Anaheim Emerging From The Pandemic

Anaheim Emerging From Pandemic With Ambitious Development Projects In The Pipeline

Todd Ament

President/CEO, Anaheim Chamber of Commerce

The past year has been an unprecedented crisis for Anaheim. Even in the early months of 2020, when the first COVID cases began appearing in the U.S. followed by the initial business closures to “flatten the curve,” few predicted or expected it to become a pandemic of the virulence and endurance it has ultimately displayed.

Few cities have been as severely impacted as Anaheim, whose tourism-and-convention economy was uniquely vulnerable to the pandemic. The Disneyland Resort and the ecosystem of hotels, small businesses and vendors that depend on it are the economic engine of the city, providing tens of thousands of jobs and generating half of the city’s general fund revenues. When the governor ordered theme parks to close in mid-March 2020, what was initially expected to be a relatively brief shutdown stretched into more than a year. The Disneyland Resort was ultimately forced to lay off more than 30,000 cast members. After hanging on as long as they could, many hotels near Disneyland simply shut down and laid off their employees, while others did their best to limp along at vastly reduced capacity. Hundreds of other small businesses similarly struggled or closed their doors for good. No fans were allowed to attend Angel games, and all events at the Honda Center were cancelled.

During the intervening months, the Anaheim Chamber of Commerce and the broader business community continued to press the state to issue re-opening

guidelines so these vital industries could devise strategies to resume operations.

While Disney safely re-opened its Florida theme parks last summer, it was not until March of this year that the state issued realistic re-opening guidelines for theme parks, as well as for outdoor stadiums.

Anaheim is turning the corner. The Angels will play in front of thousands of fans on Opening Day at Angel Stadium. The Disneyland Resort has set April 30 as its re-opening date and has enjoyed sold-out attendance at its “Taste of Disney” outdoor dining event. While it will initially be restricted to operating at limited capacity, rapidly falling COVID-19 case rates and accelerating growth in the number of vaccinations engender hope the Disneyland Resort can continue increasing capacity – and move forward with the opening of its new Avengers Campus at Disney California Adventure. Hotels and Resort Area businesses are recalling employees and beginning to climb toward recovery. Disney has just announced its Disneyland Forward initiative to update its development approvals to allow it to develop new theme parks that integrate hotels, retail and entertainment to provide an immersive, memorable guest experience.

At the same time, both the Angels and the Ducks continue to move forward with visionary plans for the ambitious re-development of their sites into an exciting mix of residential, retail, entertainment and office space that will transform the Platinum Triangle area and cement Anaheim’s position as a world-class destination.

The road to full recovery from the pandemic’s devastation will be a long one. The state has yet to issue guidelines for convention and business meeting guidelines – which are critical to Anaheim’s full economic recovery. But we can now see the light at the end of the tunnel, and it grows stronger with each passing day.