Luxury resort planned for Adirondacks’ pristine Whitney Park
By James M. Odato
A Dallas-based developer of high-end housing, golf courses and resorts is on the verge of purchasing two famous Whitney properties — the heralded 36,600-acre Whitney Park in the Adirondacks and the historic Cady Hill mansion in Saratoga Springs.
Todd Interests Chairman Shawn Todd said his company entered into contracts to purchase the two renowned properties from the estate of the late John Hendrickson, widower of Marylou Whitney. Whitney, the heiress who inherited the vast holdings of her late husband Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney, died in 2019, leaving the wealth to her husband John Hendrickson. He died last August.
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Whitney Park is of particular interest in the Adirondacks as Hendrickson carried on his and his wife’s philanthropy by directing that net proceeds from the sale of the pristine wilderness and its unique residences go to the town of Long Lake for its unrestricted use. Edward Hendrickson, executor of his brother’s estate, recently listed Whitney Park at $125 million.
“At the asking price, I couldn’t get there fast enough,” said Todd, who has paid similar sums for smaller tracts of lakeside park land.
He said he had been talking and meeting with John Hendrickson about purchasing the Adirondack acreage in Hamilton County as recently as a year ago when it was on the market for $180 million.
RELATED READING: Prospective Whitney buyer says New York state purchasing estate was never an option
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The men intended to resume discussions once the horse racing season ended last summer, Todd said. However, Hendrickson, a thoroughbred owner and major supporter of the sport, died suddenly at age 59 amid the Saratoga racing meet. He and his wife resided at Cady Hill at the time of their death.
Environmental groups and state conservation leaders have coveted Whitney Park and wished for it to be protected and conserved.
A new era for Whitney Park
An unparalleled haven amid a backcountry forest, Whitney Park boasts 32 lakes and ponds, more than 100 miles of roads and trails and several cabins and structures including a 17-bedroom retreat called Camp Deerlands where Marylou Whitney hosted many celebrity guests and family.
However, John Hendrickson became averse to the New York government acquiring the 36,600 acres because of what he viewed as its poor stewardship of 15,000 acres of Whitney Park purchased by the state in the 1990s.
When he learned that bass had gotten into Little Tupper Lake and could wipe out the brook trout, he sought to sell the remaining land to private parties, perhaps even subdividing to maximize the revenues. He made Whitney Park more attractive by purchasing another great camp, called Camp Togus, on Forked Lake, near Deerlands.
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Todd, who founded Todd Interests in 1990, is comfortable with both subdividing and building on parkland and with limiting development, he said.
He said he envisions broadening the amenities at Whitney Park and at Cady HIll, which has been on the market for $12.9 million, adding exclusive lodging, perhaps a hotel, top-notch golfing and a restaurant that could warrant a Michelin star. But he wants to retain the mystique and specialness of both places, he said.
Is he a preservationist or a developer? “I don’t think the two are mutually exclusive,” he said. “When historic, we’ve invested heavily to preserve.”
After more than $1.5 billion in housing, golf course and resort development, he is familiar with land battles involving his building plans.
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Controversy in Texas
In 2023, Todd Interests entered into a deal to buy 5,000 acres from a power company. Much of the land had been leased by the state of Texas since the 1970s to create Fairfield Lake State Park. But the Vistra Corp. energy company put the land up for sale and never got a bid from the Lone Star State.
Todd Interests bought the land, including the state’s largest private lake, for $105 million to turn it into a luxury housing community with an exclusive golf course. The proposed sale set off a dispute when the state acted to take the land through eminent domain.
Land rights protectors and save-the-park protesters squared off but the matter was essentially settled judicially. A special commission ruled that the parkland, less than 100 miles south of Dallas, was worth $418 million and the state would have to pay that sum to seize it from Todd Interests. Instead, the state dropped the matter and Todd Interests went forward with developing its Freestone Club and Resort residential community.
Plans for future development
In a one-hour interview, Shawn Todd said he sees many possibilities for the Adirondack holdings, including exercising timber and mining rights. He talked about a high-end golf course, fine dining and lodging that could attract people of wealth — “like the quality of The Point (on Upper Saranac Lake) but more mass.” He said he could sell plots of about 40 acres along the existing road system or offer residences in a concentrated area.
