Disney opening campus in Florida, transferring 2,000 California employees

A view of Mickey Mouse at the entrance to the Walt Disney World theme park on July 9, 2020 in Lake Buena Vista, Florida.

Octavio Jones | Getty Images

The Walt Disney Co. said Thursday it plans to build a new regional campus in central Florida to house at least 2,000 professional workers who will be relocating from southern California to work in digital technology, finance and product development.

In a letter to the staff, Josh D’Amaro, chairman of Disney Parks, Experiences and Products, said the move would enable better integration of creative and business teams. The company already has an amusement park resort, Walt Disney World, which is the size of the city of San Francisco and is located outside of Orlando, Florida.

The new Disney campus will be located approximately 20 miles east of Disney World in the neighborhood of Orlando International Airport.

“Florida is known for its rich culture of hospitality and active lifestyle, as well as its lower cost of living with no state income tax,” D’Amaro said in the employee letter.

While the California-based company is still figuring out which employees will be asked to move, it is likely those in the parks department who are not working full-time at Disneyland, California or in the international park business. Workers who want to move have 18 months to complete the move, D’Amaro said.

“As someone who has moved from California to Florida and back with my family, I understand that moving means a big change, not just for the employee but for their families as well,” said D’Amaro.