KISSIMMEE, Fla, Sept. 30 – Disney World opens to the public tomorrow, and the atmosphere among Florida business interests is as thick with tension as a Cape Kennedy countdown.
Fortunes are riding on the success of the mammoth amusement-vacation resort and the mood here is exultant that the staggering forecasts of economic boom have been accurate.
Nowhere were the promises of overnight wealth better kept than here in Kissimmee (Kuh-SIM-ee), once a dusty cow town in Florida’s ranching country that has become a nerve center for real estate speculation associated with Disney World.
The town has not been the same since the late Walt Disney revealed in 1965 that he would build a bigger East Coast version of California's Disneyland 10 miles from Kissimmee’s main street.
“Tomorrow everybody starts to find out how right our guessing has been the past six years," said Pete Hunt, who sold his drug store in Kissimmee and became a real estate agent after the Disney announcement.
‘Bigger’ Than Dreams
“I think a lot of people are going to be surprised,” remarked Mr. Hunt, a native of upstate New York whose skin has been burned into a leathery texture by 26 years of exposure to the Florida sun. “This thing is going to be even bigger than anybody dreamed.”
The forecasts were impressive enough. In its first decade of operation, according to a study made by Economic Research Associates of Los Angeles and Washington, Disney World would create the following in Florida:
- ¶ $6.6-billion in added income.
- ¶ 50,000 new jobs.
- ¶ $343-million new tax revenues.
- ¶ $27,000 new hotel-motel rooms.
- ¶ 37,000 new residential units costing $70-million.
Economists also saw annual tourist expenditures in east central Florida, a seven-county area extending from Disney World to the Atlantic Coast, zooming from the current level of $300-million to $700-million by 1975, and reaching $1-billion in 1980.
The major difference between Disney World and Disneyland is that the California attraction is purely an amusement park. In Florida, Disney officials have amassed a 27,500-acre site, an area twice the size of Manhattan, to provide space for a large buffer around the 100-acre amusement park and the corporation's own hotels; and ancilliary recreational facilities.
Land Prices Way Up
Property adjacent to Disney World and along major access routes has skyrocketed in value as other commercial interests jockey to provide support facilities to the $400-million attraction. About 10 million admissions are expected at Disney World in 1972; and extreme shortages in motel rooms and restaurants are expected until construction of other accommodations can meet the demand.
“A lot of people still come into the office thinking they can pick up a cheap piece of investment property.” said H. Lucas, another Kissimmee real estate man, "but those days are gone forever around here.”
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