Arthur Levine:
Have you ever visited a Disney theme park resort, with its perfectly manicured and clean-scrubbed grounds, whimsical, yet reassuring architecture, chirpy employees, and general sense of cheery optimism, and thought how great it would be if you could take up permanent residence there? That’s sort of the idea behind the Mouse House’s latest venture: Disney-branded, master-planned home communities.
Today, the company announced “Storyliving by Disney”, which will be part of the same division that oversees its theme parks, Disney Cruise Line, and other experiences. The first community, which will be known as Cotino and include about 1,900 housing units, will be in the Palm Springs city of Rancho Mirage, California.
On the surface of it, this sounds ridiculous. We can all — especially those of us with children — understand the draw of staying at a Disney-themed resort on a trip. But to live in one? With Mickey the local plumber and Goofy the local electrician? I joke, but also not. The mundane problems that plague every home and community also plagued the original vision Disney had with their wildly weird and positively Truman Show-esque Celebration, Florida community.
But reading deeper, this actually does sound a bit different. It doesn’t sound like there’s an intention for this to actually be Disney-themed (well, at least not this first community and at least not with their cartoon characters). It’s more trying to translate Disney’s unquestionably great hospitality to a gated community living situation. That’s not really for me — I prefer an urban environment — but I get how these communities are great for some people, notably the elderly, which Disney specifically calls out as a demographic for future communities.
I would also note that Disney isn’t actually building these communities, and is instead partnering on services and execution of the concept. (Including the element of being “steeped in a story” — which again, sounds a little too Truman Show-esque to me, we’ll see…) And the partner they’re using to build this first one is a company called DMB Development, which actually built another resort I have stayed at recently: Kukuiʻula in Hawaii, which was pretty amazing. So… there’s hope?
Still, it all sounds pretty fucking weird. I did love EPCOT as a kid though.
