ABOUT THE PROPOSED DEVELOPMENT   |    THE ISSUES AND IMPACTS    |    SOLUTIONS AND ALTERNATIVES
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Save the Lakes is a member of the Shawangunk Ridge Coalition.


ABOUT THE PROPOSED DEVELOPMENT - WHAT DO THEY WANT TO BUILD?

The HRVR business plan is for an upscale, gated community with a hotel/spa as the resort community's centerpiece. In this business model, the big profit is not in the hotel/spa, but in the home sales. HRVR's public relations message with local officials and the local media focuses attention on the hotel/spa - because replacing the old Williams Lake Resort enjoys widespread support - while the real crux of the matter goes largely ignored.

HRVR will not openly admit to the gated character of their real-estate plan - HRVR spokesperson Tim Allred has said: "we don't like to call it that." They also would prefer not to mention that the private, wealthy enclave they seek to build is completely out of sync with the community character of Rosendale and the region.

What are the details?

1) A luxury hotel/spa comprised of a 94 room lodge, 14 "villas" and 22 "lake-front suites".
There is currently no operator for the hotel/spa.

2) Real-estate add-ons include 101 attached townhouses and 59 detached single-family homes - all in a gated community with private internal roads and security.

3) Valet and concierge stations, a wellness center, a welcoming facility, sewage treatment plant, a skating rink, a boathouse, a teahouse and other structures and amenities for the "special permit community" residents and guests.

Show me the map...      Who are the developers?      How big a piece of Rosendale are we talking about?



On December 5, 2007, Canopy Development, acting as development manager for Hudson River Valley Resorts, presented to the Town of Rosendale a "concept" design for the proposed development of Williams Lake.

<<< This image shows an aerial view of the lake as it is today, along with a schematic overlay of the Canopy/HRVR proposal.

The project requires a very specific zoning change amendment to proceed, a change that would in fact rewrite Rosendale's zoning code to tailor-fit this project. The zoning amendment would outline certain development criteria that would apply to the town as a whole, not simply to the development of Williams Lake. It is a zoning change crafted by a developer, for the developer's benefit.

Click to download analysis and concerns regarding the proposed "Special Permit Community."

The Rosendale Town Board was under the impression that, legally, this proposed zoning amendment can only be considered after the full environmental review process (SEQRA) is complete, a process that could take years given the complexity of the karst aquifer and the wetlands, the endangered species threatened by the development, the historical and geological importance of the site. In effect, the Town's Comprehensive Plan is being circumvented, and it is now the DEC and the SEQRA process that is being used to shape the project and the resulting zoning.

Save The Lakes has received a sound legal opinion that the Town Board has the right to reject this zoning amendment as so written without waiting for completion of a SEQRA review. The Town should do so for the simple reason that the Town must maintain control of its zoning. It has the right to ask the developer to downsize the real-estate component of the plan, for example. The Town also has the right to ask that the developer reduce demand on the acquifer, refrain from disturbing the rail-trail and the other recreational trails, and leave undisturbed the caves and endangered species habitat. We believe it is in the best long-term interests of the Town to abide by its Comprehensive Plan, and consider the proper revised zoning for this sensitive area NOW, and work with the developer to modify the plan accordingly. Acting proactively would be in the best interests of the environment, community character, and the long-term economic prospects for the Town and the region.
Below is a summary map of the proposed development, prepared by Paul Rubin.
Note the scale of the project - the entire area of Ulster County Community College
is represented in the lower right corner.

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What details of the plan are public knowledge?
  • The "concept" plans submitted to the town, and reproduced above, include an exclusive spa-hotel that consists of a 94 room lodge as well as 14 "villas" or stand-alone cabins and 22 "lake-front suites" - both of an undetermined number of rooms each. There is no stated operator for this spa-hotel since Miraval was withdrawn from public discussion. In addition, plans include 160 for-sale homes (101 attached townhouses and 59 detached single-family homes) spread throughout the Williams Lake property, including town house condominiums on the lake - all in a gated "resort" community. Although their official plans make no mention of home prices, Save the Lakes was told by Canopy in September of '07 that home prices would start at about a million, topping out with a handful of properties that would exceed in value anything in the region. The recent market troubles led Rick Steele to state that there is now downward pressure on that price-point.


  • Also described in the Canopy/HRVR's Planned Resort Special Permit zoning amendment application are private internal roads and "suitable screening and landscape buffers from public roads", "entry gate, security, valet and concierge stations", a skating rink, yoga/meditation studio, boathouse, teahouse, equestrian uses, agricultural uses, a wellness center, a welcoming facility, and "retail or commercial uses including restaurants, bars, gift shops, convenience stores, bank services, and personal services serving the guests or residents of the Planned Resort Special Permit community."


