Originally Posted By Rebekah This topic is for discussion of the 2/5/2003 news item <b><a href="http://www2.ocregister.com/ocrweb/ocr/article.do?id=23905" target="_blank">OCReg: Garden Grove still harbors big plans</a></b> The February 5th <I>Orange County Register</I> outlines Garden Grove's plans to become a tourist destination, a gateway to the Disneyland Resort area.
Originally Posted By Westsider Somehow I don't think this idea of a "theme park" and a "CityWalk" in Garden Grove will ever get off the ground. But you've got to give them credit for trying. Garden Grove certainly stole 6 fancy new hotels and a couple of nice restaurants from the "Anaheim Resort" in 2000-2002. The "Resort" district around Disneyland is still just as corny and circa-1968 as it ever was, just with new landscaping and prettier signs. Garden Grove got all the new stuff Anaheim was supposed to get. At least it looks like Garden Grove has enthusiasm and a real drive to get new businesses in there. Anaheim just sits there quietly in Disney's pocket, while old motels, liquor stores and vacant lots surround Disneyland/DCA with not much new stuff in sight.
Originally Posted By Hans Reinhardt "They envision drawing families to restaurants like the House of Blues and Harley Davidson restaurant and perhaps a Rain Forest Cafe." LOL! Can't people in Southern California think beyond shopping malls and cookie-cutter chain restaurants? Goodness, don't these folks realize that this stuff already exists at Disneyland with more to come at GardenWalk? Being from out of town I'm all for more attractions in the area but I think Garden Grove needs go back to the drawing boards on this one.
Originally Posted By TP2000 This plan as envisioned by the Garden Grove City Council will almost definitely never be completed in it's entirety. The farther south you get on Harbor Blvd., the less likely the pieces of this plan appear to be. (Hotel/Restaurant/"Welcome" zone in the north, big entertainment mall in the middle, and full-scale theme park in the south) What will probably happen is that a few new stores and restaurants will arrive in the north area, and maybe another big hotel or two. Only when a dozen more new hotels open would a legitimate developer then try to build a large entertainment mall just to the south of that new hotel area. And the thought of Universal, Paramount, Anheuser-Busch, or Six Flags building a new theme park just south of the 22 Freeway is laughable. It would have to be a mega-bucks park on the scale of Islands Of Adventure, if not DisneySea, to make much of a splash and get people to leave Disney property to go see it. DCA can coast on it's mediocrity because it has "Disney's" in the title and it shares a parking lot and ticket booths with Disneyland. But a new non-Disney Park within earshot of Disneyland would need to be really amazing and full of great attractions to get enough people, either locals or tourists, to visit it. I really can't imagine any reasonable scenario that would see this new "park" being built in the next 10 years, if ever. But like someone else said, you can't blame Garden Grove for trying. It was this type of moxy and tenaciousness on the part of the Garden Grove city council that got a half dozen big new hotels and four nice restaurants built in that area in the last 3 years while tumbleweeds grew on the condemned vacant lots surrounding Disneyland in the "Anaheim Resort" area. The Anaheim city council sat on their hands and assumed developers and hotel chains would come knocking on their door just because Disney was building a mediocre new theme park. Garden Grove went out there, hustled a lot, and grabbed the new hotels for themselves. The "Anaheim Resort" area still doesn't have a single new hotel to it's name. Although Anaheim did get a new Mimi's restaurant on Harbor, which kind of takes the sting out of the Outback Steakhouse, Red Robin, Buca di Bepo, and Joe's Crab Shack that opened in Garden Grove on Harbor within the last 18 months, right? That is right Anaheim? That Mimi's is what the city council has been spending all the tax money to market the "Anaheim Resort" to get?
