Texas developer under contract to buy Whitney estate says he’s open to exploring easement opportunities
By James M. Odato
New York State was ineligible to buy the 36,600 acres of Whitney Park, according to the man who signed a contract to acquire the matchless wilderness terrain of lakes, ponds and forests.
Shawn Todd, chairman of Todd Interests, said New York was prohibited from purchasing the Adirondack Park property of John Hendrickson based on “a perpetual deed restriction preventing the state from ever obtaining the property.” His development company based in Dallas, Texas, is looking at ways to develop the property as it works toward concluding the purchase.
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He secured a contract to buy Whitney Park from the estate of the late John Hendrickson, which had recently put the Hamilton County real estate up for sale at an asking price of $125 million. Net proceeds will go to the town of Long Lake, according to the wishes of John Hendrickson.
“The state can’t buy the property,” Todd said, revealing another wish of Hendrickson. He added: “We didn’t buy this with the intent of selling this to the state.”
Asked about the deed restriction, Edward Hendrickson, the executor of the estate, declined to confirm such language in estate plan documents concerning the property.
“It’s a moot issue,” he said, because the state never bid on the property and it’s under contract for sale with the private developer. “I want to keep the focus on John’s tremendous gift to the people of the town of Long Lake.”
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RELATED READING: Texas developer eyes historic Whitney Park estate
The matter is of significance because environmental organizations and individuals have criticized New York for not acting to secure one of the last expanses of uninhabited woodlands available to add to the Adirondack Forest Preserve.
Edward Hendrickson, who lives in Alaska, said he expects the deal will close in the fall. He is in charge of the trust holding the assets of his late younger brother.
Conservation easements still an option
Others hold out hope that Todd Interests would consider conservation easements that would protect acreage from development. The company is looking to develop lodging, a golf course and restaurant for a resort business at Whitney Park.
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Todd said “we’re fans of conservation easements,” noting that he has entered into them on some of his farmland. “I’m sure things like that will be part of the conversations.” He said that he has found that most entities interested in easements lack the capital to make them happen.
Pete Nelson, of Adirondack Wilderness Advocates, said the state Department of Environmental Conservation has the ability to enter into conservation easements and has done so with some small and large properties in the Adirondacks. “A conservation easement could help protect a lot of that land,” he said about Whitney Park. “If the developer’s interested in doing it, financially and otherwise, it could be a good deal.”
The department does not discuss land negotiations, a press officer said. “The Whitney Park property is a high-priority land conservation parcel as identified in the State’s Open Space Plan,” a DEC official said. “In general, DEC meets with landowners who are interested in exploring conservation outcomes for their properties.”
A development project in Texas
Todd Interests has proven to be a good corporate neighbor since acquiring parkland in Texas for development, said Freestone County (Texas) Commissioner Lloyd Lane.
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All four county commissioners supported the company’s private land rights arguments after securing a $105 million contract to buy 5,000 acres that had long contained a Texas state park. The land was put up for sale by the power company that owned the property and Texas did not bid and later tried to seize the land through eminent domain before dropping the matter.
“They’re out of sight, out of mind,” Lane said about the 300-site lakeside development. The project includes a golf course and restaurant. It is under construction less than 100 miles south of Dallas.
“They’re providing us a tax base I think will help us stay a happy little town,” Lane said. He said the appraised value of the development will reach $1 billion when all the resort homes are built and sold for a few million dollars apiece, mostly as second homes. The site includes Texas’ largest private lake.
Lane said he has seen no environmental harm from the project. “I would want to point out that the lake itself was utilized for a coal-burning electrical generating plant; so I think having 300 houses around a large body of water is less impactful than having a coal-fired electric plant on the lake.”
An estate 125 years in the Whitney family
Edward Hendrickson said Whitney Park will be better off in private rather than public hands, pointing to 125 years of ownership by the Whitney family.
He said he is confident Todd Interests will be good stewards of the land, great camps and lakes. “Shawn has told me it’s going to be managed similarly,” he said about Whitney and Hendrickson stewardship. “They’re going to protect it.”
John Hendrickson was the widower of Marylou Whitney, who inherited the assets of her late husband Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney.
Edward Hendrickson said the state already owns 15,000 acres of the original Whitney Park, purchased some 20 years ago. The state’s stewardship irked John Hendrickson, who didn’t like that bass got into Little Tupper Lake, threatening the trout population.
Todd Interests is also under contract to purchase Cady Hill, the Saratoga Springs mansion that was the residence of John Hendrickson and the Whitneys.
The company intends to develop the 120-acre site as well, adding a restaurant and marketing it for lodging. Cady Hill was listed for sale at $12.9 million.
I hope the new owners put a working farm on their property with 701 cows .
Getting a quote from Lloyd Lane is hilarious. ‘Lane said he has seen no environmental harm from the project. “I would want to point out that the lake itself was utilized for a coal-burning electrical generating plant; so I think having 300 houses around a large body of water is less impactful than having a coal-fired electric plant on the lake.” ‘ We (Safe Fairfield Lake State Park FB group) have photos and videos to show otherwise from prior to the eminent domain commission overvaluing the former state park, plus recent aerial imagery showing clearcutting and erosion for the proposed golf course. We could have had 0 houses other than park employee homes and also no coal-fired power plant because it was decommissioned years ago, in addition to an in-tact publicly accessible state park, but here we are.
What’s done is done in Texas but there’s far more to this story here than what y’all are getting from Freestone county officials. Brett Shipp did excellent coverage of this if you search his YouTube channel for reporting and reach out to him for the other side of this story: https://www.youtube.com/@brettshipp8944/videos
John’s Gift to Long Lake!?!? What a CROCK!!!!
