All parties have parted ways from a deal to buy the Lasher Funeral Home and develop it into a hotel, just days after neighbors raised concerns about untamed development and sounded alarms over the proliferation of short-term rentals and a change of the town’s character.
“At this time, buyer and seller have a different timetable for completion of the deal and have amicably parted ways,” said a brief statement released by Ryan Giuliani and Jesse Halliburton, owners of Woodstock Way, who were in the due diligence phase of a contract to buy the 4.7-acre property at 100 Tinker Street.
They would not elaborate at this time, though the statement was approved by the Peterson family, current owners of the funeral home.
Janet Peterson, the sole owner of the Lasher business since her son, Ken died two years ago, has sought a buyer since an exhaustive search failed to turn up anyone intending to keep the funeral business running and able to match the family’s asking price.
While parties haven’t disclosed a figure, the latest prospective buyer and funeral home operator was not able to come close to Giuliani and Halliburton’s offer.
Without a funeral home operator as a buyer, Mrs. Peterson engaged the services of real estate agent Peter Cantine, who put her in touch with Giuliani and Halliburton.
The Woodstock Way partners had proposed to tear down the funeral parlor and convert the remaining structures into four hotel rooms, a bar, a common area and retail space. They had planned to build 16 additional hotel rooms among four buildings on the back field, as well as a pool and five 1500-square-foot houses.
In response to concerns from neighbors about keeping the field open, the partners took the five houses off the table and offered to sell back the remaining space, roughly 2.2 acres, to a group that would keep it undeveloped.
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