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| The website Park Rumors is reporting today that Disney filed plans yesterday with the South Florida Water Management District for Phase 1 of a project that will bring huge changes to Downtown Disney! The project is called “The BVD Corridor Stormwater Project” and there's potential good news in here so keep reading. The initial phase seeks approval for infrastructural changes to how groundwater flows on that large piece of property. Things get interesting during the next phase. That's when Downtown Disney becomes Disney Springs which is broken up into six separate areas with Pleasure Island becoming The Landing! The parking lot that is currently in front of PI becomes a shopping mall type area with more shops and restaurants. A new parking garage is also added along with an entirely new traffic flow to include flyover ramps. The major reason that Pleasure Island was ungated and opened to anybody was foot traffic did not like walking around PI. It was felt that by making the West Side more line-of-sight for pedestrians, it would get more people to make the walk over. What I find intriguing in the plans is that with a new mall area between the Marketplace and West Side, pedestrian traffic will naturally flow in both directions which is what they wanted all along. And if you look at the concept drawing above, I like the concept and it's potential for nightlife. I like the badly-needed vehicle traffic improvements. I don't like the PI name change; I don't see the need to rename Downtown Disney. I think both changes are unnecessary and a huge waste of money and brand value. The new names breed no excitement. We look forward to a public announcement from Disney. |
It all sounds great IF they reopen Mannequins Dance Palace. I think Disney Springs should stay Downtown Disney and The Landing should stay Pleasure Island too but if Mannequins is reopened i'll be happy!
ReplyDeleteSounds to be the most promising sign of some change to DTD. This coupled with something else I've heard make me believe something big is indeed around the corner...
ReplyDeleteThe plans are finalized and there's supposed to be an announcement within another month or so.
ReplyDeleteWhat about clubs?
ReplyDeleteAnon at 1:50 pm, will the Mannequins building stay a dance club as part of the finalized plans?
ReplyDeleteThree things:
ReplyDelete1) A parking garage? Surprise, surprise.
2) I am reminded that working titles are often used for projects like this. If "Disney Springs" isn't exciting to us, then it probably is not very exciting to the Imagineers either. Names could change at any time.
3) I'm interested in seeing if there will be anything related to Marvel, Avatar, Star Wars, etc. since the new area is potentially neutral territory which would support a wide variety of content, properties, themes, etc.
In any case, I agree that this is good news, the PI areas may once again become a hub for exciting nightlife. Dancing -- and The Adventurers Club -- could re-appear in the future.
Looks like, what was PI, becomes "restaurant row" that you must walk thru new retail shopping area to get to. Since Raglan and other restaurants seem to be stuck on the island, I'd look at it more of a eating section, keeping it away from the retail section. Surely, they would not have all manor of drunk party goers from "Pi" walking thru retail space, which is what would happen under this plan, so again I don't see the nightclubs coming back. Interesting note there about what is Planet Hollywood, the name change fits something I heard and that something included the words that nightclubs would not return.
ReplyDeleteDoes downtown Disney really need more restaurants? Maybe on busy holidays but most of the time theyre standing outside begging you to come in.
ReplyDeleteDisney can just keep on ignoring adults looking for nightlife. Universal isn't. And Universal has plenty to di for kids. And getting better at Disney's game year by year. No nightclubs at PI = a Universal vacation for my family this summer.
ReplyDeleteAssociating dance clubs with rowdy dunks is ridiculous. The Island, and other areas around it, are flowing with alcohol already. The ability to dance or see comedy doesn't add any danger.
ReplyDeleteWell we don't know what Disney has planned yet. Supposedly they have third parties lined up all waiting to open something up in the new DTD. The published concept map is short on specifics, except that Planet Hollywood is gone and in its place, The Observatory.
ReplyDeleteAnon at 9:18pm, you point out that they would not want drunks wandering through retail space and that it true. But remember that typical nightlife does not begin until later at night when retail is mostly shutting down. And people headed home or back to their hotels after nightlife would mostly be doing that after midnight when the shoppers are long gone.
Shawn Tucker, you make a good point. The alcohol is already there so how does adding a dance or comedy club make things worse?
But yeah, I've heard previously that no clubs are returning. But we really need to wait and see what they announce. Pat O'Briens, Latin Quarter, Margaritaville are all examples of restaurants that turn into clubs late at night and perhaps we'll see some of that. Restaurants that simply shut down when dining ends at 10pm are missing out on another 4 hours of revenue if they simply close for the night.
What a let down
ReplyDeleteThere is solid evidence that the parking deck mentioned will CHARGE for parking. Just thought I would mention that. There is no evidence to support that the clubs are returning, however it's not impossible. Since they are charging for parking they could make more with a completely different crowd at night. If the clubs are taken over by third party vendors, Mannequines will not be as it was. Disney has like million rules they want club vendors to follow, rules that prohibit profit. Hell they wouldn't play any music in Mannequines that had ANY type of profanity. Even if it was just a single brief snipit. Knowing this most club operators will not install 10 million dollars of lighting and sound, without being able to recoup it. I think it's over guys, but lets hold out hope.
ReplyDeleteI HAVE been sayin the SAME thing Steven Krize said!!!!!! for years Now! HELLO! ok not the same exact thing but NO ONE will put the money in the old Mannequins club like disney did! NOT even DISNEY now!
ReplyDeletethe evidence has been there from sept 27 2008!