Disney Buys 23 Acres Near Its Amusement Park for $30 Million

Walt Disney Co., which is expected to announce plans for a second amusement park here soon, has paid $30 million for a 23-acre tract and is shopping for more property.

According to real estate records, Disney paid top dollar--$1.3 million an acre--for the 23-acre parcel on Katella Avenue south of the park. And the entertainment giant has been negotiating to lease 58 acres nearby.

Disney has a long-term lease with at least one motel and is negotiating to lease a string of other businesses near the Disneyland Hotel across West Street from the amusement park, a source said.

The real estate transaction comes just weeks before Disney is expected to unveil plans for a second park near Disneyland.

Disney would not comment on what it said were “rumors and speculation.” But Orange County land records in Santa Ana show that the company on Dec. 21 acquired a 23-acre property from Magnolia Realty Investments Inc. and President Jensen Cheng for $30.2 million. The property had been a mobile-home park.

The company has been looking for other parcels as well. Hiroshi Fujishige, whose family has owned a 58-acre strawberry field near the park since the early 1950s, says Disney recently sought a long-term lease on the land. But he said he rejected the $32-million offer as too low.

In January, 1990, Disney announced that it would spend more than $1 billion to develop another amusement park in the next decade in either Anaheim or Long Beach. The company has since said it might eventually build parks in both cities.

Last year, Disney presented its plan for a 350-acre “Port Disney” park at the site of the Queen Mary/Spruce Goose in the Port of Long Beach. The $2-billion park would include rides, a waterfront shopping area and shuttle boats to bring tourists from two new Disney hotels in downtown Long Beach.

Planning for the Anaheim park has lagged several months behind that for the Long Beach venture and is a closely guarded secret. A Disneyland planner said last year that the concept would be like a permanent world’s fair, similar to Epcot Center in Florida, a Disney attraction that operates alongside Walt Disney World and the Disney MGM Studios attraction.

Disney is rumored to be planning either a parking lot or the second amusement park on the mobile home park and strawberry field, if it can obtain it.

If Disney builds a parking lot, the company could close the 100-acre Disneyland parking lot and build a new attraction there. Patrons who parked in the new lot across the street could be whisked to Disneyland via an extension of its monorail system.

Real estate experts said Disney paid a generous price for the 23-acre parcel on Katella Avenue, even though it is--with the adjoining strawberry field--one of the last large undeveloped pieces of land in central Orange County.

Land values in the area and around the county have stagnated recently because of the downturn in the real estate market. When commercial land was selling well in the county, it cost about $20 a square foot, or just under $1 million an acre, brokers say. Ordinarily, a big purchase like Disney’s might get the buyer a discount, too, they say.

The strawberry field is on Harbor Boulevard, south of Disneyland. Fujishige said a deal fell apart in November when he rejected as “insulting” Disney’s preliminary offer of $32 million for a 99-year lease on the land.

“It sure seemed to me that I was about to end up like those Indians who used to own (Manhattan) Island,” Fujishige said. “When they came in with such a low offer, I was about ready to walk out (of the meeting) right then. Disney will do what they want to do, and I’ll do what I want to do.”

The land is now off the market, says James Kindal, Fujishige’s lawyer.

Meanwhile, the string of motels and other businesses on West Street near the Disneyland Hotel is likely to be combined with about 60 acres Disney owns and used for hotels to be built by Disney, sources said.

In one case, Disney paid more than $1 million for a long-term lease on the Dunes motel, sources said. The motel on South West Street sits on less than an acre of land. Other deals are expected to be sealed within 30 days, the sources said.

Times staff writers Chris Woodyard and Kevin Johnson contributed to this story.