  • The proposed development would consume and process as waste-water an enormous quantity of water. The developer estimates water usage to be 158,775 gallons per day. Williams Lake Hotel averaged 17,000 gallons per day. This represents a 933% increase in water consumption and processing from Williams Lake and the aquifer system.
    Click here to review samples of Paul Rubin's Hydrology Analysis work.


  • Canopy/HRVR's zoning change amendment also includes permission to construct housing for a "large, on-site work staff" of about 450 people. No further details are provided. Adjacent properties have been considered for parking, sewage treatment, road building for change of access to the lakes/spa/homes, and as an expanded buffer zone. These properties were not included in the requested zoning change amendment, nor were future plans in this regard included in the "concept" plan Canopy/HRVR submitted.


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Please Note: Land on the West side of Binnewater Road has been purchased by Canopy/HRVR.

Land on the East side of Binnewater Road continues to be owned by two companies established by the Williams family,
but controlling interest in those companies has been transferred to Canopy/HRVR, thus giving them control of the land.

What properties has Canopy/HRVR acquired? Our research shows:
  • The centerpiece of the development is Williams Lake (aka Fifth Lake), Third Binnewater Lake and Fourth Binnewater Lake, a total of 739 acres. This renowned and historic natural cement-mining area is all the property owned by Binnewater Realty Corp and Ulster County Construction Company, Inc., whose majority shareholder was previously Anita Peck, but is now HRVR. 416 of these acres are subject to conservation easement by the Rondout-Esopus Land Conservancy. The parcels are: 62.4-1-13.1, 62.4-1-15.1, 62.4-1-16, 62.4-1-17 and 62.4-2-39. They are shown in bright red on the map.
  • Parcels 62.4-9-1 and 62.11-1-13.1, totalling 80 acres, to the west of Williams Lake and Binnewater Road for large detached houses. These are being purchased from Anita Peck individually, and Anita's sister, Barbara-Anne Battelle. Each of these parcels includes some lake frontage on the west side of Williams Lake.
  • The total of all of these properties is 819 acres, more or less. According to the Town of Rosendale website, the town encompasses a total of 20.8 square miles. 819 acres is 1.28 square miles.
  • The properties listed above comprise 6.15% of Rosendale.

CLICK HERE TO ACCESS DETAILED BACKGROUND INFORMATION ON THE CANOPY/HRVR PROJECT
COMPILED BY CHRIS BEALL
Who is Hudson River Valley Resorts? To quote from their submission letter to the Rosendale Town Board dated November 20, 2007 requesting "a zone text amendment for the proposed action": HRVR is an investment group that "includes Rick Steele of Longmeadow Capital, Matrix Planning LLC, and Revolution LLC, as well as other individual investors. The corporation was formed for the purpose of acquiring, master planning, and developing the subject property. HRVR has hired Canopy Development, LLC as the development manager of the proposed resort community..."

Click to open Chris Beall's Who's Who page on the developer and the group of investors

Canopy is a development company whose major stakeholder as of September '07 was a company called Revolution LLC, a conglomerate created by former AOL/Time-Warner CEO Steve Case. As of July '08, the project is being driven by Rick Steele of Longmeadow Capital, partnering with Revolution LLC, Matrix LLC and other investors in a new corporate entity that calls itself Hudson River Valley Resorts, LLC. Canopy Development has been hired by this corporation to act as development manager. While Revolution LLC remains a stakeholder in the venture, they are now keeping a low profile. To date, Canopy Development has not completed a project of any kind.

The official transfer of control of the Williams Lake property to the investors happened in April '08, when HRVR was reported to have acquired controlling interest in Binnewater Realty and Ulster County Construction Company, Inc., the companies owned by Anita Peck that held ownership of the Williams Lake property among others. Anita Peck was identified at the time as a partner in the proposed development. It is a legitimate question to ask why control was acquired in this way. Such an apparent takeover - rather than a direct sale - might be seen to "grandfather" in the long-standing but ill-defined agreement between the Town and the Williams Lake Hotel, so that aspects of this outdated, almost casual agreement would carry over to new development on the property. To further muddy the water, records seem to indicate that Canopy/HRVR's control of the property may in fact be temporary, paid for by a kind of lease arrangement entered into with Binnewater Realty for a limited period of time - perhaps as few as three years. That strategy would provide some shelter from risk to the investors/developers, who could forfeit their contracted lease money to Ms. Peck and walk away, should their required profit margin be threatened by the unforeseen: denial of the required zoning change; the market downturn and the resulting loss of clientele; or the cost and complexity of defending their plan to build subdivisions amidst the caves, rock ledges, wetlands and sink holes of the proposed site.

