Every year, for the past five years, the Walt Disney Company has sued Orange County Florida.
Like all land owners, the Walt Disney Company pays property taxes on their land.
How much they pay is decided on by an assessor hired by the county.
They inspect the land and what’s on that land, and from that come up with both a market
value, or the price they think it would sell for, and an assessed value, which takes market
values and other tax laws into account.
From that assessed value, the county determines how much you owe in property tax.
Now in Orange County if you don’t agree with those values you can take them to an
adjustment board who will look at the case and decide if they should be altered.
However if that fails and you still think the number is wrong, well… that’s when you sue.
That is what Disney has done for five years in a row now.
So why am I telling you all this?
Did I really think a video about local property tax disputes would be fun to watch?
Well, no, I didn’t.
What I did find interesting though is that if you look at the paperwork for the lawsuits,
it lists out the values that the county assigned to all of Disney’s parcels of land.
In other words, we get to see, at least from the perspective of a team of two dozen property
assessors, what every theme park and resort is worth if it were to be sold.
Now that doesn’t necessarily mean they’d actually go for that much, and these lawsuits
are literally cases of Disney arguing that the values are too high.
Though, they’re just looking to pay less property tax, so we don’t even know how
much they truly believe that.
It’s also difficult because property appraisers typically look at similar sales to try and
come up with their market value, which is easy to do with houses and to a certain extent
resorts, but not as simple when it comes to massive one-of-a-kind theme parks.
All that to say, take these numbers with a big grain of salt.
In any case, let’s look at what our favorite theme parks and resorts are worth to Florida:
Let’s start with the big ones: the theme parks.
Coming in fourth place is Disney’s Hollywood Studios, valued at 394 million dollars.
At 435 million dollars is Disney’s Animal Kingdom.
Just prior to the opening of Pandora, it was valued at $338 million.
So it’ll be interesting to see what value Hollywood Studio gets this year with Galaxy’s Edge.
Coming in second place, believe it or not, is the Magic Kingdom at $504 million.
The reason it came in second place is because while the other three parks have their respective
parking lots grouped with the parcel, the Magic Kingdom does not.
In fact, the TTC itself is split into two parcels, with the center itself being valued
at $23 million and the parking lot being valued at $65 million.
If you put the two together and added it onto the Magic Kingdom, it’d sit at first place
at $592 million.
But it doesn’t, so instead first place goes to Epcot at $539 million.
As for the water parks, Blizzard Beach is valued at $63 million while Typhoon Lagoon
at $49 million.
It’s kind of wild to think about, but the TTC parking lot is valued higher than both
of the water parks.
Now, on to the resorts, of which there are many.
Coming in last you’ve got the Wilderness Lodge Resort at $83 million, followed by Fort
Wilderness at 137.
Surprisingly, next up from that is Disney’s Polynesian Resort at $189 million.
Caribbean Beach and Coronado are valued at $224 and $256 million respectively.
Contemporary at $258m, the Boardwalk at $264m, and the Animal Kingdom Lodge at $270 million.
Pop Century and Art of Animation are valued at $307 million and $349 million.
The Yacht & Beach Club are collectively valued at $353 million.
Then you’ve got Old Key West at $365.
Next are the All-Star resorts, valued at a combined $462 million.
However they’re also not a part of the same assessment system because those three resorts
actually sit in Osceola County, not Orange County.
It’s the same reason why if you stay at either of the three resorts, you’re taxed
at a different rate than any of the other Disney hotels.
It also seems a little unfair since it’s three resorts combined into one, but that’s just how these
parcels work.
Coming in third are the combined Port Orleans resorts at $473 million.
Second place, at a valuation of $489 million is the Grand Floridian Resort and Spa, and
lastly, at $663 million in market value, is Saratoga Springs.
Yeah, I wasn't expecting that either.
Disney Springs was a bit of a pain, because the parcel is split into lots of smaller parcels
for many of the shops and restaurants.
The 32 parcels combined put a total value of Disney Springs at $489 million, with the
largest single shop parcel being Planet Hollywood at $21 million.
And all of that is just the notable stuff.
For all of the developed land Disney owns in central Florida, there’s even more that
guests don’t really get to see.
All in all, Disney World’s collective market value exceeds $8.2 billion dollars, and that
amounts to over $80 million in annual property tax.
As for the lawsuits, most of them, including the ones that started five years ago, are
still in the works.
Now for the record Disney paid the taxes that were levied against them.
What they’re doing is looking for an adjustment and refund.
So while they obviously want to pay less in taxes, it’s not like this is some trick
to avoid paying property tax altogether.
They’re also not the only ones to go down this route.
Universal Studios Orlando and SeaWorld have both sued Orange County in the same manner
in the past, and they’re all joined by companies like Lockheed Martin, Sears, Holiday Inn,
Winn Dixie, Red Lobster, and many others.
In some cases they’re just trying to lower their tax bill as much as possible and in
others the values have actually been found to need adjusting, sometimes leading to refunds
that amount to millions.
Where does Disney land on that?
Only time will tell.
Either way it’s just one example of the many gears that are always turning behind
the scenes at the kingdom that is Walt Disney World.
A kingdom with a price tag.