Amenities are critical, he said, listing dining, a luxury hotel, a small ski hill and a golfing, to build a destination that is compelling enough “for people to come back to the Adirondacks.”
“There’s a lot of capable people that appreciate the outdoors and don’t have access to it,” he said.
He said employment and employees will be a big part of the plan, and the company could build or develop some worker housing, recruit from Paul Smith’s College and potentially share staff with the operation he has in mind for Cady Hill and its nearly 121 acres.
Todd Interests’ leaders including Shawn Todd’s sons. Patrick Todd is in charge of the former Texas state park project which is now a golf club and residential complex that has already reached $200 million in sales, Todd said. And Philip Todd is the chief executive officer of Todd Interests.
‘We found the perfect buyer’
Edward Hendrickson said his brother directed him to follow through with his wishes for Whitney Park, which was first listed for sale in 2020. “I know there … always will be people who have ideas of what John and the Whitneys should have done with their property when it comes time to sell it and I certainly understand that perspective.”
He said both seller and purchaser are happy with the results of this transaction and that Marylou and John would be very satisfied with the outcome. Shawn Todd, he said, has a vision to develop with a “light touch” so as to conserve land and protect fish. The Long Lake area should benefit from job opportunities and economic growth, he added.
He said he listed the sale price of Whitney Park substantially higher than what real estate professionals recommended but Todd was unfazed. “We found the perfect buyer,” Hendrickson said. He said he expects Todd Interests will develop 1,000 to 1,500 acres of Whitney Park, including about 280 acres for a golf course, and with low-density housing.
He thinks the Todd family will use Cady Hill, the elegant estate not far from the Saratoga Race Course, as a stop-over before heading to the Adirondacks. He said Todd entered into separate contracts on the two real estate assets and that he was surprised that Todd wanted both Whitney Park and Cady Hill.
A few months after Hendrickson died in Saratoga Springs, a coalition of nonprofit groups focused on the wellbeing of the environment, wrote to Gov. Kathy Hochul urging her to bring Whitney Park into the state’s possession.
They billed the estate as the last large swath of Adirondack wilderness remaining for potential acquisition, and noted that it has been on the state’s list of open space targets for years. They called for it to be added to the Adirondack Forest Preserve or conserved through easements.
Edward Hendrickson said the state never approached him or his brother about buying Whitney Park.
A closing will likely occur in the fall but it will be a few years before the unwinding of assets and payment of expenses and taxes will be completed in the legal process of completing John Hendrickson’s will. Also on hold are donations to several charities directed to receive proceeds, Edward Hendrickson said.
A windfall for Long Lake
With a budget of about $5 million and fewer than 800 residents, Long Lake could receive sums well beyond its tax levy for years. Town Supervisor Clay Arsenault said he met with Shawn Todd last Wednesday and learned about the contract for sale and proposals for development.
“A resort is a small percentage of the property,” Arsenault said. “A well-designed development has the potential to be more protective, depending on the approach. The key is to see what the proposal is and weigh it fairly when the time comes.”
He said he doesn’t know when or how much in proceeds from the sale will arrive, but the town intends to hire a legal consultant and potentially put the funds in a trust. “We want to be fantastic guardians of this.”
Environmental groups react to the news
Claudia Braymer, executive director of Protect the Adirondacks, was dismayed when hearing about the proposed transaction. Her organization was among eight groups that wrote to the governor to act on Whitney Park.
“I think that the state not even engaging in purchasing this property and it going to development is devastating to the forest preserve,” she said. Besides it being a “devastating loss” she called the transfer of the wilderness property to private hands a “historic missed opportunity by Gov. Hochul.”
Photo at top courtesy of Gustav Schmiege
I hope it works for all parties involved. (and it keeps it OUT of the state’s hands).
Won’t be available to you, ever, unless your a 1%er with a lot of $$$ to buy in.
But it never was.
