Walt Disney Co. has abandoned plans to build a roughly 500-room, Disney-branded hotel near Washington, D.C. Disney, which spent $11 million to buy land in the area in early 2009, said the timing simply wasn't right for the project.
The move follows an early stumble at Disney's first big foray into standalone resorts: Aulani, the roughly $850 million hotel and time share that opened Aug. 29 on the Hawaiian island of Oahu. Disney was forced to suspend sales in the project for two months this summer after it realized it had underestimated the annual fees needed to cover the resort's operating costs; Disney will now have to subsidize the fees paid by early time-share buyers for the next 50 years.
Disney says it may yet build more hotels outside of Central Florida and Southern California, where it operates its massive Walt Disney World and Disneyland resorts. For the time being though, the company is focused on theme parks and other projects.
