Let me be picky and say the license is for 341
vacation homes. I know a lot of people use the words 'unit', 'room', and 'villa' interchangeably, but there is a difference.
Only in Florida. They still need approval to sell in other states and provinces.
Correct. When the Polynesian Villas & Bungalows sales started in January 2015, Disney did not have licensing approval in some key jurisdictions, including California and New York. However, I didn't hear of any similar problems when Disney started sales for Copper Creek in March 2017.
When I say marketing, I don't mean sales. To sell, they need a firm opening date, if I understand Florida rules correctly (and I might not). But they can start to actively talk about the things on everyone's mind: What kind of units? How many do they sleep? The pool?
No, I don't think they need a firm opening date. There must be an approved Public Offering Statement and escrow account.
Maybe they will have some details (room sizes/configurations, amenities) at the December condo association meeting.
I certainly hope so. I'll bet that the Riviera Resort is at least mentioned by the Board at the Annual Meeting on December 13, 2018. However, its possible at that date Disney still might not be forthcoming on the details. We'll just have to wait and see.
I thought that in addition to the license they have to have a certain percentage of construction completed prior to marketing.
No, there is no requirement that a certain percentage of construction must be completed.
Prior to offering any timeshare plan, the developer must submit a registered public offering statement to the division for approval. Additionally, the developer must establish an escrow account with an escrow agent for the purpose of protecting the funds of purchasers. Cite: Sections 721.03, 721.07 and 721.08(1), F.S. and Rule 61B-39, F.A.C.
So, about the same number of units as Poly, which is about twice as many as VGF.
DVC resorts should not be compared to one another by the number of
vacation homes. The Polynesian has 380 vacation homes, but they consist of 360 dedicated studios and 20 bungalows. Bay Lake Tower has only 281 vacation homes, but it has 14 grand villas and 267 lockoff and dedicated two-bedroom vacation homes. The Riviera will have 341 vacation homes but we still don't know the mix of accommodation types. There are rumors that the Riviera may introduce a brand new "couples" studio that will be different than the typical DVC studio. The bottom line is that we still don't know how large the Riviera will be.