Jan. 26 (Bloomberg) -- Walt Disney & Co. said no agreement has been made yet with Chinese authorities on the opening of a Shanghai theme park, although it was “optimistic” as negotiations continued.

An application to build the park was submitted to the relevant government bodies after the Burbank, California-based company had completed a feasibility study, Disney Managing Director for Asia Bill Ernest said today in an interview.

“We are optimistic both parties will have an ongoing dialogue,” said Ernest after the launch of Hong Kong Disneyland’s Lunar New Year celebrations. “Yet today even with the application project report, we don’t have a deal yet, and we don’t have anything agreed to yet. We are still waiting.”

Walt Disney announced it will build a 24.4 billion yuan ($3.6 billion) theme park in association with the Shanghai government in the city’s Pudong district, its sixth globally, the Apple Daily reported Jan. 17. The 1.5-square-kilometer (0.58 square mile) park may open as early as 2014, the report said.

Ernest today declined to give any estimate for the cost of the proposal. “It’s still in so early a stage,” he said.

Disney, the world’s largest theme-park operator, stressed it would continue to develop Hong Kong Disneyland. Ernest said visitor numbers at the resort had climbed since posting first- year attendance figures that missed their target.

Opened in September 2005, Hong Kong Disneyland had attracted 14.5 million visitors in its first three years, and showed an 8 percent year-on-year gain in the 12 months ended September 2008, said the resort’s managing director, Andrew Kam. Now more than 15 million have visited the park, he said, adding that he expected the growth trend to continue even as the global crisis deepened.

Double-digit Growth

“Our business continues to go up; right now our business is double-digit growth since our year started in October,” said Ernest. “There is definitely a slowdown in the world and we are aware of that. We are continuing building plans and prepare for that.”

Kam reiterated a plan announced Dec. 23 to expand the resort by one-third to help attract visitors. Walt Disney and the city’s government, which owns a 57 percent equity stake in Hong Kong Disneyland, are in talks about funding the expansion, Kam said last month.

“Expansion is very important because we probably will reach our full capacity pretty soon, so we hope the expansion could begin sometime soon,” Kam said in a separate interview today, without giving details of timing or capacity levels. Ernest said he hoped the work would begin in the first-half of the year.

Ernest said some facilities “unique” to Hong Kong would be included in the new phase, while Kam said a range of exciting products, including fast rides, would be put into the Hong Kong resort as half of the park’s attendants were young adults.

Neither Ernest nor Kam would be drawn on costing for the expansion but a Radio Television Hong Kong report on Dec. 22, that cited the park’s managing director, said it would come in at about half that of a HK$7 billion ($903 million) cruise terminal being planned for the city. Kam said the report was speculative.

To contact the reporter on this story: James Peng in Hong Kong at jpeng7@bloomberg.net;

Last Updated: January 26, 2009 02:23 EST