Timeshare Tower Moves Ahead at Disneyland Hotel

When it comes to the future of Disneyland Resort, most attention is focused on Disneyland Forward, a multiyear planning proposal that could lead to the addition of new attractions, hotel rooms, retail, dining and other mixed-use elements over the next several decades.

The project is expected to cost multiple billions of dollars, and could prove to be a boon to the area’s engineers, architects and construction firms, with thousands of new jobs created.

In the shorter term, smaller, yet, notable changes are in the works to improve the 500-acre resort owned by Burbank-based Walt Disney Co. (NYSE: DIS).

The company is moving ahead on plans to build a new Disney Vacation Club tower at the Disneyland Hotel, one of three hotel properties at Disneyland Resort.

Disney is in discussions with the city to kick off construction on a new tower that would add 344 timeshare rooms to the hotel, creating a second Disney Vacation Club property at the Anaheim resort.

Construction could begin as soon as late 2021, and deliver in 2023.

Disney Hotels

The new tower will join one other Disney Vacation Club property at the resort.

Those first timeshares are at Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel & Spa, Anaheim’s first four-diamond property that opened in 2001.

Disneyland Hotel is Orange County’s third-largest hotel with 973 rooms; the Grand Californian is next with 948 rooms.  

The new 344-unit property, running 12 stories, will drastically increase the resort’s timeshare inventory; the first property currently has about 50 timeshare condominiums.

The third Disney-owned hotel is the 481-room Disney’s Paradise Pier.

The vacation club property type has long been an in-demand option for families and guests looking for a more flexible timeshare option that allows for longer and more cost-effective stays at Disneyland.

Memberships also include access to the entire network of Disney Vacation Club locations throughout the world.

Expansion 

Sources indicate light construction work has already started to clear the development site, located on the southwest corner of the Disneyland Hotel site near Walnut Street, which divides the theme park area from a residential zone.  

Walt Disney Imagineering and Marnell Architecture will lead the design of the 12-story tower.

The building is expected to include a variety of room types, including studios, one- and two-bedroom villas, and two grand villas.

Amenities will include a new pool and recreational area.

The tower will bring the room count for Disneyland-owned hospitality properties to north of 2,750 rooms.

Disneyland Forward

That hotel room figure may grow in the coming years along with the overall resort, as Disney looks to revisit its development restrictions with the city to allow for a physical expansion within the existing 500-acre property.

Disney has been working with the same approvals since its first expansion in the 1990s, when it gained approvals to add its second theme park, California Adventure, and Downtown Disney. Those approvals also set up entitlements for Disney, allowing the company to build up to 6.5 million square feet for the two theme parks, 5,600 hotel rooms and 300,000 square feet of retail in hotels, 34,300 parking spaces, and 350,000 square feet of stand alone retail.

Disney has yet to near build-out for any of these uses, meeting less than half of its allowed theme park space, about 40% of its hotel space and two-thirds of its retail space for both inside and outside of the theme park gates.