Original plans for Vero Beach

[tvwalsh]

Does anyone have any info on the original, more ambitious plans for Vero Beach? For some reason I find this fascinating! I hear it was going to be a really big show before sluggish sales toned it down. I have seen the million dollar tunnel that goes under the road and leads to...nothing!

 

[dvc_john]

I don't have exact figures, but it was to be a much larger resort. There were supposed to be several more beachfront buildings. And across the street, buildings were supposed to surround the lake. Another pool was to be built there. It was in the members contracts that beachfront villas were NOT guaranteed for future reservations once the buildings across the road were built.

Just looked up some info on a 1995 public offering statement.
Vero was to have a minimum of 40 buildings with 418 vacation homes, and a maximum of 45 buildings with 461 vacation homes. The Inn building is counted as 1 buiding with 122 homes, and the Beach Cottages are each counted as 1 building with 1 home.
Obviously the minimum/maximum didn't mean much, as the minimum was never built. It also listed both the min and max for OKW (called Lake Buena Vista Resort in this document) as 49 buildings with 529 homes. That didn't pan out either, as 3 additional buildings were eventually built.

 

[CaptainMidnight]

At one time I saw the plans on the internet, but I haven't been able to relocate the link. Personally, I'm glad the plans were scaled down and that I can count on villas on the ocean side of the resort. The plans I saw did not have a second pool on the non-ocean side. There is a pie shaped piece of land on the ocean side on the other side of the south border walkway that DVC still owns I believe. I should have copied the map, it was great. You've got a point about that tunnel, although it does provide access for services. I don't know how much of the land on the other side they have sold. Maybe someone else can contribute.

 

[floridafam]

I saw a link for some of the original plans, too.

It even had little models of the resort, pool and the villas on the other side of the road.

It also had a Mickey shape head wrapped around the bottom of the pool slide.

I've never been able to relocate the link.

 

[RobDoc]

Originally posted by dvc_john
It also listed both the min and max for OKW (called Lake Buena Vista Resort in this document) as 49 buildings with 529 homes. That didn't pan out either, as 3 additional buildings were eventually built.

Actually, the three newest buildings are included in the total of 49 at OKW. Buildings 62-64 were originally planned as part of the phased construction to replace the Commodore House. The planned phases were included in the 5/93 POS for OKW. There were even 2 sets of plans for building #62 that were designated as XLIX and XLIX-A. XLIX-A was to have been a "Commercial Building", but they opted for XLIX as a residential building.

OKW ended up just as planned in 1991.

VB has certainly been downsized from it's original plan. I'll have to do a search of a closet upstairs that has a box of DVC literature stored in it. I think I have the original VB plans there.

 

[Maistre Gracey]

Personally, I like Vero just the way it is. I think it would lose some of it's flavor if it was a large resort. Of course, I agree with others when they say they would be disappointed to reserve a villa across the street... although, the request debate for 'oceanside' would make for some good threads here!

 

[Shamus]

One interesting thing I noticed related to the complete Vero plans ..... in a multi-site offering statement I have, Exhibit 5 is the "Maximum Reallocation Chart" and Vero has two classes (Oceanside and Lakeside) for the two-bedrooms and Grand Villas. Each type has a different number of points listed. That leads me to believe that ......... 1. Oceanside and Lakeside were to be treated like the Standard and Preffered views at the Boardwalk are. and 2. Only two-Bedrooms and Grand Villas were to be built Lakeside.

I think the two class system would have lessened some of those complaints.

Shamus

 

[Maistre Gracey]

Originally posted by Shamus
One interesting thing I noticed related to the complete Vero plans ..... in a multi-site offering statement I have, Exhibit 5 is the "Maximum Reallocation Chart" and Vero has two classes (Oceanside and Lakeside) for the two-bedrooms and Grand Villas. Each type has a different number of points listed. That leads me to believe that ......... 1. Oceanside and Lakeside were to be treated like the Standard and Preffered views at the Boardwalk are. and 2. Only two-Bedrooms and Grad Villas were to be built Lakeside.

Shamus

Too funny, Shamus! I was posting at the same time as you, and was driving at that very thing...

 

[PamOKW]

I think the dues statement refers to 266 Vacation Homes at Vero. The original plans were for 436 Vacation Homes. A majority of the villas were going to be across A1A and the resort was going to have two point schedules for "Lakeside" and "Oceanside". I remember a CM stressing to be sure to ask for "Oceanside/Ocean view". One of the reasons I bought points was because I wanted to be able to have a good shot at always getting something on the Oceanside part of the resort.

I'm also glad that the resort has remained small. It really makes it a jewel in the DVC line-up.

 

[JimC]

When I was there I walked the property across the street. I have been told that DVD owned the lake for lake front phase two and owned or optioned a phase three all the way back to the inlet. If true, then two-thirds of the resort would have been on the other side. That would explain why the main building is scaled like it is.

All that is left on the other side is recreation areas, parking, service buildings and what I guess would have been an internal tram stop at the entrance to the tunnel.

VB kind of reminds me of a coastal OKW. If it had been completely built out, it may have been.

It would be great if we could find the original plans. I wonder if Dave Smith (Disney's archivist) or someone else will ever do a history of DVC?

 

[Dpern]

I still have a newspaper clipping from The Wall Street Journal dated 2/21/2001 when Disney's real estate agent started advertising the surplus property to be sold. There was a ten acre parcel oceanside on the south side of the resort and twenty five acres across the street with frontage along Wabasso Beach Blvd. I know they have since built a development on the twenty five acres across the street but don't know about the property directly to the south of the resort since I waven't been there for almost two years.

 

[Patricia]

I know nothing about plans but I can tell you that as of this past Monday, nothing was built on the property immediately south of the resort. It still has the staircase to the beach, but no signs of any building at all.

 

[jmminarik]

Originally posted by JimC
VB kind of reminds me of a coastal OKW. If it had been completely built out, it may have been.

VB obviously took it's overall layout cue's from OKW. You can see where they learned from OKW...parking under the building with elevators in all buildings was probably a learned experience from complaints about OKW.

It wasn't until BW that Disney figured out they could build an hotel building style resort with smaller rooms and if the location was right, they'd sell like mad in spite of costing more to purchase per point.

-Joe

 

[CaptainMidnight]

Has anyone had any luck locating the original plans? My internet searches have not brought up any successes. There used to be a map online, but I can't seem to locate it anymore. Anyone else have any luck?

 

[floridafam]

This looks interesting.

http://www.jagcollective.com/project_dvb.html

Note the Mickey shaped head at the end of the pool slide.

I thought this was the sight that showed villas across the road but it isn't.

It's cute, though. I like the little fake people.

 

[CaptainMidnight]

Originally posted by floridafam
This looks interesting.

http://www.jagcollective.com/project_dvb.html

Note the Mickey shaped head at the end of the pool slide.

I thought this was the sight that showed villas across the road but it isn't.

It's cute, though. I like the little fake people.

Am I missing something? I can only get one pcture of the model, are there more than one picture that shows the slide a little people your talking about? This does look interesting.

 

[floridafam]

There are 3 different pictures on the main page.

If it lets you click on projects, you should be able to then click on the resort at the top and it will take you to all three pictures.

Let me know if you're still having trouble.

 

[CaptainMidnight]

Got it, thanks.