Developers eye Hoover-era resort Rosendale may have found its economic domino By LYNN WOODS

Developers eye Hoover-era resort
Rosendale may have found its economic domino
By LYNN WOODS

Canopy Development, a developer of luxury “green” resorts based in Northhampton, Mass., is in negotiations to buy the Williams Lake Hotel, a 737-acre property in Rosendale.

The sale of one of the oldest surviving resorts in Ulster County Anita Williams Peck, the current owner, said her grandfather started the business in 1929 to a new generation of developers of exclusive, upscale resorts is indicative of the changes that are occurring in the county.

“It’s basically a 1930s hotel, and that clientele is not available anymore,” said Supervisor Bob Gallagher of the town of Rosendale. “Canopy came out of nowhere. This is the domino we’ve been waiting for” to jump-start the economy.

Meg Broughton, director of communications at Canopy, said the new project has an estimated value of $100 million to $200 million. “It will be great for the community,” she said. “It will create jobs, increase land values, and bring in tax revenues. We also would preserve a significant portion of the site.” Neither Broughton nor Peck would provide more details.

Last year, Revolution L.L.C., a Washington, D.C.-based company specializing in tourism, wellness and other lifestyle categories whose owner is America Online founder Steve Case, bought a majority stake in Canopy. According to Canopy’s Web site, it has no completed developments yet, but is working on projects in the Caribbean, Central America and North America with a clear set of standards: The site is usually 2,000 acres or more, 90 percent of the land is preserved, and the development consists of a sustainable village-type complex of residences with golf courses and other recreational amenities.

Use of renewable energy and cultural and commercial facilities, including restaurants serving organic cuisine, performance spaces and artisan shops round out the vision. Previously, Canopy founder Tom Horton was U.S. managing director of the Trust for Sustainable Development (TSD), an international company. The crown jewel of TSD’s projects, according to its Web site, is Loreto Bay, “the largest sustainable resort community under development in North America,” which consists of 6,000 homes in planned villages on the coast of Baja California in Mexico. The adobe homes have a Spanish Colonial style of architecture, and they abut a 5,000-acre nature preserve.

With an area just above 17 square miles, Rosendale doesn’t have much room for new development, said Gallagher. The town’s been trying to attract a supermarket and a drug store, so far without success. The Canopy resort will give it the boost it needs, he said: As a luxury resort, Canopy will “have a 3-1 ratio of workers to guests, so it will bring in 500 jobs. It’ll bring businesses in here,” such as high-end boutiques.

Asked whether he was concerned about the exclusive, “gated” nature of the project, Gallagher said Williams Lake is already a private membership organization. He also said the town received two other bids for the property, both of which were nonprofits. If either had succeeded in buying the property, it would have taken the equivalent of $5 million off the tax roles, the supervisor said.

“Rosendale has been the same for a lot of years,” Gallagher said. “We used to have a strip mall, hardware store and diner. We had nine other stores that sold services and wares to locals. They’re gone now and they never coming back.”

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