A $502,000 state grant will help address chronic flooding in Pine Hill and support residents’ efforts to turn the historic Wellington Hotel into affordable housing and a place to buy groceries.
The award to Ulster County will fund drainage improvements along lower Main Street, including about 500 feet of piping, new storm drains, and roadway restoration. The work will support the redevelopment of the Wellington into 10 affordable workforce apartments, a cafe, and a community grocery store.
“We wanted to try to show that you could build really nice housing that was affordable to people who work in the area,” said Jan Jaffe, president of Wellington Blueberry LLC, the group behind the redevelopment. “This project will increase the amount of rental housing in Shandaken by 3%.”
The undertaking began in December 2022, when 20 Pine Hill residents came together to buy the rundown hotel for $325,000. They formed Wellington Blueberry LLC to restore the building and bring affordable housing to the hamlet.
For Jaffe, the goals extend beyond the apartments: providing nearby homes for people who work in the area, bringing groceries to a community she described as a “food desert,” and encouraging other property owners to fix up their buildings.
The residents have partnered with RUPCO, a nonprofit housing organization, to advance the redevelopment. Kevin O’Connor, its chief executive officer, said their willingness to put their own money into the building drew his attention.
“This remarkable group of folks, heroes, who are residents of Pine Hill or the Phoenicia area, came together and with their own money, bought this building to save it and to make it into something really useful for Pine Hill,” O’Connor said. “I’ve been doing this a long time. It’s the first time I’ve ever really experienced that.”
Wellington Blueberry LLC has invested about $600,000 in predevelopment costs. The project has also secured $2 million in historic tax credit financing and a $1.6 million grant awarded to the Town of Shandaken through the state’s Restore New York program.
Built in 1882, the 12,000-square-foot Wellington once housed a hotel and bowling alley, with horse stables on the property. It later fell into disrepair. In 2025, the National Trust for Historic Preservation named it one of America’s 11 most endangered historic places.
The redevelopment calls for restoring the exterior to its 1882 appearance. Friends of Pine Hill Historic District, a nonprofit formed to oversee the property and support similar preservation efforts in the hamlet, is expected to eventually own and manage the building. Bank of America has joined as an investor for at least seven years.
Drainage work remains a complication for the redevelopment. Shandaken Supervisor Barbara Mansfield said an appraisal is needed for a Bottini Fuel property that would allow stormwater treatment at one location. Paving the Wellington’s parking lot must wait until the stormwater construction is complete.
“Pine Hill is largely a flood plain,” Mansfield said. “And the city of New York and the state are very invested in keeping their drinking water, and their recreational water for fishing, clean.”
The Pine Hill funding is part of a $1 million award to Ulster County through the state’s County Infrastructure Grant Program. The other $498,000 will support repairs to the Ulster County Pool Complex in New Paltz.
Gov. Kathy Hochul awarded more than $38 million to 49 projects statewide in the program’s second round on Aug. 20. Empire State Development administers the program, which began in November 2024.
Construction plans for the Wellington are expected to be finalized by the end of the year. Work is expected to begin late this year or in early spring 2027 and take 14 to 18 months.
Mia Quick is an editorial assistant at The Overlook. Send correspondence to mia@theoverlooknews.com.
