Posted: Wed Mar 23, 2011 3:17 am Post subject: Grand Floridian Construction
OrlandoSentinel.com
Disney planning addition to Grand Floridian
By Jason Garcia, Orlando Sentinel
5:43 PM EDT, March 22, 2011
Walt Disney World is preparing to build an addition to Disney's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa, the most expensive of the giant resort's 17 hotels.
A permit application submitted to the South Florida Water Management District describes a six- to seven-story, T-shaped building that will be connected via a covered walkway to the existing Grand Floridian. The nearly 900-room, Victorian-themed hotel, next to the Magic Kingdom, has standard room rates that begin at $440 a night.
No construction timetable was provided, and Disney wouldn't discuss the project Tuesday.
"At any given time, we have numerous projects in various stages of development across our resort," spokesman Bryan Malenius said. "If a project comes to fruition, we will share details when it makes sense to do so for our business."
But the plans, which were filed with the water-management district earlier this month and quickly surfaced online in Disney fan forums, have touched off widespread speculation that the building will be used for Disney Vacation Club time shares.
"It has all the markings of it," said Tim Krasniewski, publisher of DVCNews.com, a news website for Disney time-share owners.
Disney would be following a familiar model if that's what it does. The company's newest time-share project in Orlando, the 15-story Bay Lake Tower, was built as an addition to Disney's Contemporary Resort, another high-priced Disney hotel by the Magic Kingdom.
Disney also has a history of attempting to keep its time-share projects quiet for as long as possible, for fear of undermining sales at already-open properties. Disney refrained from discussing its Bay Lake Tower plans until nearly two years after breaking ground on the project.
Disney is currently peddling units in three open time shares at Disney World — Bay Lake Tower, Disney's Animal Kingdom Villas, and Disney's Saratoga Springs Resort & Spa — as well in an under-construction resort in Hawaii dubbed "Aulani." That project, the first major resort Disney has built that isn't tied to a theme park, is scheduled to open in phases beginning this fall.
A new time-share project would be the first Disney has launched since the global recession and credit crunch, which decimated much of the time-share industry. Sales at Disney's time-share business fell during the downturn; the unit generated an estimated $190 million a year in operating profit before the slump.
Still, Disney says it has been happy with Vacation Club's performance through the recession.
"It has been a business that has been far more resilient than I think any of us internally would have thought," Walt Disney Co. Chief Financial Officer Jay Rasulo said during an analyst conference earlier this month.
Rasulo added that Disney prefers not to do lengthy pre-sales for its time-share developments. "We basically like people to be able to use their unit as soon as they buy in for the Vacation Club," he said.
Krasniewski said it would make sense for Disney to begin work on its next Orlando time share now. He said he expects Bay Lake Tower to sell out before the end of the year, based on documents filed with Orange County.
Disney declined to discuss the pace of sales in Bay Lake Tower, other than to say it is "pleased with the continued popularity" of the project.
Joined: Mar 25, 2010 Posts: 805 Location: Denver, CO
Posted: Wed Mar 23, 2011 6:29 am Post subject:
My girlfriend says that the girls on the wedding forums are freaking out because they're all afraid that they're going to have construction cranes in their pictures and jackhammers pounding away during their ceremonies.
Joined: Feb 21, 2006 Posts: 4196 Location: Sanford, Fl
Posted: Mon Aug 22, 2011 5:19 am Post subject:
They may have finished the referb, but my understanding is that the DVC construction was still ongoing... The spa and tennis courts recently closed to make way for the new wing... _________________ Up or Down North, South, East, or West An Adventurer's Life is Best!
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