Hold Up. Does This NEW Permit Mean an Abandoned Disney World Hotel Is Being Built After All?

Although 2020 paused or even canceled a lot of Disney World construction projects, the company seems to be making up for it with a ton of NEW projects currently in development.

A Villains land and Cars land are coming to Magic Kingdom. Test Track in EPCOT is getting revamped. A new Monsters, Inc. land is coming to Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Disney’s Animal Kingdom is getting a new Tropical Americas-inspired land called Pueblo Esperanza. However, a new permit just filed by Disney World hints that even more new construction is coming soon to Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort — could this signal the revival of a previously canceled project?

First, a little background. In 2018, Disney World announced it had plans to build a new 900-room deluxe resort called Reflections — A Disney Lakeside Lodge. The resort would have a nature theme and would be located between Disney’s Wilderness Lodge and Fort Wilderness Resorts. At the time, Disney had already started to clear the land. However, in 2020, after Disney World’s historic closure and reopening, the project was seemingly abandoned.

Reflections – A Disney Lakeside Lodge Concept Art ©Disney

However, a new permit filed on September 23rd by Disney World could be a hint that this project is underway again — or some kind of big construction project. The new permit is for the installation of a water main at a location that was once intended to be a staging area for the Reflections construction project.

The permit shows the location for the installation of the water main at 3790 C9 Stolport North Area Development at Bay Lake, This port used to be an airfield that Disney used very briefly in the 1970s. This site eventually had permits filed for it concerning Reflections as a staging area for that project. Now, it looks like Disney has plans for that area again. We also found another permit for construction in the area to last from October 14th, 2024 to August 14th, 2025, indicating this is a big project.

The area indicated on the permit pinpointed the spot where Disney had plans to build Reflections.

Could this be a sign that Reflections is finally happening? Well, we don’t know for sure. But SOMETHING is happening in that area. However, back in May 2024, Disney did previously file a permit to extend the Reflections construction site permit, so this certainly suggests the project could be back on again.

In August 2024, the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District filed documents that read: “The purpose of this project is to provide a new transformer service yard, transformer loop, and SCADA monitoring cabinets for a new resort.”

At the time, a new permit was also filed for “site and facility improvements” with Balfour Beatty listed as the contractor in the area where Reflections was originally supposed to be located.

So, SOMETHING is happening and it could be a new hotel. It also could be Reflections. However, we won’t know anything for certain until Disney makes an official announcement, but we’ll let you know when that happens, so check back with AllEars again soon for more.