Walt Disney World and the City of Orlando have unveiled a new plaque at the site of the “Florida Project” announcement, honoring the press conference that happened 60 years ago. Here’s the latest on this commemorative historic marker, along with how its the latest in a line of moves to thaw tensions between Florida and Disney, which are largely back to normal as the so-called turbocharged projects ramp up.
Although it unofficially and quietly dates back further to the Disney brothers began quietly buying up land in sleepy Central Florida, the official story of Walt Disney World in Florida dates back to November 1965. It was then that Walt and Roy O. Disney joined the state’s Governor Haydon Burns in what is now the Thornton Park District of Downtown Orlando to announce the “Florida Project,” or what we know today as Walt Disney World.
Walt Disney World welcomes tens of millions of guests to Florida each year, fueling the state’s economy, creating jobs and driving tourism. In honor of Disney’s history in the region and the bright future ahead, the Thornton Park District, which is a member of Orlando’s Main Streets program, has unveiled a new commemorative plaque at the site of the Florida Project press conference.
A dedication ceremony was held with Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer and Walt Disney World President Jeff Vahle to celebrate this full-circle moment for Disney in Florida. The plaque debuted at the very same building Walt and Roy O. Disney first announced their initial vision for what would become Walt Disney World.
“Walt and Roy Disney didn’t just announce a theme park in 1965. They announced a partnership with a community that was ready to dream bigger about its future,” said Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer. “With this plaque, we honor more than a historic announcement. We honor a relationship, with both Walt Disney World and our Orlando Main Streets, that bolsters our economy, strengthens our neighborhoods and defines our identity.”
“We thank the city of Orlando and the Thornton Park District for honoring this important part of our shared history,” Walt Disney World President Jeff Vahle said. “This commemorative plaque celebrates our past and reflects the bold vision we need for the future.”
What started as the Florida Project now spans nearly 30,000 acres in Central Florida. Walt Disney World has become a powerful economic engine for Florida, generating an influx of jobs, tourism and public revenue for the state.
In fact, Walt Disney World is the largest single-site employer in the United States, supporting 80,000 cast members. Disney currently leads the industry in employee retention at a rate of over 80% and an average tenure of 12 years.
This means that Cast Members choose to build lasting careers at Walt Disney World, some staying three times longer than the national average, per BLS data. (See Disney Hits 3 Million Cast Compliments. Here’s How & Why You Should Give Thanks to Cast Members.)
Beyond its own workforce, Walt Disney World also supports thousands of small businesses, many of which are local to Florida and employ additional workers. In total, one out of every 32 jobs in Florida can be attributed to Disney.
Although this is accurate, it stings a bit to hear Disney touting how it’s beneficial to small businesses in the aftermath of Walt Disney World Banning Third Party Businesses from Unauthorized On-Site Guest Services. There are valid reasons why that happened, to be sure, and it doesn’t invalidate all of the work Disney has done in the community. Nevertheless, it’d be nice to see Disney take its commitment seriously, and work to create a ‘trusted partner’ or ‘authorized service vendor’ program with vetting, insurance, etc.
Since opening in 1971, Walt Disney World has provided hundreds of millions of dollars in support to local nonprofits, schools and other organizations who help neighbors in need. Cast Members play a big part in that impact too and spent more than 170,000 hours giving back as Disney VoluntEARS last year alone.
More than 60 years after that historic day in Thornton Park, Disney continues to invest in Florida. This includes work that is underway right now, like Tropical Americas at Animal Kingdom, The Magic of Disney Animation and Monstropolis at Hollywood Studios, the largest expansion of Magic Kingdom with Cars and Villains-themed lands and more. (See Walt Disney World’s 5-Year Plan for more.)
As has been discussed time and time again, the company plans to spend $60 billion over the next decade as part of “turbocharged” investment on Disney Parks & Resorts. Of that amount, at least $17 billion is earmarked for Walt Disney World.
