Announcing Cotino, a new Disney community in Southern California
Cotino hopes to attract fans of the family-friendly brand with its new Disney residential community in California.
- Disney’s new residential community, Cotino, is located near Palm Springs, California, a place that Walt Disney considered his personal retreat.
- The community’s design is subtle, featuring mid-century modern homes that blend into the desert landscape rather than overt Disney branding.
- Home prices in this community start in the mid-$1 million range, and it attracts a mix of Disney fans, primarily residents and vacation home owners.
RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. — There’s little that screams Disney about Disney’s new residential area outside of Palm Springs.
That’s no surprise, knowing Walt Disney’s love for the area.
“This was a place he came to get away from the studio and all the stress,” said Becky Klein, director of the Walt Disney Archives.
So don’t expect to see footage of Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse greeting you at the main gate, like at Walt Disney World. There are no fairy tale castles either.
Unlike theme parks designed to transport guests to fantasy lands, the first Story Living by Disney community embraces a unique location with earth-toned, mid-century modern-style homes and desert landscapes, blending seamlessly with the Coachella Valley while adding a Disney touch.
Here’s what USA TODAY found on Cotino.
a little disney
Much of Cotino is still undeveloped, with cleared land dotted with construction equipment, but prospective residents can tour model homes by Shea Homes, Woodbridge Pacific Group and Davidson Communities. The three we visited felt connected, even though each homebuilder leans into a different era of the Coachella Valley, from its agricultural roots to the present day.
“We want to celebrate the history and culture of this region,” said Carolyn Boone, executive creative director of Walt Disney Imagineering.
All of the models were wonderful, open and spacious in a way that floor plans and photos can’t express. Wide-opening windows and pocket doors recessed into the walls further enhanced the sense of grandeur by bridging indoor and outdoor living spaces. A glossy show kitchen and optional private courtyard make the home even more ready for relaxing and enjoying, just like Walt Disney did in nearby Palm Springs.
“He did things like lawn bowling and rode horses. He kept his family down and had a lot of friends here,” Klein said.
But these homes don’t feel particularly Disney. That’s on purpose.
“We want a little bit of Disney. We don’t want a lot of Disney because this is our home,” Claire Bilby, senior vice president and general manager of Disney Signature Experiences Emerging Business, told USA TODAY residents.
Disney details
Residents looking for more Disney can find it at the newly opened Artisan Club. This is an optional club designed by Imagineers and staffed by Disney Cast Members exclusively for Cotino residents and their families. Household memberships start at $11,000 per year, with a one-time initiation fee of $20,000.
Boone said the Imagineers have the fingerprints of the entire community, but here they’re obsessed with every detail, from the color and texture of the sand on the beach adjacent to Cotino Bay, a 24-acre sustainable man-made crystal lagoon, to the attraction blueprints lining the walls of the club’s Architects Fork restaurant to the large window frames in the club lobby.
“Where Walt was inspired by the desert and called it the ‘living desert,’ we wanted to paint living paintings throughout the club grounds as well,” she said, paying homage to Disney’s 1953 Oscar-winning documentary The Living Desert, which Klein noted was partially filmed in the Coachella Valley. “When you look outside the frame, what’s outside the frame is always changing.”
Many of the details are subtle, but there is one flashy highlight. It is a par house that members can rent for events and overnight stays. It really feels like something out of “Incredibles 2.”
“This is really a full-circle moment for us, because a team of Pixar artists actually came to the Palm Springs area to work on ‘Incredibles 2’ and got some inspiration for what the house would look like,” said Caleb Wilde, senior architect at Walt Disney Imagineering. “So when I thought about what would fit here and become something like the Jewel of Cotino, I thought, ‘Oh, we have to do a par house.'”
creative oasis
Artisan Club members will find additional Disney-inspired offerings at Club Activities.
“Examples include painting classes with Disney artists, photography lessons with National Geographic experts, character-themed wellness classes, and even excursions and guest speakers like our friend Becky from the Walt Disney Archives,” said Krista Jones, senior manager of experiences. “We can bring her here…We can take our members on excursions to Burbank and take them to the Walt Disney Studios grounds and archives.”
It’s just for beginners. Bilby said ultimately he wants to help residents pursue their own interests.
“The real bias against this place is that it’s a creative oasis, because Walt came here and he calls this his happy place, but more importantly, this is where he gets a lot of his creative inspiration,” she said.
“Our focus at Storyliving is not just to create beautiful places with great design, but to create places that truly inspire you to live your best life and spend your best chapter in life,” Boone reiterated.
Who lives here?
Cotino’s first residents moved in earlier this year. Their homes are part of the first phase of the development, which will eventually include 300 properties. More than 1,900 units are planned, including single-family homes and later condominiums.
Construction is also underway on a town center across Cotino Bay with shops, restaurants and access to a paid public beach. Plans for a hotel are also underway.
Home prices start in the mid-$1 million range. Bill Davidson, president of Davidson Community, said all the buyers so far have been Disney fans, mostly from the West. The home is a mix of a primary home and a vacation home, with some buyers planning to make their second home their forever home after retirement.
“One of the things we’ve really seen among Gen “Some people want to be close to their children, some want to be close to their grandchildren, but they want to be in a community where they can make friends and do things and explore their passions,” Bilby said. “We go to places where residents want to live.”
Davidson joked that all of her grandchildren would want to come visit.
This story has been updated to correct a typo.
The reporter for this article was provided access by Disney. USA TODAY maintains editorial control of content.
