Chambers Weigh Disney Decision to Relocate Staff

With its announcement last month that it would relocate some 2,000 employees from the Los Angeles area to Lake Nona, Fla., the Walt Disney Co. set off speculation of what it would mean for the Burbank economy.According to Jamie Keyser Thomas, chief executive of the Burbank Chamber of Commerce, not much.

The employees to be moved to the new facility near Walt Disney World will be from the Parks, Experiences and Products division of the Burbank entertainment and media giant.

“The (Parks, Experience and Products) employees are primarily located in Glendale,” Thomas said. “A lot of the Disney businesses in Burbank are not part of the division.”In the greater Los Angeles area, Disney has employees in L.A., Burbank, Glendale and Santa Monica.Attempts to reach a representative from the city of Burbank were not successful.

Judee Kendall, chief executive of the Glendale Chamber of Commerce, said that she didn’t have enough information about the move because she has not yet spoken directly with Disney’s representative on the chamber board.“It sounds from what I read that Disney Imagineering could possibly be part of that move, but I don’t know,” Kendall added. “They occupy quite a bit of space in Glendale.”Disney Imagineering is the part of the company that designs, develops and builds the theme park, resort and cruise ship attractions and live theatrical shows.

Philip Lanzafame, director of Glendale’s community development department, said something similar in a statement emailed to the Business Journal.

“We are aware of the announcement made by Disney regarding the move to Florida; however, there is not enough information at this time to know what jobs will be leaving, when or the impact,” Lanzafame said in the statement. “This does present an opportunity to expand or grow their other operations remaining in Southern California.”Over the years, the city has taken steps to make economic vitality a priority, he added.

“The California economy will be the major driver in absorbing those workers that decide not to move,” Lanzafame added.

Construction on the new facility in Florida near Orlando will take about 18 months, so Glendale has a while before it sees any jobs move.

Exiting pandemicDisney is not alone in bringing jobs to  Lake Nona.For instance, KPMG, the U.S. audit, tax and advisory firm of KPMG International Ltd. in the Netherlands, announced in May the opening of a center in Lake Nona that will bring 350 new jobs to Orlando, with additional jobs in the future.Thomas, of the Burbank chamber, said she has had “surface” conversations with Disney about what is going on. But because it will primarily affect Glendale, the chamber has not done anything up to this point about the situation, she said.

Nor did the chamber feel it is its place to be talking with Disney about its future plans, Thomas said.“If it was a mass exodus of the Disney community from Burbank, then it would be a different story,” she added.

From the perspective of the city, the chamber needs to look at the big picture of what is happening with its business community, Thomas continued.

“It’s not really about Disney for us,” she said. “It is really about coming out of the pandemic, and how do we hold onto all the viable businesses we have within our community and what is the chamber’s role in that.” One issue that the chamber is taking on is promoted by Tax Amazon Burbank, a group that wants to get a ballot measure in 2022 to tax companies in the city that own or lease 100,000 square feet or more of space for their operations, either in a single space or spread out among multiple locations.The $100 million that would be raised by the tax would go toward Burbank public schools, a Green New Deal in the city, mental health services, building affordable housing and more.

Such a tax would affect the entertainment industry with Disney, Warner Bros. Entertainment and Nickelodeon falling into the taxable category, Thomas explained.

“The chamber is going to be in opposition to this,” she added. “We feel that if we were to do something like Tax Amazon Burbank that would drive large business out of Burbank. This is a priority for us. We want to make sure that we are coming out to show our support for the businesses within our community. We are not looking for any unnecessary taxes for big business.”