-DeSantis feud in February 2023.
The public hearing will be held this week, and the board will vote on June 15 on whether to allow the new development plan to proceed.
If it’s allowed, it’ll be the second peaceful agreement between the two parties following the settlement reached in late March 2024, ending two years of legal feuding following DeSantis’s controversial “Don’t Say Gay” bill was passed into law with vocal criticism from the Walt Disney Company.
The new development agreement would expand Walt Disney World over the next two decades. It’s expected to cost some $17 billion. Disney must find local contractors for 50 percent of its construction work.
Currently, the company has four theme parks in the Orlando area: Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Disney’s Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom. Speculation about a fifth Walt Disney World expansion has been around for years.
"With Walt Disney World's substantial investments, we anticipate economic growth, job creation, and support for local businesses, alongside environmental stewardship and workforce housing initiatives, benefiting Central Florida's community," the district administrator, Stephanie Kopelousos, told Business Insider.
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