Not a DisneyQuest world after all: Plans for complex collapse

DisneyQuest turned out to be a Mickey Mouse operation after all. Philadelphia Mayor John Street announced on Friday that the two-year-old plan to bring the $167 million DisneyQuest entertainment center to an amusement complex at Eighth and Market streets is "dead." "The deal as it was originally envisioned can't go forward," Barbara Grant, Street's spokeswoman, said yesterday. However, she added that although the original deal fell through, another plan could be negotiated. "There is still an opportunity to have a DisneyQuest at that location -- they just have to start over from scratch," she explained. DisneyQuest -- a high tech entertainment center meant to bring the Disney experience to Philadelphia through computer animation and virtual reality -- was originally intended to be the lead tenant in a 420,000-square-foot development on Eighth and Market streets that the city expected to help rejuvenate the downtown area. But the mayor said the Center City development had failed to attract what he called a "critical mass" of restaurants, stores and retail centers to support DisneyQuest and fill the rest of the complex. Consequently, he said, DisneyQuest officials didn't feel they had the financial backing necessary to sustain the project. A deal with United Artists to construct a multi-screen theater in the same complex also fell apart. Former Philadelphia Mayor Ed Rendell had announced plans to bring the entertainment center to Philadelphia in December 1998. The project was originally expected to open in time for the Republican National Convention this summer. Officials had hoped the five-story attraction would draw approximately one million visitors a year. While Street said in January that the city might allocate $35 million in funds to support the project, Grant said yesterday that the city ultimately couldn't justify making such an investment. Disney was expected to spend up to $80 million in building the attraction. Grant also said that construction on a similar entertainment complex planned for the Penn's Landing site along the Delaware River has been delayed. The Penn's Landing development -- a conglomeration of shops, restaurants and entertainment centers similar to the complex at Eighth and Market -- was originally projected to open in 2000. But Simon Property Group Inc. -- the developer of the project -- has already missed its projected deadline to start construction and officials are now estimating that the complex won't open until 2002. Simon Property Group spokeswoman Billie Scott said the company now anticipates construction will not begin until this summer, attributing the delay to the complexity of planning such a large development. "It's an extremely complex process," Scott explained. "While everyone always has a best guess for the timetable, there are things that need to fall into place." Scott added that about three quarters of funding for the center have been secured, as have several crucial retail centers. New York-based toy retailer FAO Schwarz announced plans last fall to open a flagship store at the Penn's Landing site. Jillions, a chain restaurant and bar, also has indicated that they will open in the Penn's Landing complex.

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