It's a small world after all...

Disney Buys Land for Future Resort Hotel

This article struck me funny because of a reference it made and a story I have.

"Disney's move to Prince George's comes more than a decade after the company pulled out of a project to build a history-themed park, called Disney's America, on 3,000 acres of rolling farmland near the Manassas battlefield. Disney scrapped the project after months of opposition from politicians and citizens' groups."










At least this time they are picking a built-up area close to DC tourism attractions, highways, waterways and public transportation!

Back when they first tried to build a theme park near Manassas, my wife and I were looking for houses at the time. One of the real estate agents we were with started trying to sell the Haymarket area to us saying that it was going to be the next Tyson's Corner.

Of course since we were looking to move more out to the country, away from urban congestion, this struck me as a strange argument to make. Tysons Corner is nothing but Office buildings, Shopping Malls and a rush hour nightmare.

He proceeded to tell us how businesses and large corporations were trying to buy up all the farmland out there for future investment and development.

Great ;-)

Anyway, a few years later the story broke about Disney and their plans; and the subsequent resistance by politicians and grass roots organizations. It seems the way Disney was going about buying land was to pose as different real estate and investment companies sending different people from different locations throughout the US to Haymarket to purchase property.

Of course this ultimately ended badly for Disney. For one thing they tried to pull the wool over every ones eyes and get parcels of land as cheaply as possible. After all, a big name like Disney would - in their eyes - cause folks to ask for top dollar.

Then there was the whole political grass roots segment that said you can't build a theme park here. We are a rural area, no public infrastructure, no roads to handle traffic, no No NO!

We like our historic area, trees and country life style.

So once the mighty Disney was defeated and all their dwarfs and elves went away, what happened?

Disney sold all the land they purchased.

To...Developers!

So now Haymarket is nothing but sprawling housing developments, shopping malls, road constructions and congestion that is becoming another rush hour nightmare.

Thanks guys!

At least this time there is an economic recession (prices are cheap) and there is no confusion about who the business partner is.

And it is far from our house!