Originally Posted By kennect OK, maybe I am way off base but I am finally getting some ideas that are making a little bit of sense....I don't know why this hasn't hit me in the head before....This whole bit by Disney to turn the CL. property into a resort destination....Consider me stupid but I guess all of this is based on the success of WDW and the two parks outsitde the US....My true experience is with WDW where land isn't a problem and they can just keep building building and building without upsetting neighbor's etc....Obviously that isn't the case in CL....I am finally beginning to buy into the idea that DCA isn't everything it should have been....With such limited land to build on they should have done their best to make use of what they had...My post isn't to start a DCA is bad bit but it just strikes me as being weird considering property values in the area.....I guess what I am trying to say is that management didn't seem to realize the value of what they were doing when important decisions were made...It seems to me if the DCA park were truly a knock your socks off bit then developement in the surrounding area would be a given without any thought....
Originally Posted By TP2000 "It seems to me if the DCA park were truly a knock your socks off bit then developement in the surrounding area would be a given without any thought...." Which is exactly why Anaheim just sat back and waited patiently for all of the hotel and restaurant developers to come to them in the late 1990's and early 2000's. Anaheim actually bought all of the fluffy PR stuff that was coming from TDA and Burbank about how popular and succesful DCA would be. If Anaheim's City Council hadn't had been snowed by the Disney PR machine in the 1990's and had realized that DCA was a mediocre theme park with the word "Disney's" tacked on to the title, they might have realized that they would need to hustle to get some new development in their "Resort District". No one beat down Anaheim's door to build a big new hotel or any new restaurants or retail areas. Instead, Garden Grove went out and worked hard to get a half dozen major hotel chains to build expensive properties in their city, and then got 4 or 5 nice restaurants to open up as well. Anaheim just sat there waiting for the developers to show up, just like Disney sat there waiting for the crowds to show up. Neither of those groups arrived in Anaheim in 2001 or 2002.
Originally Posted By driftwood714 They probably just offered better property tax cuts and special deals than Anaheim did/would.
Originally Posted By driftwood714 <<<Anaheim just sat there waiting for the developers to show up, just like Disney sat there waiting for the crowds to show up. Neither of those groups arrived in Anaheim in 2001 or 2002.>>> TP2000, This statement IS misleading. People did show up the the new Anaheim Resort, just not in the numbers that Disney wanted. Look at the Christmas seasons. They've been incredible busy. It's funny how word is spreading about how "slow" or "soft" attendance is, when you come during a busy time like Christmas or Summer everyone's complaining about "overcrowding" and 2 hour long waits.
Originally Posted By Hans Reinhardt The "Anaheim Resort" area still doesn't have a single new hotel to it's name. The Grand Californian is a new hotel and it's in Anaheim. There's also a new hotel across Katella from California Screamin'. Sorry, I don't recall the name of the place. The Disneyland area is one giant step ahead in regards to couple of things on Garden Grove's little wish list: (1) they already have a "new" theme park and (2) Anaheim's second major retail development, GardenWalk is currently under construction. Again, I'm all for more development, I just think Garden Grove needs to proceed very carefully if they don't want a bunch of empty store fronts and hotel rooms on their hands.
Originally Posted By BrigmanMT 2 Is their enough room in Garden Grove for Disney to build a park? A short bus or monorail ride away from the other 3 parks would still put it in a closer vicinity than some of WDW.
Originally Posted By Disfan1022 ~~There's also a new hotel across Katella from California Screamin'. Sorry, I don't recall the name of the place.~~ Off of the top of my head I'm thinking it's the Anabella Hotel?? =)
Originally Posted By Westsider Yeah, the Annabella. It's not really "new". The owners of the old 1960's "Magic Lamp Motel" remodeled their property in 2001 and rechristened it "The Annabella Hotel". I had friends stay there last fall because the rates for it on Expedia were so great. They went to their room and were disgusted. Apparently only some of the rooms were remodeled from their Magic Lamp days. They aren't the type to complain, but the room was really disgusting so they went to the front desk to ask for another one. They were sent to a different part of the Annabella and the room was much better. Although the exterior looks new, the interior is really just the 40 year old Magic Lamp Motel with paint and new furniture. You should stay at the Annabella with a bit of caution. And if you get one of the really junky rooms, go back to the front desk and see if you can't be reassigned to one of the better ones.
