Walt Disney Co. continues to face fallout from its scuttled plans to move 2,000 employees from California to a proposed campus in Florida, a controversial decision the company reversed last year following the return of CEO Bob Iger.
In 2021, then-CEO Bob Chapek and president of parks and experiences Josh D'Amaro announced plans to relocate employees who support Disney theme parks and resorts, including the celebrated Imagineers, to an office park billion-dollar project in the Lake Nona area of Orlando. The move was designed for Disney to take advantage of Florida tax credits, but the cross-country move was deeply unpopular among employees who were asked to uproot their lives in Southern California.
Now some Disney employees are suing the company over the canceled relocation.
According to a lawsuit filed Tuesday against Disney in Los Angeles County Superior Court, numerous workers heeded the company's calls, obediently sold their homes in Los Angeles and moved to Central Florida.
Plaintiffs Maria De La Cruz and George Fong, both current Disney employees, alleged that they were fraudulently induced to move to Florida by being led to believe they would lose their jobs if they refused the move. De La Cruz and Fong agreed to the relocation in November 2021. The lawsuit says Disney told affected employees they would have 90 days to “consider and make the decision that is best for them.”
De La Cruz, vice president of product design, sold her home in Altadena in May 2022.
“Mr. Fong also sold his home, which was a particularly painful decision because it was the family home that he grew up in and inherited,” the lawsuit says. Fong is a creative director of product design; his family's home was in Los Angels.
But a year after selling their homes and moving, Disney canceled the project.
A Disney spokesperson had no immediate comment.
The proposed class action lawsuit seeks to represent “all current and former California Disney employees who relocated from California to Florida as a result of Disney's announcement of the Lake Nona Project.” Seeks unspecified punitive damages.
Initially, Disney imagined it would eventually save money on the billion-dollar Lake Nona development, due to lower labor costs in Florida. It was also obtained from tax credits offered by the State for the relocation of companies.
But the project became embroiled in Disney's legal and culture war disputes with Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, who was once a presidential contender.
A month after Disney filed a federal First Amendment lawsuit against the Sunshine State and its governor, it canceled the Lake Nona development. (The legal issues have since been resolved and Disney has affirmed its commitment to continuing a massive expansion of the Florida parks.) The cancellation of the project also coincided with significant cost reductions across the company.
Disney explained the reversal in a May 2023 statement: “Given the considerable changes that have occurred since the announcement of this project, including new leadership and changing business conditions, we have decided not to move forward with construction of the campus.”
Disney, at the time, acknowledged that some employees had already moved on. The company said it would discuss the situation with each employee, including the plan to move them back to California.
But the compensation packages offered by the company to affected employees were inadequate, the lawsuit alleges.
The lawsuit claims that numerous Disney workers refused to carry out the move. Some remained employees of the company.
After Disney reversed its plans, home prices in the Orlando area fell, according to the lawsuit filed by attorney Jason S. Lohr of Lohr Ripamonti. Starting in 2022, home prices in Los Angeles have risen and higher interest rates have complicated the financial picture, according to the lawsuit.
Fong has since purchased a home in South Pasadena that has “considerably less square footage than his previous home in Los Angeles.” De La Cruz is in the process of returning to California.
Times staff writer Stacy Perman contributed to this report.
