Developers will next build cottages and another 300-room hotel with surrounding villas
By Lana Bellamy
May 6, 2024
HYDE PARK — Hundreds of people gathered at the Inn at Bellefield on Thursday to celebrate its opening and the completion of a major milestone in a $1 billion project to create a new hospitality, agritourism and residential destination in Dutchess County.
Attendees toured some of the $55-million hotel amenities and suites, including the fitness room, laundry and suites with kitchenettes and spacious living rooms. The hotel pays homage to Hyde Park’s most well-known native, former President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. It features original artwork from the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum. Roosevelt’s famous fireside chats will play from speakers by the outdoor fire pits.
Manuela Roosevelt, Bellefield’s director of public relations — who was married to Roosevelt’s grandson, David — reviewed some of Hyde Park’s history of welcoming international dignitaries, such as King George VI, the first reigning British monarch to set foot on American soil after the country gained its independence. She also noted how Roosevelt sought sanctuary at his Hyde Park home to “see through the fog of war” during World War II. “What visitors get here is an amazing immersion in significant history,” she said.
The Shaner Hotel Group, an international hotel owner and operator, developed the hotel. Liam Brown, group president for Marriott International in the U.S. and Canada, was also on hand to celebrate the opening.
But this project — one of the largest developments in the state currently — is much more than a hotel. Its center is the so-called “agrihood,” a development of culinary shops, farm-to-table restaurants, breweries, distilleries, a special-events barn and an educational center.
Tom Mulroy, CEO and president of T-Rex Capital Group, which is leading the project, said its vision is for this aspect of the development to benefit the nearby Culinary Institute of America and be frequented by tourists and residents living in the 800 residences slated to be built around it. Hotels and housing make up 60 percent of the overall development plan for Bellefield.
“Bellefield is a dynamic development that is clearly a game-changer on numerous levels. It will generate vital economic benefits, job creation, vast housing options, tourism attractiveness and will just be a wonderful place for local residents to enjoy,” Mulroy said.
Thursday’s event also marked the next phase of construction, which will feature another hotel, the Crescent, which will have 300 rooms and a hotel villa near a lake. Twenty-four cottages will also be built. The developers have acquired 340 acres, but about two-thirds of the property will remain undeveloped and feature more than 10 miles of trails that tie into the William R. Steinhaus Dutchess Rail Trail system.
“It’s such a beautiful area up here,” Mulroy told the Times Union. “You really have to showcase it.” As part of a community benefit agreement between Bellefield and Hyde Park schools, the developers created a $500,000 scholarship program for senior students to fund higher education at two or four-year colleges or universities and vocational schools in New York state. Through the Bellefield-Mulroy Family Scholarship Fund, Bellefield will provide $25,000 for 20 years. Scholarships are open to students pursuing degrees in education, STEM, fine and performing arts and culinary arts, according to terms set by the school district.
New York State’s Mid-Hudson Regional Economic Development Council and Empire State Development also provided funding through a $3.25 million Empire State Development grant and $1 million in Market New York grant funds through the Consolidated Funding Application process. Bellefield was designated a regional priority project by the Mid-Hudson Regional Economic Development Council.
A version of the development was first approved by the town of Hyde Park in 2007. After the property sat empty for years, it was purchased in 2011 from a bank by T-Rex Capital, who spent a few years talking to local stakeholders and organizations about what they’d like to see with the development. The developers amended the original concept and got final approval in December 2021.
The project has been approved for a PILOT with a $966,000 estimated real property tax exemption. At the end of 2021, it was granted an additional $433,000 sales tax exemption, a $77,250 mortgage recording tax exemption and a $107,365 mortgage recording tax exemption.
The developers expect the project will create 370 full-time jobs once completed and 550 jobs during construction.
CREDIT: Times Union