The NY governor knew all along of the Whitney purchase by a developer and purposely stayed out of it, bad timing politically, lack of funding and a certain 2026 re-election defeat…but her idea of a future ADK Park is a Disney Land, plenty of hotels, golf courses and condo.s ..another Florida…the hikers and canoeists will have to live with what State owned forest there already are…The Governor is a prostitute and sells herself to what politics will by.
But at least it was mostly left to nature. Sonny and then Marylou had Deerlands and some carriage roads but left the forest intact and the land mostly pristine. Now a guy from Texas is going to come in and ruin it with a golf course, helicopters, buildings, roads, sewage, even mining he says.
Exactly!
There goes the neighborhood! A 1%-er paradise!
An ignorant comment based on jealousy. This will have no affect on you in any way. They will have to follow all of the rules of the state and APA so why do you care. You never had access to it anyway and it will generate tax dollars that the state owning it would never have done. It’s time for New York to stop being a land grab and worry about how much money they waste.
I don’t care if I ever had or ever could have had access to it. 36,000 acres of forest being developed into a luxury resort and golf course sucks.
Still better than corrupt Nys getting their hands on it!
Only 1,000-1,500 acres are being developed, meaning 34,000+ acres are being set aside for conservation. That doesn’t suck
It doesn’t matter if I can’t afford, and am sick of real estate developers. Try to look outside the box. In 20 years it will be as *attractive* as Levittown Long Island. The animals that will be displaced or killed outright because they’re “in the way”. The extra body wastes have to flow somewhere. Look at Florida; once a paradise and now it’s garbage.
So you have trust in the government controlling everything? The impact on animals will be negligible. They will be developing less than 1500 of over 35,000 acres. A fire or bad storm can effect more than that. In fact, is they do some controlled logging it will improve the habitat for animals. People, whether they are developers or not should have the right to do what they want with their land within the established rules. Stop being jealous!
Sure, like Long Island and Florida have restrictive development rules like this land is already under – no matter who buys it.
Adirondack towns deserve to have a tax base that might keep them from completely dying. How many more schools you want to see close. This family is a saint to these folks in Long Lake.
Good luck.
Americans have shown that they are happy handing over both power and place to the ultra rich. When people see New York State government as the enemy and not as an institution working for the best interest of all of us, then outcomes like this make perfect sense.
You truly feel that NY State has the best interest of the taxpayers at hand? You must be part of the NYC crew that thinks they know what is best for NY with no clue about NY above Yonkers. Unfortunately for you, we live in a capitalistic society that motivates people for hard work instead of the government having to take care of me. If we could get back to this we wouldn’t be highest taxed state besides Hawaii!
Adirondack Casino & Golf Course.
A golf course instead of a forest preserve. Hard to think of a worse outcome.
The town of Long Lake could have effectively acquired the land for free and then donated it to the public.
Texas Developer and Land Conservation are mutually exclusive, however. Hopefully this will go the way of Twin Ponds Preserve, New Vida Preserve, or other challenged developments in the ADK Park. Winters in Long Lake are, well, Long. Also, it will be interesting to see how the APA appropriately deals with a mining permit, ski slope, or other forest razing developments. Can the Developer offer a good-will partial land donation to the Nature Conservancy? Time will tell.
Why would they want to do that? The taxpayers of Long Lake will benefit all around with this scenario. A secluded resort that no one will know exist unless you are go there, a huge sum of money to keep a small town nice (not sure if you’ve seen the blight in other small ADK towns) and increased tax revenue.
I’m sure a super rich developer from Texas has the best interest of NYS and our wild places in his heart.
Anyone but the Hochul and NYS
EXACTLY!!
A plot right out of “Yellowstone”.
Shawn Todd strikes again! And two state governments screw over conservation…if anyone in NY wants to commiserate on this loss and what it means to have Todd Interests in your backyard, the Save Fairfield Lake State Park FB group will get you the information you need.
I think it is great. New York can’t take care of what it has now. We have the Upper Hudson they have let be used commercially for by rafting and commercial tubing companies that throw garbage all over and disrupt the wild life people who live there.
Yes, of course you only want to listen to one side of the controversy…especially if it supports your narrative. Can you tell me exactly how it is “screwing over conservation”? You do realize we have strict conservation laws in the APA?
