After owning 700 acres of land for more than 20 years, Blue Chip Farm owner Thomas Grossman decided his horse farm could become more. What’s more, exactly? A resort with numerous cottages, amenities and additions.

With horses trotting across the land and blue and white colored barns, the beauty and calmness of the farm is hard to ignore. Located in the Hamlet of Wallkill just 50 miles North of Manhattan, Grossman was hesitant for years about doing something with the land. In large part, this is because of his emotional attachment to the farm.

“I bought it [the farm] off a very good friend of my family who started in 1965 or 1966. So, it has been used in largely the exact same capacity by only two owners for over 50 years. Obviously, the world and area has changed quite a bit since then, but I’ve been the steward of the land for the last 23 years,” said Grossman.

He describes the farm as a labor of love, and while Grossman noted it isn’t exactly a defendable investment, he’s still emotionally attached to it.

“Several years ago, an acquaintance of mine had the foresight to see that because of COVID and many other reasons, the Hudson Valley was changing a great deal. I had very mixed emotions about this place becoming like the developments that I had seen around this area or almost any development with a whole bunch of cookie cutter homes, etc. So that was always my hesitancy,” Grossman mentioned.

Soon after, an acquaintance, who is now the developer for the project, came up with what Grossman thought to be the perfect solution.

David Alexanian, filmmaker and owner/operator of Elixir Development approached Grossman with an ecologically friendly development that would allow him to retain around a third of the farm for horses. Since Grossman is an environmentalist and would still be able to run a large part of the farm as a horse farm, he agreed, feeling as if this wouldn’t drastically change the area.

“This place would feel the way it has both to me and to everyone else who’s lived in this area for a long time, which I felt an obligation to, but it would bring in a much more economically feasible income and employment,” Grossman stated.

The proposed project is largely a resort with one main restaurant, another restaurant, a yoga studio and more. Grossman mentioned being excited about a “huge farm to table restaurant,” calling the entire idea a retreat more than anything else.

Specifically the proposal includes 67 single-family homes, a twelve-hole golf course, a clubhouse, resort check-in, a wastewater treatment plan and a children’s barn on the southern side of Bates Lane. On Hoagerburgh Road, on the west side, there will be 100 cottages, five single family homes, a club house with a restaurant and amenities, a water treatment building, a terrace restaurant and an activity center.

The last area, which is north of Bates Lane, would be reserved for the horse farm.

To make it ecologically friendly, Grossman says houses will be built to the greenest standards possible and hidden from the road. The construction should be very low impact with either geothermal or solar power as energy sources. There will also be very little impact to these roads.

They’ve been working on it for roughly two and a half years, and Grossman has nothing but positive things to say about his developer, Alexanian.

“He is a truly passionate guy and wants it to be both beautiful and ecologically friendly and not just because that’s what investors want, but [because] that’s his genuine mindset,” said Grossman.

The project has been back and forth with town and planning boards, with their next step being a public scoping session on Tuesday, May 2. The purpose of the session is to hear any public comments on the draft scope of the environmental review for the project. This will be located at the Town of Shawangunk Town Hall at 7 p.m.

In the meantime, Grossman is proud of what the project has become.

“I’ve been pretty tough on him [Alexanian] on doing it in a way,” Grossman says. “so that it’s a place that I want to live next to.”