The asking price for the Winston Farm property in Saugerties has nearly halved from over $10.7 million in 2016 to $5.5 million now. The property’s brokers, CRBE Albany, re-listed the site last month with the “major price reduction.”
The CRBE broker tasked with moving the property, Andrew Mangini, has some ideas regarding the difficulty of placing the farm in the hands of new owners. “The zoning of the land is the biggest issue with selling the property. We have a lot of industrial users, warehouse users, that have been interested in it, but they’re scared to present an offer and then go to the town to get the zoning,” said Mangini in an interview this week. “The highway access seems to be a perfect fit — but no matter what goes here, we’ll probably need a variance in the zoning.”
Because of the 736-acre site’s price reduction, its historic value and its prime location, Mangini thinks it’s a matter of time before the site, which was decades ago eyed for a landfill and reached world fame when it hosted the Woodstock ’94 concert, does find the right buyer. “I see many good uses,” said Mangini. “I think mixed-use development would be good — a sprinkling of offices, residential, or a complete change to an entertainment use. Because of its size, we have had some interest in entertainment uses, but it seems to be just a bit too far from Albany and New York to get anyone to pull the trigger on that.”
Mangini said Saugerties officials still hope that the parcel’s buyer will be willing to sell a half-acre to the village government, where a well house and water lines to the villages’ water distribution system could be built. Engineers have designated the site as a possible backup water source, should anything happen to the Blue Mountain Reservoir.
“There are many potential uses [for the property,]” said Lanny Walter, a member of the Winston Farm Alliance and the chair of the Saugerties Democratic Committee. “A park with bike and ski trails, swimming pool; a non-polluting light industrial park; a school with campus; corporate office park; a performance venue; dog park; I favor a use that shares the property with the public. The feasibility study that was done some years ago had a bike path running through to West Saugerties.”
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