The State could have stepped up to the plate and made a decent offer, in keeping with its 30×30 climate plan to protect 30% of NYS lands as open space by 2030, as a way to sequester atmospheric carbon. What a loss!
What an absolute shame. Hochal had a plan to preserve 30% by 2030 and this parcel was a perfect fit for that aspiration . Nor does Long Lake …a town that doesn’t want to change from what it is …. benefit from the windfall. That kind of money will likely cause division and no one will be able to buy a home there if it’s so exclusive that the taxes are paid indefinitely. Certainly not the folks who will be ‘tending the grounds’. I don’t understand why the Town of Long Lake didn’t just buy the property with the money they would be getting from the sale anyway and sell use permits for income. Horrid news.
This property IS going to count towards the 30×30 plan when they put a conservation easement across the vast majority of it, which they undoubtedly will for the tax benefits. This is exactly the method the state needs to use to achieve those goals. It is impossible for the State to buy every plot of private land that comes up for sale and convert it to public land. That would requires huge amount of tax dollars that don’t exist, and while simultaneously reducing tax revenue by eliminating the largest tax payers.
The very first page of the plan summary defines Open Space as a combination of public and private land, and if you read through the full 2016 Conservation Plan it states “Protection of open space, in as many ways as possible, is perhaps the most important investment we can make to counter the effects of climate change. Increasing protection for privately owned open space is especially important to help keep…more of New York’s 14.4 million acres of privately owned forestland as forests.”
Unbelievable, A Texas ultra rich developer buying this Historic Adirondack Property. What could go wrong?!@
Stay in Texas!!!
I’ll never get used to common folk cheering for tycoons buying up what should be protected public land, preserved for their and their children’s enjoyment in perpetuity, and turning it into private resorts for the ultra wealthy. A golf course just adds insult to injury.
Exactly right.
Ultra rich play ground that could care less about the Adirondacks and there goes the neighborhood. So sad for conservation.
This is what happened in Montana and now they are wishing it never happened. The Ultra rich can go play in someone else’s back yard. Once something like this happens( check out the story of New Hope PA. The ultra rich took over the entire town, leaving many traditional entities high and dry. This will not work for the people of NYS.
Ultra rich play ground that could care less about the Adirondacks and there goes the neighborhood. So sad for conservation. Turn the Adirondacks into a big casino and golf course that makes no sense. Should keep a big deal development from Texas out of our park.
Gross.
What a tragedy. It could have raised that part of the ADKs from great public-access paddling to absolutely spectacular. Instead, luxury estates, luxury hotel, golf course, plus maybe some “exercising timber and mining rights” (presumably not in the 1% area; maybe adjacent to the current Whitney Wilderness?) And then one of the probable buyers has the gall and lack of insight to say their plan is good because “There’s a lot of capable people that appreciate the outdoors and don’t have access to it.”
You scaredy cat bedwetter dupes ready to go socialist yet or do you like seeing the rich carve up things that should belong to us all for themselves?
What do you think that socialism will do for you? Let’s take a government that is already messed up and give them total control. Let me guess, you don’t like to work?
Sickening.
This would be terrible for the Adirondacks. He talks about preserving, but it’s not preserving if you make it a millionaires club.
May the black flies and deer flies have their way… !
Dont forget about our world famous Mosquitos!
Todd will have to build a landing strip so that Trump, in retirement, could land his Qatari 747 in order to play a round on the golf courses.
Leave it to a Texan to turn nature into a housing tract. As a Texan, myself, I left to get away from this type of irreverence for natural beauty. Very upset they made their way up here.
This was always the most likely outcome, and should still be a positive for the Adirondacks as a whole if done as advertised. Protecting the park relies on both public and private conservation efforts, and while this is a much larger scale than other areas we have seen, it’s a potentially huge tract of land to be classified as forever wild. Even if they develop 2,000 acres with a golf course that none of us will ever see, that means there are over 34,000 acres being conserved for the good of the ADKs wilderness.
