A proposed subdivision of the former Lasher Funeral Home parcel at 100 Tinker Street in Woodstock may point to impending activity, though nothing can be confirmed until transactions are official.
Real estate agent Peter Cantine of Halter Associates told the Woodstock Planning Board on February 17 that the Peterson family wants to split the single, 4.82-acre lot into two, so the 2.06 acres with the buildings and parking area will be one lot and the undeveloped 2.76-acre field will be its own lot. The new field lot will retain access from Library Lane.
The property listing for the parcel remains active with a $1.85 million asking price.
When Woodstock Way Hotel owners Ryan Giuliani and Jesse Halliburton entered into a contract to buy the property in early 2021 and develop it into a hotel and retail space, they got pushback from neighbors who opposed the part of their proposal that included 16 additional hotel rooms, a pool and five 1500-square-foot homes on the field. In response, they agreed to scrap the additional development and offered to sell the field back to any group that was interested in keeping it undeveloped. But a pending moratorium on transient housing and other factors made the timeline unrealistic for the Peterson family, Giuliani and Halliburton, so they parted ways. “The current owners do not want to give us time to get approvals for our business. They will be placing the funeral home on the open market and will sell to the highest bidder,” the Woodstock Way partners said on April 1, 2021.
Neighbors have since held out hope for a way to save the field. Orchard Lane resident Erin Cadigan posted on the Facebook group Friends of the Field that a group of families was working with the Peterson family to save the field.
Cantine declined to confirm any deal, saying the subdivision must be approved before he is at liberty to say anything about it. For that to happen, the Planning Board needs to complete a site walk and schedule a public hearing.
Since longtime funeral director Ken Peterson died unexpectedly in 2019, his brother Carl, and mother Janet, who is the sole owner of the property, have been unable to keep the business viable. They brought on a couple of new funeral directors in recent years, but they did not stay. The family solicited other funeral homes to purchase the property, but that effort was also unsuccessful.
The Petersons retained a funeral home appraisal service that determined Woodstock no longer has enough funerals to maintain a reliable revenue stream.
The E.B. Gormley Funeral Home in Phoenicia and Seamon-Wilsey Funeral Home in Saugerties have worked with the family to manage archives and handle prearranged services.
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