Real estate developer Lennar, which is headquartered in Miami, is moving ahead with a development in the Orange County town of Tuxedo that it had proposed to the local government along with developer Related Companies. Tuxedo approved an Amended Special Permit for the development of the Tuxedo Farms Development Project, now known as Tuxedo Reserve, consisting of 1,609 residences in a variety of single-family homes, townhouses and apartment buildings. A portion of the project is in the Village of Sloatsburg. Related Companies and Lennar had been described as being partners in the project.
Now, Lennar has announced that it has acquired nine neighborhoods in the project from Related Companies that have a total of 1,273 home sites. Lennar did not disclose a purchase price for the acquisition. The Tuxedo Farms project was planned for a 2,247-acre property, of which approximately 1,744 acres was to remain as open space.
According to Anthony Mignone, who is the New Jersey and New York division president for Lennar, “We are excited to expand our presence in the New York market and to have the opportunity to bring our design expertise and industry leading innovation to this one-of-a-kind location in this prestigious setting, We look forward to partnering with the Town of Tuxedo, New York to make this master-planned community a destination of choice for those desirous of the Hudson Valley home ownership lifestyle.”
It’s not as if the Tuxedo Farms project is anything new. It was first proposed in the mid 1980s and met with stiff opposition from environmental groups. In 2007, Tuxedo granted approval for the first 103 houses to be built on the massive property. A special permit had been issued in 2015 and the amended special permit increased the number of approved units from 1,195 to 1,609. The total number of bedrooms in the project was increased from 3,324 to 3,574. The amended special permit called for 269 single-family homes and not less than 174 duplex units to be built.
The 2015 Special Permit required the developer to offer to donate as a gift to the local public school system an approximately 40-acre parcel for use as a future school site that also could accommodate athletic fields, playing fields, or other recreation facilities and also pay the school district $2.5 million. The amended special permit requires the developer to construct an approximately 4,000-square-foot community event building.
