2021 OC 50: Building Homes, Hubs for Tourists

Tourism and hospitality is a key driver to OC’s economy, and guests coming to the area are looking for new ways to be entertained, relax and enjoy experiences at their destinations. Change is constant, whether at a high-end hotel, or at a world-renowned theme park approaching its 70th year in operation. These two are setting up the area for the next 70+ years.

JOSH D'AMARO
Chairman
Disney Parks,
Experiences and Products
Burbank

BIO: Oversees Disney’s travel and leisure businesses, which include Anaheim’s Disneyland and five other theme park-resort destinations in the United States, Europe and Asia; cruise line, vacation ownership program, and other business lines. Previously president of Walt Disney World Resort, before that was president of the Disneyland Resort, where he opened the Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge land.

NOTABLE: Recent local proposal, called DisneylandForward, requests new approvals from Anaheim “to allow for integrated development to be located and built throughout Disney properties.” The approximately two-year planning process is expected to set Disney up for several decades’ worth of development in Anaheim. Could pave way to add new attractions, hotel rooms, retail, dining and other mixed-use elements within the 500-acre resort that’s OC’s largest tourist draw.

ROBERT OLSON
CEO, President
R.D. Olson Development
Newport Beach
CEO
R.D. Olson Construction
Irvine

BIO: California’s dominant hotel developer for over a decade. Since 2008, company has completed about 20 projects with over 3,000 rooms. Those projects have a value topping $2.2B. Business Journal Businessperson of the Year for 2019.

RECENT: The pandemic hasn’t stopped the developer from planning his next steps. A pair of hotels totaling 266 rooms at the revamped Dana Point Harbor—dubbed Dana House and Surf Lodge—remain on target to move ahead in the next few years, as does a 16-story project featuring a rooftop bar along Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. Olson also has plans outside California, including a new resort in the works in Sedona, Ariz., which would mark his Newport Beach-based firm’s first development project in that state.

QUOTABLE: “We’re very positive,” Olson told the Business Journal in April. “We’ve learned a lot about the industry (in the past year) and made adjustments.” Creating a curated customer experience—for guests of all types, business or leisure—is now the key for hotel operators, he said. Guests “want to stay at a place where the locals hang out, a place that’s comfortable, and has a good team of people.”