Disneyland Resort
The resort was developed by Walt Disney in the 1950s. When it opened to guests on July 17, 1955, the property consisted of Disneyland, its 100-acre (40 ha) parking lot, and the Disneyland Hotel, owned and operated by Disney's business partner Jack Wrather.
After the success with the multi-park, multi-hotel business model at Walt Disney World in Florida, Disney acquired large parcels of land adjacent to Disneyland to apply the same business model in Anaheim. The company purchased the Disneyland Hotel from Wrather in 1988 and in 1995 purchased the Pan Pacific Hotel from the Tokyu Group to become today's Pixar Place Hotel. Land purchases continued through the 1990s and the company now owns 489 acres (198 ha) and has long-term lease rights to develop an additional 52 acres (21 ha). A major expansion came in 2001 when the property saw the addition of the Grand Californian Hotel, Disney California Adventure Park, and the Downtown Disney shopping, dining, and entertainment district.
== History ==
=== Concept and construction ===
Walt Disney's early concepts for an amusement park called for a "Mickey Mouse Park" located adjacent to the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank (presently the site of the West Coast headquarters of ABC). As new ideas emerged, Walt and his brother Roy realized that the Burbank location would be too small for the project, and hired a consultant from Stanford Research Institute to provide them with information on locations and economic feasibility.