I would have loved to be able to explore this area myself, but this land was already private and nothing changed about that with this sale, so nobody can claim this as a loss. I am in full favor of new public outlets being established when possible, but not every inch of the ADKs needs to have public trails carved through them. It’s unfortunate for the rest of us, but having a few unimaginably lucky people protect that land will be much less of an impact to wildlife than the large numbers of people who would flock to it if it was opened as a new public park.
Also for the people saying Long Lake should have bought it and donated it, that’s pretty selfish on your part. The town was just gifted an absolute dream of financial freedom and you think they should give up the $120 million so you and people from elsewhere in the state can come use that land? Small towns struggle enough to establish budgets that provide all that is needed for their residents, and opening a new public park next door would be a burden on the local infrastructure that probably can’t support it without an increased budget.
Keep your garbage in Texas todd! I feel very sad for the people that live in long lake . You won’t have any peace & quiet any more. I know that area, I’ve been up there many times. It is a beautiful place. Unfortunately it won’t be anymore.
You are obviously from the city and know nothing about the Adirondacks. The APA has many rules that will prevent it from not continuing to be a beautiful place. It amazes me that people don’t want to see a nice town loke Long Lake benefit form this and claim all doom and gloom. I’m sure they have ignored all of the small towns here that are filled with blighted buildings.
No surprise, and btw, “Freestone” is a commonly used name for scenic properties in mountainous places designed to exclusively cater to Wealthy White Folks.
The KKK should have been so clever…
Why do you care? They development will be limited by APA regulations in what they can do with the property. No one but people that can afford to go will and that s completely fine. The biggest problem with this is that NY liberals will just take the money and waste it on social programs for people who don’t need it or some NYC project that only serves to buy votes for liberals. Disgusting!
So much for the “forever wild ” ,Even with the developtment that’s already there ,now it’ll become totally off limits to the common folks , with it becoming just another rich elite playground .Golf course and fancy hotels bigger landing strips for their helecopters or small planes ? Hopefully the Park Agency will come down on them as much as they do to the regular citizens with their zoning and codes for even trying to build a garage in the ADKs . Kind of doubt they will though , because the elites need their playgrounds and have the money to back them
I’m sure that Todd Interests has little doubt that they can fly in from Texas and steamroll the APA and the people of New York State. Hendrickson tried for years to sell it to other developers, but couldn’t because they know that land is zoned Resource Management. Shawn Todd figures he will ultimately get his way because the rules don’t apply to him.
These are some wild comments. First of all the amount of protected public land has increased substantially under the current governors tenure so comments about how she has sold out the park because of something like this for which she has pretty much no control are just silly. The owner of this land is welcome to do whatever he wants with it. It is not being “lost” in some way, it’s private now and apparently will stay private. Folks from Texas are welcome here in the adirondacks, some are already good stewards of adirondack properties, look at Camp Top Ridge for example.
“transfer of the wilderness property to private hands”. It’s a transfer from private hands to private hands. I don’t know what this person is talking about?
Thank God NYS and the Environmental lobby did not get control of it. NYS can not maintain the millions of acres they already have. The family did not want NYS to gain control of the property after what had happened after the land purchase years ago. Bad blood and Karma. Where are all those rich green millionaires and billionaires? Come on Gore spend some of those billions you have made. Or you John Kerry? How about you George Soros, you got millions for everything else.
Oh – you mean philanthropy? Philanthropy is not what what Todd has in mind.
I agree! Thank god Corrupt, Inept Nys didn’t get their hands on it!! You know, Because they’ve done such a commendable job with the rest of the Adirondack’s!!
Hendrickson claimed that he didn’t want to sell the Whitney’s property to the people of New York State because the last sale resulted in baitfish being introduced to Little Tupper Lake which threatened the endemic lake trout.
So instead he sold it to a Texas developer who wants to do logging, mining, a golf course, a ski resort, and housing developments. That was Hendrickson’s plan for keeping baitfish out of Whitney Park?
What a sad legacy.
Mar-a-Lago North! Porn stars to follow? Well that’s one way to keep warm thru our 8 months of winter. Forever wild indeed. It’s going to be fun watching Long Lake’s demographics and economics evolve.
