Disneyland Resort Anaheim Downtown Disney District West

Disney will begin construction next summer on a new 700-room hotel at the Anaheim Disneyland Resort, Disney Parks Blog reports.

The new hotel will mark the first luxurious four-diamond hotel to open in Disney"s Anaheim resort in almost 20 years. The property is planned as an entry for "a new gateway" to the resort. It"ll be located on the west end of the park"s Downtown Disney district.

In front of the hotel, an "expansive landscaped plaza complete with playful water features" is planned. Further landscaping and walkways will link the new hotel with the resort"s four existing hotels, creating a new entrance to the park from the west.

The huge new hotel will take up 17 acres, and it will rise where the AMC theater, an Earl of Sandwich shop, the ESPN Zone, and Rainforest Cafe now stand, reports the Orange County Register. Disneyland officials told the Register that they"ve started to share their plans with tenants who would be displaced and say it"s possible some many find space to operate in the future hotel, which is expected to open in 2021.