TORONTO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--What is the value of Disney World? This is a question thought leaders set out to answer at the RICS Summit Series in Miami in March 2018. A recent court decision validated the panel’s findings.
As part of its Summit Series, RICS includes a very popular luncheon panel that attempts to pin a value on one of the host cities’ icons. Barden Prisant, President of Telepraisal in New York City and an expert on valuation of art appraisal, hosts the panel, which includes an expert who is able to provide an insider’s look at the asset valued during the presentation.
At the RICS Summit in Miami, Amanda Levine, an associate with expertise on tax law from the law firm Moffa, Sutton and Donnini, joined Prisant to answer the question: You’re buying Disney World! Are you getting a beauty, or a beast?
The major issue with determining the value of Disney World is lack of evidence. Disney is notoriously secretive about providing income numbers so the RICS panel had to proceed without data.
Just a few short months later, a judge in Orlando has issued an opinion showing our RICS Panel had hit the issues spot-on. It identified the same two key points raised by the speakers: the property should be valued according to the income method and it is impossible to value Disney’s land without separating the Disney name, and corresponding IP, from the equation.
Based on the evidence it had, the court’s analysis cut the property appraiser’s assessment in half to be in line with the value assigned to it by the Prisant and Levine.
“It was surprising to find that the court was willing to proceed without much more data than we had during our speculation,” said Prisant. “The fact that the judge accepted the expert testimony, based on income numbers that were not provided, was a coup for this Epcot Property.”
RICS Americas resumes its Summit Series in 2019 with events in Los Angeles, Miami and Vancouver. Prisant will once again be the keynote speaker and follow the tradition of assigning values to iconic landmarks. For more information on the Summit of the Americas, go to rics.org.
RICS promotes and enforces the highest professional qualifications and standards in the valuation, development and management of land, real estate, construction and infrastructure. Our name promises the consistent delivery of standards - bringing confidence to markets and effecting positive change in the built and natural environments.