It was Whitney and Vanderbilt money that acquired and maintained that property and employed many over the years and the LL benefit was likely the wishes MLW
It sounds like the developer who will purcase the land will create JOBS, JOBS, JOBS, much needed in the Adirondacks!
This isn’t texas. One does not merely acquire land, start building and make statements its all good.
In 20 years it’s going to look the same because there isn’t a coal burning plant emitting pollution into it and the state controls all wetlands. If you doubt it, educate yourself on Big Tupper and that was in Tupper Lake on an already developed site.
Great. I know when a Texan thinks “big”…it’s going to be humongous ,tasteless and over the top. So upsetting. Sure , jobs created, wonderful ..catering to the rich, entitled and expecting the ” best,” service from the underlings. Displacing the wildlife there is such a sad thing..can’t we humans stop wanting to be entertained at every turn and let nature be?? Mr.Todd, please just do your thing in Texas where people are not ecologically minded in general.
We are so over due for a revolution. Rich people should not be dictating what happens to the last substantial tract of Adirondack land. Its mostly pristine, it can be even more pristine. The right thing to do is add it to the great northeastern wilderness, the only one of its kind. This isn’t right. This is disgusting. And it’s directly related to everything that is disgusting about this country right now. I wish Americans were French.
There is nothing logical about this post and if you would like to live among the French then move to Quebec or France. This is America which is a free country to do what we want within the rules. Are you looking for a revolution to go back to a rule under a king?
Oh, and by the way, we are a capitalistic society and the success of our country depends on the “rich” doing well so they can provide livelihoods for people. Being stuck on a remote piece of, beautiful, land is very shallow.
Hopefully permits allowing development will be tied up in all manner of litigation in perpetuity.
Billionaires are toxic waste and need to be composted.
You mean the ‘billionaires’ that are responsible for protecting lots of land in the Adirondacks?
Honey, billionaires do not care about you silly.
Baby, they do now more than ever. How can a business owner be successful without employees. The liberals have basically created a society where it’s not necessary to work so they need people more than ever. One thing you are correct about is that they don’t care about the people capable of working but sucking off the system.
The environmental crazy left speaks with distain to those they disagree with. What about the jobs that will be created for us ” deplorables” ?
It’s not just about environmentalists. These projects, at least in the current era, produce very few good paying jobs and always…ALWAYS…lead to housing markets, services, and property taxes that price locals out. We’ve seen it in every community in our region who have opened themselves up to these types of developers. Some jobs might come from it, perhaps some small businesses will spring up, but the community will be gutted, too. These folks never come in for anything other than personal profit, and they’ll move the costs of whatever shortcuts they take onto local year-round residents, trust me.
How will developing a very small amount of a giant parcel that has sat undeveloped for 150 years gut the community. It hasn’t produced anything to gut yet.
Look around, Paul. These big-money developers roll in and communities collapse. It’s the template everywhere and very easy to learn about if you put less effort into worshiping these people and more time into practicing healthy skepticism.
waiter, housekeeper, service jobs licking their boots. Nothing you’d want yourself or your kids to live off of. Connect the dots pal
Aaron, I guess all the rich people that moved into Cranberry Lake , Star Lake, and Fine must have been what caused the collapse of the towns. I’m sure it wasn’t the purchase of the thousands of acres of land that was logged and mined on for generations that now is classified as forever wild .
I figured that there was a deed restriction in there that prevented (prevents) state ownership of the property. Now people can take back all their comments on how the state and the governor were plotting something.
Thank goodness that half the Adirondack Park is in NYS hands. If not, this land would have been abused, misused, and sucked dry by profiteers long ago, leaving nothing more than a dry, barren husk.
cant wait for the state to claim eminent domain, the Texan to go back home and the Adirondack park to truly remain “forever wild”
Eminent domain for what public purpose? The state needs to give it to a developer for what? That is what ED is for. The opposite of what I think you want.
The state owed it all at one point they gave it away.
Well, there’s always the chance the remoteness, harsh winters, APA regulations and litigation from conservation groups will so bog down any meaningful development (read profit potential) that eventually the new owners willbe incentivized to dump the entire scheme.
I find it an utter impossibility to build and run a luxury resort, hotel and golf course without major environmental degradation. All the chemicals and water used on the golf course alone has to be of major concern.
This is a sad day…
Why didn’t the Nature Conservancy get involved?
I know there is a tremendous amount of acreage preserved in the Adirondacks, I’m what some might describe as a; “crazy “left” Looney”, or whatever, I’m really more INDEPENDENT, like Sanders in VT, but that’s part of the problem here!, the divisiveness in our country as a whole, the 2 party political DUOPOLY”red state”/”blue state” is such PROPAGANDA, period.
Moving on, I often thought of how lucky we are to “have” this amazing park area”, I often envied the people who “already lived there”, like now lucky are they!?, “pre-ordained”, over the native Americans that got pushed out to the Dakota’s or slaughtered, etc,…So who are these “chosen people” that get to live there now?, without any consideration for…Well, let’s just say, I’d really rather not have some rich “bastard” from Texas with big oil money subsidized by taxpayers, building Mc Mansions for him and his buddies, but how about people that maybe just want to have like a seasonal cabin or something along those lines? little tiny houses, cabins, &/or cottages kind of like communal Airbnbs!?, I don’t know, how about community level “democracy”, vote on options, & let the will of the people prevail, amen, and God bless us all.
Yet another ADK playground for the wealthy. A real renaissance of land abuse by the few, affecting the many, eventually to be abandoned when profit margins dwindle and tax levy’s become too much. Well done Long Lake..