December 06, 2000
By Glenn Drohan
Berkshire Eagle Staff
HANCOCK -- Another vacation resort featuring time-share condominiums may be in the cards for this rural town of
about 650 full-time residents.
Silverleaf Resorts Inc. of Dallas, the owner of the Oak N' Spruce resort in Lee, bought a half-interest in the
160-acre former Halten farm on Kittle Road last week for $175,000.
Silverleaf President Thomas Franks said the company has no current plans for the site, but acknowledged, "We're
in the resort business."
He said the purchase of the farm on speculation made sense because of the burgeoning Berkshire County economy.
"We had a chance to tie up a property, so we did that," Franks said. "North County is really coming
into its own. There's a lot of things going on, and a lot of attractions developing. We've been down here for three
years now in South County and this whole region is a hot spot."
Development pressure
Hancock, which has no local zoning bylaws, has been the scene of more and more development pressure over the past
few years. In addition to the Jiminy Peak ski resort and its several hundred existing condominiums, along with
the impending construction of a mountaintop windmill farm by a Colorado developer, the town has approved proposals
for a five-story hotel off Route 43, and 148 time-share condominiums to be built on 62 acres across from Jiminy
by Patriot Resorts Inc. of Orlando, Fla.
Selectmen Chairman Sherman L. Derby Sr. said he is concerned that the town's lack of zoning could lead to yet more
intense development.
"When you have no zoning laws beyond subdivision regulations, development is going to go unchecked. There's
nothing to control it," Derby said. "Hancock could be a totally different place in a few years. We're
going to be busting at the seams."
He scoffed at the notion that Silverleaf has no plans for the Halten farm.
"When you pay that much for a property, you're not going to just sit on it," he said.
Silverleaf bought its half-interest in the Halten farm from Norman C. McClintock of Pittsfield, according to documents
filed at the Northern Berkshire Registry of Deeds in Adams on Nov. 29. McClintock and Derby had acquired the farm
through a foreclosure auction from Wanda and Astrid Halten in 1995.
Next to nudist resort
Derby sold his half-interest some time ago for $115,000 to Berkshire Vistas, the abutting nudist resort and campground.
Virginia Bookstein, who owns Berkshire Vistas with her husband, Daniel Bookstein, said they and Silverleaf plan
to divide the Halten farm into two separate 80-acre parcels. She said she and her husband as yet have no definitive
plans for their parcel, which they would develop separately from anything Silverleaf might have in mind.
"We do expect they'll be good neighbors and will be a real addition to the town," she said.
Silverleaf owns or manages 22 resorts in 11 states, all featuring time-share vacation condominiums, according to
Franks.
"That's what our business is," he said, nonetheless declining to speculate on what might be in store
for the Hancock farm.
"When these properties become available, you have to make a business judgment that someday you might be able
to do something with them," he said. "That we have not developed any plans for that property is fairly
typical for the development process. When you're in a region that has merit and it makes economic sense, you go
ahead and tie it up and deal with it later."
The Oak N' Spruce resort, which has been involved in a controversial expansion over the past year, has 202 time-sharing
condominium units plus another 64 units under construction, Franks said.
Silverleaf had applied for permits to build another 360 condominiums on 30 acres at Oak N' Spruce, but withdrew
its plans after encountering vocal opposition from Lee residents and state and local officials. The company recently
submitted new plans calling for 240 new condominiums clustered on 8 acres.
"The previous plan wasn't the right plan," Franks said. "There are some delicate balances here in
the Berkshires that need to be addressed and we came up with a very much better plan."
He said Hancock is a desirable place for development because of its ski resort and proximity to Berkshire cultural
attractions such as Tanglewood in Lenox and the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art in North Adams.
Just down the road in New Ashford, another small, rural, centrally located town, Jiminy Peak owner Brian Fairbank
recently announced plans to invest millions of dollars over 20 years to develop Brodie Mountain Ski Resort. If
all goes well, the revamped resort will feature hundreds of condominiums, a snow-tubing park, at least one hotel
and other amenities, including restaurants and commercial enterprises, according to Fairbank.
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