4000-5000 more units in Orlando...

[PeterS Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close PeterS]

Just saw this article...

Like Orlando needs 4,000 - 5,000 more units....

Pete


Disney announces two major resort expansions
Thursday March 1, 1:13 pm ET


Walt Disney World said Thursday it is developing two large tracts of land on different areas of its 43-square mile property, one aimed at high-dollar luxury guests and the other designed to appeal to a more moderately-priced audience.

The announcement came from Meg Crofton, president of Walt Disney World, at a seminar for business journalists at the Central Florida resort.

The first, a 900-acre golf community, would replace the existing Eagle Pines golf course at the Bonnet Creek Golf Club with an as yet undetermined-sized Four Seasons hotel.

Disney says it has signed a letter of intent with the Toronto-based company.

Four Seasons (NYSE: FS - News), a luxury hotel product new to Central Florida, would also renovate the existing Osprey Ridge course and rebrand it as a Four Seasons course.

Also planned within the golf community are fractional homes and single-family homes on land that would be de-annexed by the Reedy Creek Improvement District and annexed into Orange County.

Disney says it expects to open the Four Seasons hotel by 2010 and a phase of the residential units at the same time.

The second project, also unnamed, is located on 450 acres near the new Western Beltway that Disney plans to sell to an as-yet-unnamed developer or group of developers.

Crofton describes it as appealing to the value- and mid-priced market and containing a mix of 4,000 to 5,000 non-Disney branded time share and low- to mid-rise hotel units. The area would also include 300,000 to 500,000 square feet of retail space -- shops, restaurants, entertainment venues and clubs -- aimed at the visitors staying in the complex.

No dollar amount was set for either project.

The announcement was unusual for Disney, since the company generally avoids announcing major projects without providing great detail about the expansion.

Disney Public Affairs Vice President Bill Warren explained the haste behind the announcement was driven by the need to begin de-annexation of the planned single-family homes. "We know there's not as much detail as you are used to," Warren told the business writers group, "however we felt an obligation to inform our local government partners about our plans."

The Walt Disney Co. (NYSE: DIS - News) is a diversified worldwide entertainment company. Its Parks and Resorts division owns and operates Disneyland and the Walt Disney World Resort. The company was founded in 1923 and is based in Burbank, Calif.

Published March 1, 2007 by the Orlando Business Journal - bizjournals.com

[JLB Please excuse me, I'm a Dick. Not a moron just a Dick Find all posts View Profile Close JLB]

4000-5000 more units in Orlando...

And that's just OLCC!

[bigfrank Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close bigfrank]

People want to stay in a Disney Resort. No matter how many rooms that put they will get filled.

[dougp26364 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close dougp26364]

.................................................. .............
Crofton describes it as appealing to the value- and mid-priced market and containing a mix of 4,000 to 5,000 non-Disney branded time share and low- to mid-rise hotel units. The area would also include 300,000 to 500,000 square feet of retail space -- shops, restaurants, entertainment venues and clubs -- aimed at the visitors staying in the complex.................

People want to stay in a Disney Resort. No matter how many rooms that put they will get filled.

I thought the same thing initially but, the article says non-Disney branded timeshares. So this would indicate to me that someone like Westgate, Sunterra, HGVC or anyone else could build all those units.

If it were Disney branded I could probably see it. But if it ends up being another Westgate developement or something like OLCC it will just toss more weeks into a destination that already seems to have plenty.

[Dave M Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Dave M]

I'm not sure this is a big deal in the overall accommodations landscape for Orlando, for two reasons. First, it will be a mix of hotel rooms and timeshare units; no indication as to what the mix will be. Second, this development will add less than 4% to the total of hotel and timeshare units currently in the Orlando area.

A single hotel in Las Vegas has more than 5,000 hotel rooms!

[dougp26364 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close dougp26364]

I'm not sure this is a big deal in the overall accommodations landscape for Orlando, for two reasons. First, it will be a mix of hotel rooms and timeshare units; no indication as to what the mix will be. Second, this development will add less than 4% to the total of hotel and timeshare units currently in the Orlando area.

A single hotel in Las Vegas has more than 5,000 hotel rooms!

But Vegas is something of an anomoly. I was once told that the one corner that has MGM Grand, Excalibur, NYNY and the Tropicana has more rooms than the entire city of San Fransisco. I don't think anyone has ever quite figured out Vegas. Even the naysayers on Wall Street seem to have stopped their sky-is-falling routine with every new hotel built that adds a few thousand more rooms to the mix.

[JLB Please excuse me, I'm a Dick. Not a moron just a Dick Find all posts View Profile Close JLB]

But it is such a long drive to Disney.

On the other hand, since so many resorts brag close to Disney . . .

A single hotel in Las Vegas has more than 5,000 hotel rooms!

[shopgirl Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close shopgirl]

I posted recently that Consolidated is building (renovating?) a resort in Orlando called Villas at Regal Palms, which is not yet opened and is only in the preview stage. They will associate with II and are not even in the online directly yet.

Floridays and Lake Marion Resort are both brand new, Disney is building those units at Animal Kingdom Lodge and getting ready to build even more timeshares at the Contemporary. If they would just lower their prices. Marriott continues to build, as does HGVC. Wow, we might get some great bargains on Getaways and Extra Vacations.

What is going on at Disney that is causing all this building boom? Maybe they are in the planning stages of an entirely new park within Disney. Animal Kingdom just kind of popped up with little notice.

[sfsailors Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close sfsailors]

No wonder that I always find resorts available for trade in II Flexchnage in Orlando area

[bnoble Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close bnoble]

What's going on there? People want to go, and some are deciding to buy rather than rent. For families with grade-school kids, it's probably one of only a very small handful of "we really have to go there at least once" destinations. It's not just the Disney properties either. As I understand it, Bonnet Creek is selling so well that the later towers are going to be taller than originally planned. We're in the younger-grade-school years, and it seemed like one family in ten from our school was down there during our mid-winter break. We couldn't turn around without bumping into someone we knew.

The broader timeshare community looks down its nose at Orlando, and perhaps for good reason. But, that's where the parents of younger kids want to go. I think a lot of people are buying specific resorts down there without realizing that in ten years or less their vacation preferences will change entirely. But, many people buying into mini-systems may well be happy for a long long time. Our recent FF resale purchase was motivated by our near-term annual plans to return Orlando, but with the understanding that the bloom will be off that rose eventually, and so FF-internal exchanging at known values will become important.

Then again I could be entirely wrong. My uncle has owned two back-to-back March weeks at Orange Lake since his kids were small, and he's now a grandfather, but they still go down every year, and usually one or the other of his kids joins them, and they have a great time. He owns a couple of SA weeks for exchanging, but he uses his OLCC weeks himself. But, they don't go to visit Disney. They barely leave the OLCC compound.