If you've ever had dreams about owning your own resort in the Catskills, now's the chance to make them a reality — just be sure to bring your checkbook. According to an article by John Jordan published late last week on the real estate website GlobeSt.com, the owners of the Nevele Grande Resort & Country Club have put their 487-acre property on Route 209 up for sale to the tune of $26.5 million. The sale will be handled by Eastern Consolidated, a firm based out of New York City.

The John Jordan article says the property boasts 40 buildings and 443 rooms, and lists the additional amenities on the Nevele property: "three full-service kitchens — one is Glatt Kosher — dining rooms, meeting rooms, nightclubs, lounges, indoor and outdoor swimming pools, diving pool, kiddie pool, indoor and outdoor tennis courts, racquetball/basketball courts, handball courts, a fitness center, an 18-hole championship golf course designed by Robert Trent Jones and Tom Fazio, two lakes, horseback riding trails, a skating rink, a children's game room, snow skiing and tubing facilities. In addition to the main hotel/resort buildings that are connected by underground tunnel, the complex also includes winter lodge buildings, a ski/skate chalet, a day camp and staff housing."

Currently, the property is enrolled in what is known as a "PILOT" program (an acronym which stands for Payment In Lieu Of Taxes) with the county through Ulster County's Industrial Development Agency (IDA). UCIDA President Lance Matteson offers a brief summary of just what the PILOT program is, and how it works. "When there's a project that has a need for incentives or tax-breaks of various kinds from the state, for example, property tax, or mortgage tax, or sales and use tax on construction materials, then we can provide that," says Matteson. There are various projects that are eligible for such incentives offered by the IDA, one such project being what's known as a "tourist destination project," a label under which the Nevele Grand would certainly fall.

"You can do what's called a 'lease-back,' which means basically where they convey the property to us and we lease it back to them," continues Matteson. "The reason that's done is because the IDA is a public entity and is non-taxable, and therefore it can say, 'okay, we're going to give you this deal but you have to pay partial taxes, or you have to pay the equivalent of taxes, but we'll reduce them for a certain number of years, and then it'll scale back up to the normal tax-rate and you'll recover title to the property.'"

Because of this arrangement, the UCIDA holds the actual title to the Nevele property, while the owners technically retain ownership and the right to sell the property. According to Matteson, the UCIDA cannot stop or influence the sale of the property to one buyer or another; however, should the new owner of the property wish to enroll in a similar or modified PILOT program, the UCIDA would have to vote to approve it to continue providing the property with tax-credits — a vote of "no" would cut off their tax-credits and the new property owners would have to shoulder the costs of paying full property taxes. Should the property be bought by a not-for-profit or religious organization, there would be no need for continuing the resort's enrollment in the PILOT program, as they would be tax-exempt. Such a purchase could potentially deny the town, county, and state tax revenue that a private owner would continue to pay in one form or another.

The Jordan article reports, according to Eastern Consolidated director Peter Carillo, who is part of the team marketing the property to prospective buyers, that "the current ownership instituted some capital upgrades to the complex since it purchased the property nine years ago, some additional upgrades will likely be necessary." The article further mentions that the resort "turns a net profit of $2.5 million per year despite sporting just 28% occupancy.

Why the owners have decided that now was the right time to put the property up for sale is as yet unclear, though the announcement comes after reports of diminished hotel conditions and poor treatment of staff during recent years. In March, 2006, the Associated Press reported of a Chicago woman suing the resort for $20 million for scarring of her body and mind after "she suffered some 500 bedbug bites while staying at the hotel." Later that year, numerous staff-members of the resort alleged to the Journal that they were issued paychecks but were unable to cash or deposit them, because of fears that they would bounce.

"When I first started working there, everyone told me I had to get my paychecks cashed at the liquor store because often times when you go to the bank to cash the paycheck they tell you that there's insufficient funds," said one employee who elected to remain anonymous.

As to whether or not the sale of the property will solve the resort's ills remains to be seen.

There is even a contingent of disgruntled former-guests who started a website tailored to documenting their negative experiences at the resort called nevelesucks.com. "We were shocked to learn what $200 per night — the cheapest room available — will buy you at the Nevele: conditions that make most third world hostels seem enviable (we've been to a few)," writes the website's proprietor.

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