Well done, J. Hendrickson! A resort developer from Texas – creating a golf course and ski mountain should leave less of a footprint than bass in a pond – supposedly caused by NYS’s alleged mismanagement. That dog doesn’t hunt. Mere millionaires may not even be welcome in THAT club.
Conservation certainly was not foremost on his mind. Just a smokescreen. The Gilded Age is not dead – it has just been sleeping.
It’s just gross and unthinkable. Even if no one stepped foot on the tract it benefits everyone to have this “property ” living and breathing on its own which provides everyone with living and breathing where we’ve already scratched at the earth’s surface with asphalt and construction and God forbid, a golf course with fertilizers,run off and producing a toxic barren landscape. Look at the photo of the men standing on grass straight to the water. No riparian mitigation. The photo says it all. Why don’t these dudes repair and restore land that’s already been ravaged by development. Everyone of us pays in health and mental wellness when the earth is scoured with concrete and building ;dry fancy places for people to hang out. We have enough of that. “Oh look how beautiful it is here, let’s build a complex!” God help us! I would forfeit a job to keep developers out. Don’t talk about jobs or the economy. The forest is doing that soooo well. It’s just gross and makes me sick. Im in restore and repair mode.
Very well stated! Absolutely right!
The owner said it didn’t want to sell to the state. That is the end of it. To do anything else would be to interfere with a private transaction that the owner wanted to do. It sounds like he was in the process of discussing a sale with these people when he died. It’s nobody’s business except theirs. If the people here don’t want it developed, or want their “free” access, than make the new owner an offer once he closes and donate it to the state.
EXACTLY!!!
Very sad. I can’t believe the state, ADK, Adirondack Council, OSI , Nature Conservancy, ADK Land Trust, Protect the Adirondacks and others, let it get away. It’s been on the market for years. And the state has the EPF and bond money. I’ll NEVER have anything to do with these Adirondack Conservation groups ever again!
Golf courses in the Adirondack Park are damaging.
• Use excessive water
• Employ heavy pesticide/fertilizer regimens
• Disrupt habitats or water systems
Go get ‘em APA …
If you can !!!
Very soon the average American will not be able to enjoy the great outdoors. Wealthy people want to exclude the rest of the population. Why does someone need private lakes that no one can access? As it is now lower income families can’t afford to spent a week in the Adirondacks since the prices have skyrocketed and only the wealthy afford $300/night lodging costs. Why does someone we need exclusive golf courses or lodges? Being wealthy doesn’t make you better than me it only gives you privileges that only money can buy. This purchase will do nothing but cause divide in the area. Remember our state government is more worried about supporting illegal people in this country, men playing in woman’s sports, sanctuary cities etc instead of perserving our valuable natural resources. We need to as stop voting clueless politicians and elect someone with common sense. The rich only think of themselves, the rest of us are left behind. Make a difference at the voting booth next time.
“Edward Hendrickson said the state never approached him or his brother about buying Whitney Park.” This is outrageous, or a lie. The Whitney Estate has been identified as an acquisition opportunity in the NYS Open Space Plan for years. This is a true climate emergency in terms of avoidance of future adverse impact, and loss of carbon sequestration. The climate can’t take more luxury golf courses, coated with with neonics killing off the remaining insects and birds.
I hope the Governor steps forward to make a decent counter-offer; that is why the NYS Environmental Protection Fund was originally created. Once this place is developed, there’s no going back.
She won’t make an offer to purchase because she’s spending all of our tax dollars on the same liberal bad decisions you support. There is plenty of open space in the Adks for people to play in. Lets take the tax money from the people who can afford to enjoy this hidden gem and use it for good, not NYC. Why do liberals like to talk out of both sides of their mouths?
It will be interesting to watch as this unfolds. It appears that Long Lake will enjoy a financial windfall, which is probably a good thing if managed appropriately, but one wonders if the lessons from the Adirondack Club & Resort project will be comprehended by the management of Todd Interests. The central Adirondacks are not Texas, and one wonders how many wealthy people will want to sink money into homes in the middle of nowhere where winter travel conditions can at times be dangerous. Its going to cost a lot of time and money to develop the infrastructure that rich people want and expect. Future APA meetings may be quite a spectacle.