We’ve heard rumblings that both of those numbers are actually slated to increase, which seems both plausible and necessary purely from the perspective of inflation. (Look no further than the ballooning budget of the new Space Mountain; unless the $60 billion goes up, it’s buying a lot less than previously planned.)
Our Commentary
As you’re no doubt aware, the Walt Disney Company and the State of Florida had a very public battle involving litigation and heated rhetoric over the course of multiple years. This was finally resolved in March 2024, with the parties settling the lawsuits and shuffling up leadership on the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District (CFTOD), paving the way to formalize an agreement to new multi-billion dollar investments in Florida.
Two years later, things seem pretty much back to normal. This trajectory became apparent fairly quickly to anyone paying attention to CFTOD’s actions, but it was cemented back in December 2024. During the permitting process with the South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD), there was a lot of back-and-forth pertaining to stormwater displacement, with SFWMD making multiple requests for plan changes.
At one point, the SFWMD sent a letter warning Disney that its permits would be denied if it didn’t respond within 10 days. The CFTOD intervened on Walt Disney World’s behalf to request a 60-day extension. Shortly thereafter, Disney got the final greenlight.
Since then, we’ve seen several small examples of CFTOD seemingly working on Disney’s behalf. I’d stop short of saying they returned to the old status quo of being an unofficial arm of Walt Disney World, but they’ve definitely become a rubber stamp. The antagonism that existed back in 2022-2023 is completely gone.
Early 2026 marked the ‘end of an era’ of sorts for the CFTOD, as the last of the original ‘replacement board’ stepped down. The appointees since all have had the backgrounds you’d expect, and are more interested in doing the unexciting administrative work, as opposed to taking an adversarial posture against Disney.
The end result: Central Florida Tourism Oversight District is boring again. Thankfully!
We haven’t covered the CFTOD much in the last ~2 years for the same reason we didn’t cover the Reedy Creek Improvement District, aside from basically pointing out that it exists, for the years prior to the standoff with the state.
There isn’t really anything consequential to cover. The board has put its heads down and done the quiet work of paving the way for that $17 billion investment (or whatever the final amount ends up being).
In the last year, there have only been a couple times when CFTOD did anything noteworthy. The first was the Fifth Theme Park at Walt Disney World Approved in New 2045 Plan, which is less exciting than it sounds.
The second was accidentally/prematurely revealing the (massive) size of the Monsters, Inc. Door Coaster gravity building. Otherwise, it’s been business as usual until the two resignations earlier this year.
That’s more or less been the story of Disney vs. Florida Disney + Florida in the last two years. It’s a bunch of small relationship-building exercises like this one, most of which are pretty inconsequential on their own, but have undoubtedly been beneficial in aggregate.
Say what you will about Jeff Vahle, but he’s served the role of in-state WDW ambassador pretty well during this period. His disposition and background make him better suited for this than Bob Iger or Josh D’Amaro, who have been fairly quiet during the same timeframe (wisely so).
In the end, this historic plaque is a nice touch…but mostly non-news in and of itself. Bigger picture, it’s symbolic as to how things have changed between Disney and Florida in the last 2 years since the settlement. We haven’t covered that much up until now, because it’s been a bunch of little, non-newsworthy moves. However, the totality of those is important and we thought it was (finally) worth mentioning, as they’ve been integral to get that all of that construction moving at, dare we say, turbocharged tilt.
Planning a Walt Disney World trip? Learn about hotels on our Walt Disney World Hotels Reviews page. For where to eat, read our Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews. To save money on tickets or determine which type to buy, read our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets post. Our What to Pack for Disney Trips post takes a unique look at clever items to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Ride Guides will help. For comprehensive advice, the best place to start is our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide for everything you need to know!
YOUR THOUGHTS
What do you think of the new new commemorative plaque at the site of the Florida Project press conference? Plan on checking it out in-person? Thoughts on the current relationship between Disney and Florida? Surprised or pleased that things have gotten back to normal so quickly? Any other thoughts or commentary to add? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
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