Walt Disney World’s Yacht & Beach Club Resort plans to expand its convention space with an additional 25,000 square feet.

That will bring total convention space at the resort to 100,000 square feet.

Reedy Creek, the Disney-controlled taxing district, filed a permit application with the South Florida Water Management District this week for the work. Construction will also include additional parking space across Epcot Resorts Boulevard. Plans show the convention space being expanded to the north, where there is now a parking area.

The work will start next month and be finished in spring of 2018.

Rooms at the resort will also be refurbished, a Disney spokeswoman said. That will start in January and take about a year.

There has been speculation that expanding the Yacht and Beach Club’s convention center could lead the way to demolition of meeting space at the Contemporary hotel to make way for more timeshare units there, said Tim Krasniewski, editor of DVCNews.com, in an email.

The Yacht and Beach Club, one of Disney World’s deluxe resorts, opened 25 years ago. Events held there include last year’s Economic Growth Summit that featured speeches by Republican presidential candidates.