Lets’s start with the press release:

National Harbor Sells Land to Disney
 
Site Being Considered for New Resort Hotel
 
NATIONAL HARBOR, Md., May 19 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Peterson Companies announced today the sale of land at its National Harbor development near Washington, DC to Walt Disney Parks and Resorts. Disney is considering using the 15-acre site overlooking the Potomac River in National Harbor, MD as the location for a resort hotel for families and others visiting the National Capital Region.
 
“We’re thrilled Disney has decided to invest in National Harbor,” said Milton V. Peterson, chairman of the Peterson Companies. “Disney is the top family entertainment company in the world, and its purchase is a great vote of confidence in the future of National Harbor and the Washington area as a top family tourism destination.”
 
The new resort hotel would be one of Disney’s stand-alone resort hotels separate from the Disney theme parks. This new resort hotel, like the project under construction in Hawaii, will be in a prime geographic location and will provide guests with the same comfort, fun and amenities for which Disney is famous.
 
“As we began identifying possible locations to grow our business, the Washington, DC area immediately jumped to the top of the list,” said Jay Rasulo, Chairman of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts. “National Harbor offers an array of entertaining activities for regional visitors, but it is also a family-friendly base camp, from which visitors from around the world can explore the stirring sights and inspirational stories of our nation’s capital. We believe National Harbor has the unique opportunity to offer a new level of family-friendly hospitality.”
 
Disney purchased the Maryland property from the Peterson Companies for $11 million.

The developer (Peterson Companies) uses the press release as an opportunity to call attention to their project and their achievement of landing Disney Parks and Resorts as a participant. But Disney reveals no details about what they intend to build; in fact, the noncommital subheadline is, “Site Being Considered for New Resort Hotel.”

Disney’s National Harbor site isn’t in Washington, D.C. It’s about 8 miles south of the White House in Prince George’s County, Maryland. The driving distance to the National Mall, where most of Washington’s visitor attractions are located, is around 11 miles.

Actually, 11 miles isn’t that far. Consider that the distance from Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge to the Magic Kingdom bus center is 8 miles. (Of course, D.C. traffic tends to be worse than Walt Disney World traffic.)

If the Disney site were just an ordinary suburban parcel, perhaps wedged between a Home Depot and Toyota dealer, we could complain that Disney picked a bad location. However, National Harbor is developing into an attraction in its own right. And National Harbor is a good base for visiting other Washington area sites, such as Old Town Alexandria and George Washington’s Mount Vernon.

National Harbor is a former gravel pit on Smoot Bay, a cove of the Potomac River. In the 1980s and 1990s, several developers tried to develop the property. Ambitious plans for Bay of the Americas and then for PortAmerica never got off the ground. In 1997, successful Washington-area developer Milton Peterson took over the site. Peterson envisioned National Harbor, a family-friendly resort, with water taxi service to Washington’s attractions. Peterson intended to succeed where the others had failed—even if it took an act of Congress. In 1999, Congress exempted Peterson’s project from Federal review and protected it from the threat of possible lawsuits over environmental issues.

National Harbor is now a reality. By the end of 2009, there will be a couple of dozen restaurants and a half dozen hotels (including a Wyndham timeshare resort). The piers on the riverfront provide seasonal water taxi service, sightseeing cruises, dinner cruises, fishing tours, and private charters. Permanent residents live in several condominium buildings. And there’s a calendar of special events, including an annual Food & Wine Festival, an Oktoberfest, a Yacht Show, and the Sunset Concert Series. In 2008, National Harbor even hosted Kooza, a traveling Cirque du Soleil show.

If there’s a problem with the location of the Disney site, it’s with the location within National Harbor. The waterfront parcels in the main part of National Harbor have already been developed. It appears that Disney obtained the best remaining large parcel. The Disney site is at the head of American Way, which is the “Main Street” of National Harbor.

As one of the early companies to join National Harbor, Gaylord Entertainment has a prime 40-acre site right on the river. The 2,000-room Gaylord National Hotel & Convention Center opened April 1, 2008. With 470,000 square feet of convention space, the Gaylord is first and foremost a convention hotel. However, it’s also an attraction. A glass roof covers a spectacular 18-story atrium with colonial streets, gardens, and waterways. If you’ve ever been in the Gaylord Palms Hotel & Convention Center near Walt Disney World, you know how Gaylord builds hotels.

The National Children’s Museum was designated by Congress in 2003. Designed by renowned architect Cesar Pelli, the 150,000 square-foot museum is scheduled to open in 2013. Considering that Disney’s core customers are families with children, having this museum a short walk from the Disney site is a good combination.

There’s a giant buried on the National Harbor riverfront, struggling to get free! Well, it’s not a real giant; it’s a five-piece aluminum sculpture.

Okay, by now we’ve established that National Harbor is a promising location. National Harbor is still working to establish itself. For example, there are not yet any movie theaters, and many of the restaurants so far are in the hotels. There’s already a lot there, and Disney will give it another boost.

But that raises a big question... what is Disney going to build on their 15 acres?

A key sentence in the press release is, “This new resort hotel, like the project under construction in Hawaii, will be in a prime geographic location and will provide guests with the same comfort, fun and amenities for which Disney is famous.”

The Disney project in Hawaii will have 350 hotel rooms and 480 Disney Vacation Club (DVC) villas on a 21-acre site. The National Harbor press release says nothing about DVC, but that doesn’t mean that National Harbor won’t include DVC. Keep in mind that Disney often tries to say little or nothing about DVC resorts until the time is right. Disney didn’t announce Bay Lake Tower at Disney’s Contemporary Resort as a DVC resort until September 2008, even though exterior construction was essentially complete.

In fact, it’s hard to imagine Disney at National Harbor not including a DVC component.

Disney has been highly successful with DVC at Walt Disney World. Despite early business missteps at Vero Beach and Hilton Head, Disney is now committed to expanding DVC to new markets. The Washington, D.C. area is a great family destination, and would be a strong addition to the portfolio of DVC resorts. Like Walt Disney World, it’s a place that families can return to year after year. Many Americans live within a one-day drive, so it’s an attractive home resort. Finally, with an undersupply of timeshares in the area and with Disney’s reputation, it should be a great “trader” in the RCI timeshare exchange program.

Although the press release doesn’t say how many rooms Disney is building, the Washington Post published that it would be a 500-room hotel. Fifteen acres isn’t nearly enough land for a theme park—so don’t expect the long-cancelled Disney’s America theme park to resurface. But it’s more land than a simple, 500-room, high-rise hotel requires.

Consider the press release line about the “fun and amenities for which Disney is famous.” That suggests that Disney will build more than just guest rooms and suites. One possibility would be an all-weather water park for Disney’s guests. Another possibility is that American Way would continue into a shopping and entertainment district on the Disney property. In any case, Disney’s 15 acres is likely to be home to a true urban resort, not just a Disney-branded hotel.

Undoubtedly, some readers of this article are thinking that with the current national economy, it makes no sense for Disney to embark on such a project.

Actually, the timing might be very good. A company like Disney would prefer not to open a resort in this economy, but that doesn’t mean it’s a bad time to invest in the future. The press release said nothing about an opening date. A project of this magnitude is likely to take until at least 2013 or 2014. For everyone’s sake, let’s hope the economy is doing very well by then.

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© 2009 Werner Weiss — Disclaimers, Copyright, and Trademarks

Updated May 22, 2009.

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Photo of Mount Vernon: Werner Weiss, 2001.
Photo of Washington, D.C.: Werner Weiss, 2001.