Strategic Leisure | Our Roots | The Disney Connection

The Disney Connection

Michael McCall's work with Disney taught him storyline design & the economics of attractions, which was added to the placemaking & commercial economics skills that he learned from working for Jim Rouse.

In the fall of 1985, The Walt Disney Company and Jim Rouse’s Enterprise Development Company formed a joint venture to define the issues and opportunities of urban entertainment.

Together with Disney, the Rouse team, led by Michael McCall, planned projects first in Dallas, then in Chicago and finally in Burbank.

Michael's team worked with Walt Disney Imagineering, Disney Development (many years later merged into Imagineering), Disney's corporate Strategic Planning group, and the Parks & Resorts group.

Each organization brought a legacy of placemaking to the venture. Each organization also brought a set of preexisting biases. These “premarital” issues, emanating from two distinctly different business paradigms—operating attractions on the part of Disney and developing retail on the part of Rouse—prevented DisneyRouse from being able to pay for the high cost of entertainment placemaking in urban areas.

Despite the highest level of strategic, creative, financial and operational talent assembled on the DisneyRouse team, and after an investment of two and a half years and millions of dollars, the engagement was called off, and none of the planned projects were ultimately consummated.

Subsequently, Michael McCall authored a repositioning strategy for Disney's Pleasure Island. Strategic Leisure has also been engaged several times by Disney Development Company.

	The Repositioning of Pleasure Island
	Pat Scanlon Letter Former Vice President Walt Disney Imagineering
	"When Rouse Meets the Mouse" Article by Michael McCall Link to PDF
	DisneyRouse Placemaking Michael McCall's 1986 White Paper Link to PDF
	Whither Disney, Whither Rouse Link to PDF
	A Personal Tribute to Walt Dianey by Michael McCall

Pleasure Island, Walt Disney World,
Walt Disney Imagineering, and
Disney are registered trademarks of
The Walt Disney Company