The owner of the closed Nevele Grande Resort and Country Club has paid the back taxes owed to Ulster County on the hotel property in Ellenville, potentially clearing the way for a sale of the iconic Catskill resort.
But a plan now before the town of Wawarsing seeking permits for logging on the property has some speculating that, since there is as yet no firm sale date, the Nevele is not out of the woods in terms of returning to operations as a resort.
The county comptroller said terms of the logging deal, if it were to be approved, require the logging company to pay cash in advance for half the estimated gross value of the timber to be cut.
The property owner of record, Stratford Business Corp., wired $342,687.22 to the county on Sept. 30 to settle all claims by the county against the resort according to County Executive Michael Hein.?The payment satisfies all general county taxes, town of Wawarsing taxes and hotel/motel taxes owed by Nevele Grande for 2008 and 2009, plus interest and full reimbursement for litigation costs and attorneys”™ fees incurred by the county. The money was owed under a payment-in-lieu-of-taxes, or PILOT, agreement between the Nevele”™s owner and the Ulster County Industrial Development Agency.?The payment to the county potentially clears the way for the sale of the property, which for decades was a tourism and employment mainstay in both the Ellenville-Wawarsing area and the broader Catskills resort industry.?“This is a real win for taxpayers,” said Hein, in a statement. “Now that this matter is closed, we look forward to working with the new owners of the Nevele to restore and create good opportunities in the Ellenville area.”
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The resort”™s owner, however, still owes the Ellenville school district more than $250,000 in back taxes, according to Ulster County Comptroller Elliott Auerbach, who said it also still owes the village of Ellenville $155,000 dollars in back bills for water.?The Nevele Grande shut down abruptly in July, putting about 100 people out of work. Stratford, which has owned the property since 2000, then hired Auction America Realty to sell the closed hotel at a public auction. The auction was canceled when a deal was reportedly struck for the sale of the property.?Auerbach is concerned that no sale is imminent. “It”™s questionable,” he said. He said county officials were skeptical of claims that a buyer was imminent. At that point, the county sued to halt any sale until tax obligations had been satisfied.
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Acting state Supreme Court Justice Richard Platkin ruled in the lawsuit that the Nevele Grande could not change hands before all outstanding tax debts were paid.?While the PILOT payment apparently clears that hurdle, Auerbach said publicity about the payment brought out other creditors.?“I suspect there are many, many lien holders waiting in line to get paid,” Auerbach said.
“My phone literally rang off the hook when we made the announcement of being paid by numerous vendors who had been left out there hanging.”
Stratford Business Corp officials could not be reached for comment. Repeated calls were made over two days to the phone number listed for the main offices in Hempstead, New York. Its recording machine was finally too full to accept any more voice mail.
Located outside Ellenville, the Nevele Grande has 432 rooms on roughly 1,000 acres of recreational land, a highly regarded golf course, tennis, indoor and outdoor pools, meeting space and fitness centers.
Auerbach said that the application to log on the Nevele property “has caused consternation” in Wawarsing. He noted that size and diversity of the land owned by Nevele. “It”™s a remarkable piece of property, that”™s what the fear is in Wawarsing.”
