Just beyond the western entrance to Walt Disney World, construction crews are putting the finishing touches on a new network of roads complete with utility lines, street lamps and palm trees — but not a single building.
The empty streetscape is all that exists so far of “Flamingo Crossings,” a 450-acre lodging-and-shopping district that Disney World announced more than three years ago as a way to capture more spending from the legions of price-sensitive tourists who visit the resort’s theme parks every year but bypass its premium-priced hotels in favor of cheaper, off-property accommodations.
The stalled project is a high-profile victim of the global recession and credit freeze, which has made financing for many commercial construction projects exceedingly hard to obtain. It is also emblematic of a broader construction slowdown at the giant resort: Records show that building-permit activity at Disney World has dropped 25 percent during the past year.
For the rest of Jason Garcia’s article…please go to the Orlando Sentinel
Fri, Nov 6, 2009
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