On December 22, 2015, Walt Disney Parks and Resorts filed two notices of commencement with the county related to the Wilderness Lodge “rehab”, also known as the DVC expansion.
The first notice was for the construction of 26 cabins (8001-8026).The expiration date of the notice is August 31, 2018.
The addresses given are immediately before and after that of the Wilderness Lodge, which makes sense if these are the DVC cabins.
The general contractor is DPR Construction. The architect is Glover Smith Bode (GSB), a company which also worked on Animal Kingdom Lodge, Disney’s Eagle Pines Resort DVC, Bay Lake Tower and Saratoga Springs. The civil engineer is listed as Atkins North America, a firm which worked on the Villas at the Grand Floridian.
The second notice was for the “Wilderness Rehab – Interior & Exterior Renovation” and lists the address of the Wilderness Lodge. This likely is for the conversion of existing hotel rooms at the lodge to DVC units – similar to what was done at the Polynesian.
Orlando Theme Park News reported on December 27 that beginning in January 2016, select areas of the resort will be temporarily closed due to the refurbishment, including the rooms in the south wing, the Cub’s Den, and the South Wing and Lobby Elevators.
As a reminder, here is the plan Disney filed back in April 2015.
I visited the Wilderness Lodge a month ago, and the land was getting cleared. The quiet pool was gone.
We’ll keep an eye on the progress as time goes on.