Longmeadow Capital Partners has invested in interests as diverse as Polish Cable Television, real-estate and thermoplastic polymers. Steve Case's Revolution LLC controls a company called Exclusive Resorts which operates luxury vacation homes and time-shares available to members who pay a one-time fee of as much as $425,000 and additional annual dues of up to $27,500. Also mentioned early-on by Canopy CEO Tom Horton as the client for the Williams Lake development was the Miraval Resort of Tucson, Arizona, as well as the lifestyle/real estate enterprise called Miraval Living - both owned by Steve Case. The Williams Lake project appeared in September '07 to be the Miraval Spa's entry into the East Coast market, where it's main competitor would be Canyon Ranch in Lenox, Massachusetts. According to Canopy/HRVR, the relationship with Revolution has since changed and their direct support of Canopy/HRVR has cooled.

In September '07 Canopy was under orders from Revolution LLC to MAKE NO PUBLIC MENTION of the "brand" for whom this property was then intended - Miraval Living. Now, Rick Steele and HRVR say that they don't know what Spa interest might come in, nor do they know who will run it - apparently a "build it and they will come" approach.

In any case, the real-estate/gated vacation-home aspect of the Canopy/HRVR concept plan is of great concern. (see ISSUES AND IMPACT) This kind of development plan has become fairly common in recent years, and has proven profitable for the developer who can keep his financing together. These resort destination/real-estate developments have often proved destructive over the long term to the small, rural towns that have hosted them by driving up property taxes while creating hidden costs, by changing community character and, finally, forcing long-term residents to leave.

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RELATED LINKS on the DEVELOPERS - THEIR CORPORATE STRUCTURE and STATED INTENTIONS

>>> Longmeadow Capital Partners, LLC
>>> Business Week article on Steve Case's big gamble on hospitality and wellness...
>>> New York Times article on Miraval Living - stating Steve Case's intention to brand Miraval as "...the Nike of wellness."
>>> Patagonia CEO Michael Crooke Named CEO of Steve Case's Revolution Living
>>> Washington Post article on Steve Case going into business with Gaiam Inc.
>>> Washington Post: Steve Case's Eco Getaway     >>> Think Global: MetaSystem Consulting Group
>>> Exclusive Resorts     >>> The Revolution Corporation     >>> Revolution acquires Canopy     >>> The Canopy Corporation    
>>> Miraval Living     >>> Miraval Resort site
>>> Curbed.com article on the Miraval Living apartment building in Manhattan


READ ABOUT THE MAN BEHIND THE CURTAIN:
>>>Fools Rush In : Steve Case, Jerry Levin, and the Unmaking of AOL Time Warner by Nina Munk.

>>>Stealing Time : Steve Case, Jerry Levin, and the Collapse of AOL Time Warner by Alec Klein.

PRESERVE AND PROTECT ENVIRONMENTAL INTEGRITY AND COMMUNITY CHARACTER

We at Save the Lakes firmly believe that this gated community/real-estate "resort" plan is an example of inappropriate overdevelopment. Community character, the health of the local economy at the grassroots level, water resources and the environment will all be adversely impacted.


PLEASE MAKE A DONATION
This is a volunteer effort - help us pay our expenses for expert analysis, legal advice, printing costs, signs, internet...

Through the auspices of Friends of the Shawangunks YOUR DONATION IS FULLY TAX-DEDUCTIBLE.
DONATE BY CHECK OR MONEY ORDER:
You can make a 501(c)(3) deductible charitable contribution by sending a check or money order for ANY amount
made out to:
Friends of the Shawangunks
and mail it to
Save the Lakes   P.O. Box 153   Rosendale, N.Y. 12472-0153
Please note Save the Lakes as a memo on your check, and be sure your address is on the check for year-end tax purposes. THANK YOU!


PLEASE, CONTRIBUTE WHAT YOU CAN
When the Draft Environmental Impact Statement is completed, expert studies and legal advice will be called upon.
This is the kind of project that has torn apart rural communities across the country.

Short-term gain for the few must be weighed against the long-term negative impacts that everyone will experience.

Please contribute. Help our locale from being dominated by profit-driven outside investment interests. We are fighting to keep our natural resources for the community to nurture and enjoy.

ABOUT THE PROPOSED DEVELOPMENT   |    THE ISSUES AND IMPACTS    |    SOLUTIONS AND ALTERNATIVES
DOCUMENT DOWNLOADS   |    WHAT YOU CAN DO    |   CONTACT US    |   HOME
Save the Lakes is a member of the Shawangunk Ridge Coalition.