ABOUT THE PROPOSED DEVELOPMENT   |    THE ISSUES AND IMPACTS    |    SOLUTIONS AND ALTERNATIVES
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ABOUT THE PROPOSED DEVELOPMENT - WHAT DO THEY WANT TO BUILD?

Hudson River Valley Resort's development plan is for an upscale, gated community with a luxury hotel/spa as its centerpiece. In this common business model, the big profit is not in the centerpiece, but in the real-estate.

As planned, the hotel/spa would be comprised of a 94 room "lodge", 14 "villas" and 22 "lake-front suites". There is currently no operator to manage and run the proposed hotel/spa.

The big profit: prospective real-estate sales include 101 attached townhouses and 59 detached single-family homes - in a cluster of subdivisions featuring private internal roads, homeowner's associations, and security.

Security gates, valet and concierge stations, a welcoming facility, a wellness center, a sewage treatment plant, a skating rink, a boathouse, a teahouse and other structures and amenities are also planned.

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 prefer not to mention that the private, wealthy enclave they seek to build runs counter to the community character of Rosendale and the region.

What are the details?

Show me a map...      Who are the developers?      How big a piece of Rosendale do they own?



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 developers requested 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 proposed 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 spot zoning crafted by a developer, for the developer's benefit.

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

The Town of Rosendale is currently in the process of reviewing, clarifying and strengthening all aspects of its zoning law, including methods to handle large-scale projects along the lines of the proposed development. The importance of this zoning review cannot be overstated.

Click to visit the website of the Rosendale Zoning Review Commission

Below is a summary map of the proposed development as it was publicly presented in 2007, prepared by Paul Rubin. Through FOIL requests, it has been discovered that certain details have since evolved: single-family homes moved from place to place, townhouse clusters reorganized, the rail trail redrawn to stick to the rail bed until it diverts behind the housing on the east side of Williams Lake.

The scale of the project has not been modified since 2007.

Note the extent and 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 originally estimated water usage to be 158,775 gallons per day. Williams Lake Hotel averaged 17,000 gallons per day. This represented a 933% increase in water consumption and processing from Williams Lake and the aquifer system. HRVR has since revised these projections downward, but water consumption projections remain high. In addition, the DEC has questioned the methodology used in HRVR's downward revision.
    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 to access research on many aspects of the 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
CONTRIBUTE NOW TO SAVE THE LAKES "EXPERT FUND"

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.