Two years after Walt Disney World turned out the lights at the nightclubs of Pleasure Island, there are signs of life for the near-forgotten entertainment district.
Disney this week filed a pair of permits signaling the start of new construction at Pleasure Island, a once-popular dining-and-dancing spot that has since become little more than a cut-through between the two retail ends of Downtown Disney. The permits suggest that at least two old Pleasure Island venues — BET Soundstage and Adventurers Club — will be razed completely.
What's more, Disney World President Meg Crofton last week publicly hinted that changes were imminent. In a ceremony honoring new Disney World ambassadors, Crofton listed the "reimagining of Downtown Disney" among a list of current construction projects at the resort, along with the Fantasyland expansion at the Magic Kingdom and a new hotel dubbed Disney's Art of Animation Resort.
Disney declined to discuss the Pleasure Island work in any detail Tuesday morning. Spokeswoman Zoraya Suarez described it as "general refurbishment."
But Suarez said Disney would unveil some details within a matter of weeks. That announcement, she said, would serve as a "continuation" of the vague plan Disney laid out in June 2008, when it announced that it would shutter Pleasure Island's six adult-oriented nightclubs and replace them with shopping and dining options geared towards families with children.
Very little has happened so far. Since the clubs closed on Sept. 27, 2008, the only notable new venue to be added at Pleasure Island is Paradiso 37, a Mexican and South American restaurant that opened in June 2009.
The construction permits, which were first unearthed by the Save Pleasure Island blog, offer few clues. One appears to clear the way for new construction trailers to be erected in the area, while another is for work described only as "overall site construction."
Disney has said in the past that it expects to complete its redevelopment of Pleasure Island by 2012.