Downtown Disney is turning into Disney Springs.
The transformation starts next month when construction begins on the renamed, re-themed Walt Disney World complex. The end result will be twice as many shopping, dining and entertainment options, Disney officials said Thursday.
The multimillion-dollar project includes about 150 venues that will open in phases, with completion in 2016, said Tom Staggs, chairman of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts.
He would not identify specific tenants but said to expect "world-class" stores and restaurants.
"The response has been beyond our expectations," he said of potential retailers and restaurateurs. "The vast majority of the new space that we're adding will be non-Disney brand."
The expansion is expected to employ 1,200 construction workers and eventually add 4,000 workers at the 120-acre site.
Disney Springs, inspired by life in the early 1900s, will break down into four "neighborhoods," said Kathy Mangum, executive producer with Walt Disney Imagineering. Two — The Landing and Town Center — are planned in the space where Pleasure Island nightclubs operated until 2008.
Most of the new stores will be in Town Center, she said, and the restaurants in the Landing will have waterfront views.
The other two neighborhoods roughly correspond with current Downtown Disney districts: West Side, home of Cirque du Soleil, and The Marketplace, which will have an expanded World of Disney store. A pedestrian causeway over the water will connect the Rainforest Cafe end of Marketplace with the middle of the complex and ease traffic flow of guests, Mangum said.
The expansion spills into the current parking lot, and two garages with a total capacity of about 6,000 vehicles will be built there.
The vibe and look of the makeover were inspired by small Florida towns at the turn of the past century and the company's own Sunshine State heritage, Staggs said. Walt Disney's parents met and married in the now-vanished Central Florida town of Kismet in 1888, he said.
"In our story, Disney Springs grew up around a series of natural springs here in Central Florida. It became a thriving community," Staggs said, adding that he wants it to be a place where guests "feel instantly at home."
All attractions eventually must be "revitalized and regenerated and recycled," said Dennis Speigel, president of International Theme Park Services, a trade group. It's good timing for Disney, he said.
"It sounds like to me they're taking it from an urban to a more suburban setting kind of feel, a more casual feel, which is in keeping with the way things have gone," Speigel said.
The complex has had several names, starting with Lake Buena Vista Shopping Village in 1975. It became Walt Disney World Village in 1977. When Pleasure Island was added in 1989, the entire area became Disney Village Marketplace. In 1997, the Downtown Disney name covered three areas: the original Marketplace, Pleasure Island and the then-new West Side.
Swapping the Downtown Disney branding for Disney Springs does not concern Lou Mongello, host of an unofficial Disney World podcast on WDWRadio.com.
"I think it helps to mark the significance of the change that's going on there," Mongello said. "This is not just the adding of additional stores and restaurants. It really is changing the message and I think what the purpose of this area is supposed to be in terms of making it now a new destination."
The new theme is an organizational plus, he said. "Right now, Downtown Disney is sort of broken up into different areas and is disjointed."
Speigel recalled the early, rocky days of Pleasure Island and how Disney reworked it with a "New Year's Eve every night" theme.
"They have a track record of taking something that doesn't work and make it work. And they have a track record of taking something that has worked and then embellishing it and taking it up to the next level," he said. "I think that's what they're doing here."
The transformation starts next month when construction begins on the renamed, re-themed Walt Disney World complex. The end result will be twice as many shopping, dining and entertainment options, Disney officials said Thursday.
The multimillion-dollar project includes about 150 venues that will open in phases, with completion in 2016, said Tom Staggs, chairman of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts.
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"The response has been beyond our expectations," he said of potential retailers and restaurateurs. "The vast majority of the new space that we're adding will be non-Disney brand."
The expansion is expected to employ 1,200 construction workers and eventually add 4,000 workers at the 120-acre site.
Disney Springs, inspired by life in the early 1900s, will break down into four "neighborhoods," said Kathy Mangum, executive producer with Walt Disney Imagineering. Two — The Landing and Town Center — are planned in the space where Pleasure Island nightclubs operated until 2008.
Most of the new stores will be in Town Center, she said, and the restaurants in the Landing will have waterfront views.
The other two neighborhoods roughly correspond with current Downtown Disney districts: West Side, home of Cirque du Soleil, and The Marketplace, which will have an expanded World of Disney store. A pedestrian causeway over the water will connect the Rainforest Cafe end of Marketplace with the middle of the complex and ease traffic flow of guests, Mangum said.
The expansion spills into the current parking lot, and two garages with a total capacity of about 6,000 vehicles will be built there.
The vibe and look of the makeover were inspired by small Florida towns at the turn of the past century and the company's own Sunshine State heritage, Staggs said. Walt Disney's parents met and married in the now-vanished Central Florida town of Kismet in 1888, he said.
"In our story, Disney Springs grew up around a series of natural springs here in Central Florida. It became a thriving community," Staggs said, adding that he wants it to be a place where guests "feel instantly at home."
All attractions eventually must be "revitalized and regenerated and recycled," said Dennis Speigel, president of International Theme Park Services, a trade group. It's good timing for Disney, he said.
"It sounds like to me they're taking it from an urban to a more suburban setting kind of feel, a more casual feel, which is in keeping with the way things have gone," Speigel said.
The complex has had several names, starting with Lake Buena Vista Shopping Village in 1975. It became Walt Disney World Village in 1977. When Pleasure Island was added in 1989, the entire area became Disney Village Marketplace. In 1997, the Downtown Disney name covered three areas: the original Marketplace, Pleasure Island and the then-new West Side.
Swapping the Downtown Disney branding for Disney Springs does not concern Lou Mongello, host of an unofficial Disney World podcast on WDWRadio.com.
"I think it helps to mark the significance of the change that's going on there," Mongello said. "This is not just the adding of additional stores and restaurants. It really is changing the message and I think what the purpose of this area is supposed to be in terms of making it now a new destination."
The new theme is an organizational plus, he said. "Right now, Downtown Disney is sort of broken up into different areas and is disjointed."
Speigel recalled the early, rocky days of Pleasure Island and how Disney reworked it with a "New Year's Eve every night" theme.
"They have a track record of taking something that doesn't work and make it work. And they have a track record of taking something that has worked and then embellishing it and taking it up to the next level," he said. "I think that's what they're doing here."
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