Downtown Disney Hits Attendance Target
By JENNIFER BELLANTONIO
Downtown Disney is shaping up as the gem of Disneyland Resort’s recent expansion.
“I think Disney officials, if they could do it all over again, would have made it bigger,” said Tom Daly, Anaheim’s mayor. “I consider it an unqualified success.”
But like most new operations, the outdoor shopping, entertainment and dining center has experienced some growing pains. Tenants grumble about high rents and complain that Disney hasn’t done enough to market the center. Many locals don’t know it has free parking and no admission fee, they say.
Still, most tenants of the center between the venerable Disneyland and the struggling new California Adventure park,the other half of the expansion that opened in early 2001,say their first year of business went well despite the attendance slump that followed Sept. 11.
“For the most part, it’s been a great year despite Sept. 11,” said Bernice Gonzalez, sales lead at Hoypoloi Gallery, which sells art, fine jewelry and collectibles ranging from $200 to $2,000. “We’re still getting our feet wet.”
“It has gone well,” said Katherine Tracey, assistant manager at Tin Pan Alley, which sells magnets, pins and other souvenirs. “Right after September there was nobody. Thanksgiving and Christmas picked back up.”
Lynn Rogers, vice president of Downtown Disney, said the center hit initial projections for the year but didn’t offer numbers.
“We got the attendance we had hoped for,” Rogers said. “So actually we think we’re doing pretty well.”
One reason, Mayor Daly said, is that in addition to drawing from the adjacent Disney parks, Downtown Disney also has been “an important amenity” for conventioneers, such as the 65,000 people who recently headed to the Anaheim Convention Center for the National Association of Music Merchants, one of the revamped center’s biggest annual shows.
“Frankly, before Downtown Disney was built we didn’t have enough high-end restaurants, clubs, entertainment and shopping in the neighborhood near Disneyland, and now we have it,” Daly said.
Still, Disney’s Rogers said, the center is looking to improve.
“We still want to help bump up our lunch business, because we have opportunities there,” she said.
Most tenants reported brisk business early in 2001 and throughout the summer. They said things slumped after Sept. 11 and picked up during the holidays. (Individual stores declined to disclose revenue figures and the city of Anaheim would not release taxable-sales data for Downtown Disney).
“Even though we did not have as many people coming through the Downtown Disney area (after Sept. 11), shoppers were definitely still spending,” said Brandy Haynes, marketing rep for Downtown Disney’s Lego Imagination Center store. She said the Anaheim location leads the chain in revenue per square foot.
Lego also has a store in Disney’s downtown area in Florida, which Haynes said is the chain’s overall best performing store. It opened in 1997.
“We get regular visitors that come back time and time again, because they know that we’re there (in Florida),” she said. “We’re hoping to establish that in the Downtown Disney in Anaheim as well. But that takes time.”
But not everybody was quick to talk details.
“Our official comment is, ‘ask Disney,'” said a man standing behind the cashier counter at Island Charters. “We’ve been told to refer anyone who asks to Disney.”
The year came with some learning curves, according to Kim Bragalone, entertainment and marketing manager at Y Arriba, Y Arriba, a Latin restaurant with live entertainment that routinely has a wait on weekends.
She said the restaurant, which reported strong December sales, made some changes to meet customer demand, including expanding its offering to feature more traditional lunch and dinner entrees. Not everyone grasped Y Arriba, Y Arriba’s trademark tapas concept, an appetizer plate shared among guests, according to Bragalone.
“The first year is the hardest year,” Bragalone said. “Now that we have the new menus coming out, people are going to grasp what we’re all about.”
Bragalone said it’s sometimes challenging to get theme park visitors to head to Downtown Disney for food, “because there’s so many restaurants” in both California Adventure and Disneyland.
Once inside the center, she said, people realize they have a slew of options, including Rainforest Caf & #233; and the ESPN Zone. But Bragalone said many people still don’t know where Downtown Disney is.
“I still hear people saying, ‘You aren’t inside California Adventure?'” Bragalone said.
Added Donna Nilsen, supervisor at Department 56, which sells collectible villages, ornaments and related items: “Disney has just not gotten the word out exactly what (Downtown Disney) is. They need to explain to people what it is, along with the free parking (up to five hours with validation) and no (gate) fee.”
Those are issues that Disney plans to address in its next phase of marketing, which will launch in the next few months, according to Rogers. Initially, she said, Disney just wanted to let people know there was a Downtown area. The company ran ads on television, radio stations and billboards promoting the area much of last year. Now, Rogers said, marketing will get more specific.
“We realize that familiarity now has to be worked on,” Rogers said. “We want to have guests understand what the possibilities are: (Downtown Disney) is a place on its own. It’s not gated, there is free admission and easy parking. You don’t have to take shuttles.”
