The Windham Planning Board appears poised to advance an amendment to Windham Mountain Club’s already approved master plan that would replace eight townhouses with a 26-room luxury hotel, despite growing opposition and concerns from area hotel owners.
At an Aug. 6 meeting, board Chair Lisa Jaeger, alternate John O’Neill, and board member Nate Holdridge indicated that they didn’t consider the proposal likely to cause significant adverse environmental effects. They’re the only three members eligible to vote on club-related applications.
“Any change is going to create an impact,” Jaeger said. “Change is hard, but it’s coming, and our town is growing, and growing is change. How much of an impact does 26 hotel rooms create? Some. Is it going to make a significant impact? There hasn’t been anything in the record that says that’s something we need to look further at.”
Area hotel owners have argued otherwise.
Representatives of four area hotels argued in a July 28 letter to the Planning Board that the proposal could harm Windham’s community character. The letter was written and signed by John Flannigan, CEO of Wylder Hotels, Marianna and Leslie Leman of Albergo Allegria Hotel, Bjorn Boyer of Eastwind Hotels, and JB Behling of Union and Post.
“We believe that constructing additional lodging within an increasingly self-contained private resort would further separate visitors from the broader community,” the letter reads. “Windham’s identity has long been defined by visitors engaging with locally owned lodging establishments, restaurants, retail businesses, and Main Street. A development that encourages guests to remain almost entirely within a private resort environment represents a meaningful departure from that longstanding character.”
The club’s proposed hotel would replace eight townhouses approved in April 2025 as part of the club’s redevelopment plan. Replacing them with a hotel would change the approved use of the Resort Drive site from residential to commercial, requiring further review under the State Environmental Quality Review Act.
The development would include 26 hotel rooms, a four-bedroom villa, valet-only parking, and a small cafe and bar open only to guests.
Windham Mountain Club President Kristen Leach has said the rooms, expected to cost $1,000 to $1,200 a night, would appeal to potential club members and occupy a higher price tier than Windham’s existing hotels.
The club has also proposed modifications to its Adventure Center, including a new pool house, landscaping changes, and a temporary gatehouse. The board approved the site plan for those changes on Aug. 6.
The hotel and Adventure Center amendments are being reviewed under the town’s previous zoning rules regulated through site plan law because the overall master plan was approved before Windham’s new zoning law took effect.
The July 28 letter to the board followed earlier objections by Flannigan, Leslie and Marianna Leman, and Kate Christman of Christman’s Windham House. Christman didn’t sign the new letter, which marked the first time representatives of Eastwind and Union and Post had publicly opposed the project.
Eastwind, a boutique hotel on state Route 23, charges from slightly more than $250 to more than $500 a night. Union and Post offers rooms ranging from about $225 for a standard king room to more than $450 for a two-bedroom suite. Its five-bedroom house costs at least $950 a night.
Wylder, Albergo Allegria, and Christman’s have previously argued that Windham’s occupancy rates do not support another hotel and that the club’s proposal would compete with their businesses.
Flannigan has said Wylder averaged 32% occupancy over the previous 12 months. The owners of Albergo Allegria said their winter occupancy was 40% lower than before Windham Mountain’s 2023 rebranding.
The July 28 letter also cited Leach’s previous statement to The Overlook that the club’s existing hotel, The Outpost, located on state Route 23, has similarly low occupancy.
“If accurate, these figures suggest current demand does not support additional hotel construction,” the letter said.
Leach has said the proposed hotel would attract visitors who are not currently staying at Windham’s existing hotels.
The hotel owners also argued that the project could weaken downtown Windham.
“Following Windham Mountain Club’s transition to a membership-focused model, many lodging operators experienced significant challenges responding to widespread public perceptions that Windham itself had become private or inaccessible,” the letter said. “National media coverage and the resort’s own marketing contributed to those misconceptions, requiring local businesses to reassure prospective visitors that the Town of Windham remains open and welcoming to everyone.”
Windham Mountain rebranded as Windham Mountain Club in 2023 and adopted a member-focused model, while the ski area remained open to the public. Standard year-round membership costs $250,000, plus annual dues. A junior membership is also available for $150,000. Potential members must be referred by current members or reviewed by a club committee and invited to apply.
The hotel owners also argued the proposal is too substantial to be treated as an amendment to the existing master plan.
“Master plans exist to provide predictability for municipalities, neighboring property owners, and residents,” the letter said. “If substantial changes to land use or building programs are introduced after approval, those changes deserve the same level of review as the original proposal.”
The three Planning Board members eligible to vote indicated that they didn’t consider the changes environmentally significant under SEQR.
“If it was going to stay residential, you were going to have weekenders come up, maybe people come up for Christmas leave or along with their family, and they’re going to be in and out of their facility,” O’Neill said. “I don’t see how that is any different than a hotel situation where people might be in-and-out also.”
O’Neill, who owns a business, said he understood the hotel owners’ concerns but considered them “more of an emotional thing” that shouldn’t drive the board’s decision.
Planning Board attorney Allyson Phillips said purely economic effects are largely outside the scope of a SEQR review. The board may, however, consider economic impacts when evaluating potential effects on community character and population patterns.
In response to the letter, Leach said the Windham Mountain Club has taken several steps intended to support other local businesses and the community at large.
Rather than having guests at the proposed hotel count toward the 2,500 ski tickets guaranteed to the public on peak days, Leach said she changed that recently so hotel guests wouldn’t take away from public tickets.
The club also added several hotels to a new list of area lodging options on the club website, Leach said. Listed on Aug. 12 were Eastwind, Wylder, Hotel Vienna, The Henson, Albergo Allegria, and Windham NY Escape. Christman’s Windham House and Union and Post were not listed.
“We reached out to those owners and said, ‘I hope you have no problem with us adding you as a link,’” Leach said. “We get a lot of traffic on our website, and thought that would be the first olive branch we could throw out to them.”
The club didn’t include a full-service restaurant in the hotel proposal partly to encourage guests to visit other Windham businesses.
“Our restaurants are only open certain nights,” Leach said. “They’re eating somewhere else on those other nights. It’s a seven-day hotel, it’s not open three days a week.”
Three of the Planning Board’s six members, Claudia Lane, Michael Troccoli, and Ray Curtis, recuse themselves from club-related matters because of their ties to the resort. The hotel owners argued that the resulting three-member panel has prevented the proposal from receiving a “full and fair vote on the merits.”
Leach has criticized the recusal situation for a different reason. She told The Overlook last month that the limited number of members eligible to vote had subjected the club to delays that other applicants did not face.
Jaeger said she hoped the disputes could lead to broader discussions among business owners about attracting more visitors to Windham.
“We could maybe talk about creating more visitors or helping more visitors come here,” she said. “My hope is maybe this would be an opportunity so that everyone can survive.”
The board is expected to resume its environmental review, with a possible vote on its SEQR determination at the Sept. 3 meeting. O’Neill will be absent from the Aug. 20 meeting, leaving the board without the eligible members it needs to vote on club-related matters.
Connor Greco is a staff reporter for The Overlook covering Windham, Hunter, and surrounding Greene County communities. Send correspondence to connor@theoverlooknews.com.
