The tower and pool in 1977
Nevele Grande Hotel
General information
StatusClosed
TypeHotel
Location1 Nevele Rd, Ellenville,New York,United States
Coordinates41°42′04″N 74°24′11″W / 41.701°N 74.403°W / 41.701; -74.403
Opening1901 (1901)
ClosedJuly 4, 2009 (2009-07-04)
OwnerMitchell Wolff Joel Hoffman
Technical details
Floor count10
Other information
Number of rooms430

The Nevele Grande Hotel (NEV-uh-lee) was a high rise resort hotel located in Wawarsing, New York, United States, just outside Ellenville, New York; it closed in 2009. The Nevele dated back to the days of the Borscht Belt, opening in 1901. “Nevele” is “Eleven” spelled backwards — according to lore, after the eleven nineteenth-century schoolteachers who discovered a waterfall within the present-day property. And according to family lore, the founder Charles Slutsky had had eleven children from 1880-1906 and the name might have come from that instead.[1]

The hotel closed in 2009.[2] A June 2020 report indicated that the "buildings remain, falling apart and with no future of reuse ... there are plans to tear down the remaining structures on the property and turn it into a sports complex".[3] The property included a once highly regarded 18-hole golf course and a 9-hole golf course which are closed and have fallen into disrepair.[4][5]

History

Nevele lobby in 1978

The Nevele Country Club was established in 1901 by Charles Slutsky (1861-1931), who named the first accommodation the Nevele Falls Farm House. Following the Catskill hotel fashion of Mission Revival architecture new wings were built in that style in the 1920s and 1930s. The Slutsky family also operated the adjoining Fallsview hotel, which was merged with the Nevele for a time. In the 1950s and 1960s the Nevele was greatly expanded in the modern style that had by then come to prevail in the Catskills. Architect Sydne Schleman designed the Vacationer Wing and the Waikiki Indoor Pool in 1954. These were followed by architect Herbert D. Phillips' Golden Gate and Empire wings from 1956, linked to adjoining buildings by tunnels. Phillips also designed new lobbies in a style that followed the influential hotel designs of his former employer Morris Lapidus, who had worked at other Catskill resorts. By 1964 Phillips was a partner at the New York firm Viola, Bernard & Phillips, who designed the ten-story dodecaheronal Nevele Tower. The nearly circular building was intended to counter the excessive corridor lengths that plagued more traditional Catskill hotels.[6][7] President Lyndon B. Johnson stayed at the Nevele in 1966, to dedicate a new hospital in Ellenville.[8]

1990s and later

Room 1613 in 1977

Originally named simply Nevele, the resort was renamed the Nevele Grande when it again merged with the adjacent Fallsview resort after the Nevele was sold by the Slutsky family in 1997.[9] By 2006 the Nevele Grande had fallen on hard times and the Fallsview property was sold.[10] The Fallsview has since reopened as the Honors Haven Resort and Spa.[11] The original Nevele property, containing a distinctive high-rise, remained open for several years after the split as the Nevele Grande resort. Owners Mitchell Wolff and Joel Hoffman struggled financially and failed to pay taxes[12] and eventually shut down the resort without notice after the 2009 Fourth of July weekend.[9]

On September 1, 2009, an auction of the property was cancelled the day before it was to occur because a buyer was allegedly found. However, by the time the auction was scheduled the property had fallen into a state of disrepair, including "musty staircases and rooms, big and small, with odd smells wafting out of them."[13] The hotel remained unsold months later, although Hoffman was still attempting to generate revenue with a deal to sell timber on 100 acres (0.40 km2) of property. He also renewed an agreement to let Nextel put cell phone antennas atop one of the buildings.[12]

On March 26, 2010, New York State Supreme Court Judge Mary Work granted Wolff ownership of the hotel in light of Hoffman's failure to pay Wolff an earlier $2m judgment. The initial dispute arose when Wolff sold Hoffman 99% control of the hotel in exchange for lifetime health benefits, a deal on which Hoffman almost immediately reneged. Judge Work described Hoffman's mismanagement of the hotel "staggering," and upbraided him in court for failure to be forthcoming.

