Mickey?!
hears that Disney’s New York HQ on 66th Street has been hit with an infestation — of mice, appropriately enough.
On Monday, an urgent email seen by told staff at the House of Mouse’s East Coast outpost to head for the exits “IMMEDIATELY” after the place was overrun with the squeaky little pests — and also, apparently, a coterie of fleas. (After all, don’t the marquee rodents always have a colorful gang of sidekicks in Disney properties?)
“We have been made aware of persistent pest issues on the 5th floor of [77 W. 66th St.],” read the note, “Risk management and facilities teams are aware of these issues and working quickly to resolve them. As a result, we ask that you refrain from working from the 5th floor EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY.”
The message added somewhat wearily: “Thank you all for the notifications.”
It told staffers to grab anything they needed from their desks by 5pm that day and either work from home or ask to be relocated to another part of the building.
We hear staff have been asked to wait for further notification about when they can return.
We’re told that part of the building — which, we’re told, was the only area affected — is used by folks from Disney’s advertising department.
ABC has been in the huge Lincoln Center-area complex since the 1980s, and Disney joined it there when Disney bought the news network in 1995.
The company sold its Upper West Side buildings, including 77W, to Silverstein in 2018 for nearly a billion dollars, and is renting them back while new digs are being built downtown at Hudson Square.
“[The current Disney/ABC buildings are] set to be demolished and new high rises will go up, so there’s no incentive for upkeep,” sniffed a source, “At any given time most of the elevators are broken, causing lots irritation.” Although, perhaps that’s just the ups and downs (or not, in this case) of show…
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