At website Yesterland.com, curator Werner Weiss frequently takes a look at Disney projects that have been relegated to our distant memories and others which never came to be. In his most recent posting he looks at three Disney Vacation Club developments which did not get off of the drawing board.
The most familiar of the projects in Werner's article is the Eagle Pines project scheduled for construction alongside the golf course of the same name. This project was actually announced by DVC only to later be cancelled due to the post-9./11 economy. But you may not have realized that Disney also came very close to constructing timeshare resorts in New York's Times Square and a ski lodge in Vail Valley.
Here is a little teaser from Werner's column, highlighting the proposed Colorado ski resort:
Imagine a ski-in/ski-out Disney Vacation Club resort—Disney’s Mountain Lodge—in Colorado’s Vail Valley. Visualize two five-story wings with 115 studios, one- and two-bedroom vacation homes, and three-bedroom Grand Villas, emerging from a central five-story atrium lobby. In your imagination, add a fitness center, retail space, and a Community Room.
Now, picture a location at Market Square in the Beaver Creek Resort, adjacent to a below-grade 530-seat performing arts theater. Lets’s make this fantasy even better by putting a year-round ice skating rink on top of the theater. And let’s imagine easy access to all sorts of shops and restaurants by connecting the whole complex to the Beaver Creek Resort’s pedestrian system, while hiding cars underground in 160,000 square feet of convenient, covered parking.
What a great way to use last undeveloped piece of property in the Beaver Creek Ski Resort base area master plan! How many DVC points would you like to buy here?
To read the rest of the article, you'll have to visit Yesterland.com. And while you're there, don't forget to click on the other links in the story header to read Werner's previous examination of the abandoned DVC projects in Newport Beach, CA and Disneyland Paris.
