Sep. 14--The defunct Disney Institute is being reinvented as a turn-of-the-century time-share complex called the Saratoga Springs Resort Spa that will open in 2004. 

Saratoga Springs, already under construction, is being modeled after its namesake, the getaway town in the early 1900s for the affluent in eastern New York best known for its mineral springs. 

For example, the pool area at the resort will be designed without the usual Disneyesque water slides -- focusing instead on a natural spring look with bubbles foaming up among rocks. 

The resort will include 184 new units and about 300 remodeled apartment-style rooms in older buildings that were part of the Disney Institute. 

The campus-style buildings that contain the older rooms may also be enhanced to reflect the upstate New York theme, said Mariska Elia, a spokeswoman for Disney's time-share operation, called Vacation Club. 

Saratoga Springs will be the latest addition to Disney's Vacation Club time-share apartments, which are hot sellers. Disney World already has about 2,000 time-share units along with its 22,000 hotel rooms. 

Elia said the older section of the complex, the former Disney Institute, may also be converted to time shares. 

Prices to purchase one week in the new section of Saratoga will range from $12,000 to $150,000 for rooms and suites that sleep up to 12 guests each. 

Aside from the pool, the 16-acre facility will have a playground and barbecue pavilion. 

Ensconced in a leafy area bordering a golf course, Disney Institute opened more than five years ago but was largely closed during the travel slump that began after Sept. 11, 2001. The institute derived its name from the educational entertainment concept on which it was founded. 

The brainchild of Walt Disney Co. Chairman Michael Eisner, it began as a resort that combined vacations with the study of personal-enrichment pursuits such as cooking, gardening and the arts. 

But the hotel, which housed such famous guests as President Clinton, failed to achieve the kind of success Disney management expected. 

Founded during a year of record crowds at Walt Disney World, the Institute had faded by last year into a largely deserted area. After initially catering to tourists seeking a different Disney experience, the focus later shifted to business travelers and corporate groups. 

Although a few rooms at the former institute remain open, most of its 800 employees have been transferred to other jobs in various parts of Disney World's hotels and theme parks. 

Walt Disney World still offers a variety of business seminars for groups at various Disney World resorts through a mobile Disney Institute program, which has 45 employees. 

"Having a facility was nice, but there were constraints to that," said Larry Lynch, director of the institute business. 

One drawback of the old site was that potential clients -- often large companies -- viewed the campus as too small. He said the institute held its largest gathering -- 1,200 people -- for a seminar on leadership and customer service last month at the Grand Floridian resort. 

"That's bigger than anything we had in our own buildings," Lynch said. 

Located near the Downtown Disney and Pleasure Island entertainment-dining areas, the new time shares are evidence that the strategy of selling resort units is more viable than opening more hotel rooms. 

Last year, Disney World delayed indefinitely the planned opening of its huge Pop Century hotel and closed its Port Orleans resort. 

Although Port Orleans has reopened, Disney still hasn't set a date for the 5,700-room Pop Century's debut, except to say that it will be before the end of 2003. 

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(c) 2002. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News. DIS,