The Central Florida Tourism Oversight District has announced a successful round of funding as part of an “extremely busy” development cycle underway at Walt Disney World. The new round of bond sales was very successful, according to an update from the District. In this article, we’ll go over the recent sales, why they matter, and what to expect next as a result of the new funding for the District that oversees Walt Disney World.
$170 Million in New Funding for Disney Oversight District
According to an update from Mike Crikis, Deputy District Administrator, the District enjoyed an “extremely successful” funding round, with nearly two dozen institutional investors placing orders on the bonds. Crikis said that 21 total investors placed orders, with more than 3 times that amount wanting to buy in. The deal was expected to close on November 25th. The Oversight District will receive the funds immediately.
We first covered news of the bonds back in June when the Oversight District Board of Supervisors approved a request from the finance department to explore issuing new bonds. Since 2015, the District has obtained more than $186 million in bonds, having spent nearly $150 million of that amount.
The $170 million will support 22 infrastructure projects on the horizon for the District. The bonds will be used to support five of the District’s utility systems, including chilled and hot water, electric, wastewater, and potable water. The project categories include long-term asset replacement, capacity maintenance requirements, and system expansions.
Of course, the system expansions are the most interesting, with Walt Disney World planning on expanding its theme parks significantly over the next decade. Disney has committed to $17 billion in new spending for their Central Florida theme parks, and some of that money is already being spent as the Tropical Americas project is under construction at Disney’s Animal Kingdom.
We’ve also seen early work to support a major expansion to the northwest corner of Magic Kingdom, including a Cars-themed expansion of Frontierland, and an all-new Villains-themed land. Beyond that, there are plans for a new Monsters Inc.-themed area in Disney’s Hollywood Studios and other unannounced projects.
The District is key in supporting Disney’s plans as they are the provider for critical systems such as electrical and water for these new locations.
A recent example was the $1+ million project to expand energy services out to the new Disney Lakeshore Lodge construction site, which aims to put a brand new 10-story building on the shore of Bay Lake in an area that has been uninhabited for decades.
First New Project Announced
At the recent Board of Supervisors meeting, a new project was announced that will utilize money from these bonds to support an expansion at Walt Disney World. The new project is for an expansion of the South Central Energy Plant at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. The initial budget for the project is $7 million, and it will include a 50% expansion to an energy plant right behind Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge that will very likely support the new Monstropolis Monsters Inc.-themed land coming to the theme park.
Here’s a look at the current energy plant setup, complete with two 1,000-ton chillers and cooling towers. The energy plant was constructed in 2018 for Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, and while the Oversight District doesn’t specifically say that the expansion for the energy plant is for the Monsters Inc.-themed land, the District did say that the third chiller and cooling tower are “due to customer expansion”. Of course, the customer here is Walt Disney World, and the expansion is likely Monstropolis.
With a number of announced projects already underway at Walt Disney World, we expect to see the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District continue to play a critical role in supporting infrastructure upgrades around the theme parks and beyond.
As always, keep checking back with us here at BlogMickey.com as we continue to bring you the latest news, photos, and info from around the Disney Parks!
When it was run by Disney, I cared b we c I worked at Disney.
Now that the governor stuck his paw in , I do NOT care.
Disney is now too expensive to visit whether a local resident or from out of state.