In May 2012, Nevele Investors LLC, a subsidiary of Claremont Partners Ltd., which had purchased the resort, announced that the Nevele Grande would undergo a $500 million redevelopment to turn it into a resort and casino, subject to approval of state legislation to allow casino gaming. The 1966 tower and entrance lobby, ice skating rink, and golf course would be retained in the new complex.[14] Although the state rejected the proposal to bring gambling to the project in 2014, a developer planned to incorporate the hotel into new mega sports complex with construction to begin in 2017.[15] In March 2019, the developer said that funding had not been secured and that there was no timetable regarding the future.[16] This plan never materialized and the property continued to deteriorate.[17] As of January 2022 a New York-based property developer was proposing to redevelop the site for hotel and residential use.[18]

On September 29, 2023, the Nevele was sold for $5 million to 1100 Arrow LLC as part of plans by New York City-based developer Somerset Partners to demolish remnants of the former Borscht Belt hotel in favor of a new facility with lodging, accompanied by a 126-unit housing development. The former golf course is to be transformed into "...a low maintenance landscape with focused native planting..."[19]

Description

Nevele Hotel tower in 2015

The Nevele property is located in a valley just to the west of the Shawangunk Mountains, between two small lakes. The complex was dominated by the Nevele Tower at the main entrance drive. The Empire Wing was to the east and contained the main lobby. The Stardust and Safari Lounges connected the tower and the Empire wing. Other wings included the Colonnades and the Pennsylvanian. Conference facilities, unusually extensive for a Catskills resort, surrounded the guest wings. The Nevele had a total of 430 rooms at its height. Renovations in the 1990s have obscured the notable design features of the 1960s interiors. The Waikiki Indoor pool and health club were the easternmost components, beyond which lied the ski chalet and ski slope. The 1970 ice skating rink was designed by Dennis Jurow using glulam wood beams that sweep upward to a line of skylights. The resort also included an 18-hole golf course, with nine more holes available on the Fallsview resort, designed by Robert Trent Jones and Tom Fazio.[6]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Fischer, Molly (September 1, 2009). "Faded Catskills Classic Has Mystery Buyer; Currently Seeking Backup". New York Observer. Retrieved 2020-06-05.
  2. ↑ EXPLORE ABANDONED RESORTS OF THE BORSCHT BELT
  3. ↑ Exploring Abandoned Nevele Grande Ski Resort, NY June 12, 2020
  4. ↑ "Golf". www.nevele.com. Archived from the original on 17 January 2008.
  5. ↑ Bosch, Adam (March 26, 2010). "Nevele owner loses resort". Times Herald-Record. Middletown. Retrieved 2011-12-18.
  6. 1 2 Padluck, Ross (2013). Catskill Resorts:Lost Architecture of Paradise. Schiffer Publishing, Ltd. pp. 120–133. ISBN 978-0-7643-4317-9.
  7. ↑ American Architects Directory (PDF) (Second ed.). R.R. Bowker. 1962. p. 551.
  8. ↑ "StackPath".
  9. 1 2 Doxsey, Patricia (September 1, 2009). "Nevele Grande Sale in Works". Daily Freeman. Kingston. Retrieved 2010-03-01.
  10. ↑ Brooks, Paul (September 1, 2009). "Group Buys Ellenville Hotel". Times Herald-Record. Middletown. Retrieved 2010-03-01.
  11. ↑ "Honor's Haven Resort & Spa". www.honorshaven.com. Archived from the original on 2008-06-05.
  12. 1 2 Bosch, Adam (October 11, 2009). "Despite promises, Nevele Grande still unsold". Times Herald-Record. Middletown. Retrieved 2011-12-18.
  13. ↑ "Mysterious Foreign Millionaire Buys Nevele Grande Hotel". Yos lz Neias. September 2, 2009. Retrieved 2010-03-01.
  14. ↑ "Nevele Hotel in Catskills Set For $500 Million Redevelopment". The Jewish Voice. May 2, 2012. Retrieved 18 May 2012.
  15. ↑ Paul, Brooks (May 16, 2016). "Nevele sports complex plans still in the works". Times Herald-Record (Middletown, NY). Retrieved 13 August 2016.
  16. ↑ Paul, Brooks (20 March 2019). "$300M Nevele project still waiting for financing". Times Herald-Record (Middletown, NY). Retrieved 24 February 2022.
  17. ↑ Hooque, Gregory (19 January 2022). "Inside The Abandoned Nevele Grande Ski Resort: 50 Stunning Photos". Abandoned Place. Retrieved 24 February 2022.
  18. ↑ Anderson, Jane (17 January 2022). "Ellenville's Getting Ready For Its Closeup". Upstater,com. Kingston, New York. Retrieved 27 January 2022.
  19. ↑ "Former Nevele Resort Sells For $5 Million To New York City-Based Developer Somerset Partners". rcbizjournal.com. Rockland County Business Journal. 15 October 2023. Retrieved 30 October 2023.
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