Disney to bring theme park magic to neighborhoods

Future. Disney is getting into the residential game with “Storyliving by Disney,” which will reportedly bring together a luxury resort feel to a small-town community. And in true Disney fashion, storytelling will play a big role in the new neighborhoods, which — if it goes beyond just basic branding — could make everyday life one big game.

My neighbor, Mickey
If you could live at Disneyland, would you?

If so, it’s your lucky day. Disney’s theme park division is planning to break ground on “Storyliving by Disney”—  master-planned residential communities that will somehow be “steeped in story.”

• The first, dubbed Cotino, will be built in Rancho Mirage, California.
• It’ll include 1,900 homes, a 24-acre “grand oasis” (modeled after Disney’s famous lagoons), a clubhouse, a beachfront hotel, and, of course, plenty of “shopping, dining, and entertainment.”
• Disney cast members will operate the community aspects, while Disney Imagineers will have a hand in each community’s creative concept.

No construction date or pricing has been announced, but the building and selling of homes, condos, and apartments will be handled by a third-party developer.

Theme park-ification

This actually isn’t the first time that Disney has been behind the construction of livable communities. Epcot was famously designed by Walt himself to be a model for a city of the future (although the company settled on a theme park), and the company created the town of Celebration, Florida, which opened its doors in 1996.

Disney hopes that its “everything is an attraction” mentality, which is now implemented at its hotels, restaurants, and cruise ships, can be carried over to residential living. The company thinks the idea behind Storyliving will be so sticky that it even announced that people can purchase day passes to visit… so, really, Cotino will be Disney’s third California theme park.