First, Disney. Next, Harry Kane?
The battle between Walt Disney and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is causing waves across the ocean for the owner of soccer’s Tottenham Hotspur.
Disney’s decision to cancel a billion-dollar project in Lake Nona, Fla., is putting a stop to a large endeavor being touted by Tavistock, an international real estate and investment firm. Tavistock is owned by Joe Lewis, who is also majority owner of the Premier League squad led by Kane, the English national team captain.
Two years ago, Disney announced plans to develop a 60-acre campus in Lake Nona, an area in Orlando, Fla., that is owned and being developed by Tavistock. The campus was to be a new headquarters for Disney’s Parks, Experiences and Products division, relocating at least 1,000 employees from Burbank, Calif., to work in 1.6 million square feet of office space to be built in the Sunshine State.
According to a 2021 announcement on the project on the Lake Nona website (and since removed), the campus was to hold about 2,000 Disney employees in total, making an average of $120,000 a year. The Disney land is walking distance to Lake Nona Town Center, a retail and entertainment development currently being built out. In addition to the corporate campus, Tavistock and Disney had reportedly explored developing an age-restricted community in the region, in part over concerns of a lack of housing in Orlando. Just last month, Tavistock got approval for Disney’s plans from the Orlando City Council. Yesterday Disney said it was scuttling the plan, citing the well-publicized attacks on the company by DeSantis.
The future of the site is now uncertain. Tavistock sold the land to be developed to Disney for $46.4 million in 2021, according to the Orlando Sentinel, and had been working with the company to help build it out. Disney would have joined a number of other businesses in the 17-square-mile development, including the U.S. Tennis Association and the Lake Nona Fund, a sports and technology focused venture capital fund of Lewis and the descendants of Adidas founder Adi Dassler. Representatives for Tavistock didn’t respond to a request for comment.
The Disney news could be the start of a summer of unpleasant developments for the octogenarian Lewis. Tottenham star Kane is reportedly ready to leave Spurs either this summer or at the end of his contract next season. Kane, one of the most dynamic players in the Premier League, is said to be unhappy with the lack of title contention by the London team he grew up cheering for.
While Spurs earned a place in the UEFA Champions League for this season, they were ousted in the round of 16 in February, and, sitting seventh in the EPL table with 57 points, won’t qualify for the elite European competition next year.
