Recently obtained court records reveal that Disney feared losing control of the Magic Kingdom expansion during the battle between the company and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.

Disney vs DeSantis

Reporter Gabrielle Russon recently uncovered court documents obtained by Florida Politics that reveal just how Disney truly felt during the height of its legal battle with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.

The biggest revelation is that Disney slowed down its Magic Kingdom expansion projects out of fear that they would lose control to DeSantis. In the depositions, Disney executives said almost nothing about DeSantis, First Amendment rights, or the LGBTQ+ community. They were concerned with development of unused land.

Disney was planning Magic Kingdom’s largest expansion to date, which they felt was under threat during the time. So, they slowed down their plans and brought in John McGowan, Chief Counsel of the Walt Disney World Resort’s legal department to help fight.

According to Russon, McGowan admitted he was the one who came up with the idea on how to fight back against the state’s takeover of Reedy Creek. The deal to give Disney development rights to expand Walt Disney World in the future needed to be approved quickly, before DeSantis gained control and appointed new board members. It was drafted within weeks in January 2023.

McGowan, however, removed himself from the documents, knowing the optics looked bad if his political enemies discovered that Disney was behind the development deal. Another group also wanted to be kept anonymous regarding their work on the development agreement: Holtzman Vogel. His law firm had deep ties to Republicans. They were worried DeSantis would retaliate them and take the work away from them, according to McGowen.

Todd Rimmer, a Master Planner Executive with Disney Imagineering, explained why these fast-moving development agreements were so important to Disney:

“I understood that it would be beneficial to provide certainty to the company,” Rimmer said during his own deposition. “The uncertainty of what a new board might choose to do with land development regulations and the comprehensive plan gave the company uncertainty in whether they could proceed with development in a timely fashion, and so a development agreement would lock in those development options.”

Under the proposal, Disney could sell land for fair market value to its governing board in order to build the public infrastructure needed for Disney’s expansion. This would prevent the board from seizing Disney’s land by imminent domain. Another part of the agreement meant Disney also got control over what Reedy Creek buildings looked like.

Here’s the kicker: Ray Treadwell, the Chief Deputy General Counsel in DeSantis’ Office, was aware of Disney’s plans all along.

“I don’t think Ray Treadwell had any input in any of this,” McGowan testified. “It’s my understanding he was aware of the existence of these documents before they were approved by the board.”

Because of the uncertainty of how everything would play out, Disney decided to slow down the Magic Kingdom expansion that had not been publicly announced yet. In addition, other projects were also slowed down. This included the production of solar farms and the road construction project, which goes around Disney golf courses, the Shades of Green Resort, and the Polynesian and Grand Floridian.

“The project has come to a halt. … If it had not ceased, World Drive Phase III would likely be completed by now” said McGowan.

Read the full report by Russo here.

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