COPAKE — The long-abandoned Roe-Jan Center School could soon be transformed into a large hotel and wellness resort.
Engineer Alan Didio of Chatham and architect Paul Bennett of New York City are currently before Copake’s Zoning Board of Appeals with a proposal to turn the 41-acre site into a hotel and resort. The plans include a 97-room hotel in the former school building, 31 standalone lodges and cabins containing an additional 77 guest rooms, three restaurants, two bars, a spa, Pilates and yoga studios, a gym, saunas and steam rooms, a farm store with on-site greenhouses, retail shops including a bakery and an ice cream shop, two swimming pools, two hot tubs, a pickleball court, and a tennis court.
The school building was abandoned in 1999 when the Taconic Hills Central School District consolidated operations into a Craryville, New York, campus. It is currently owned by Markland Columbia LLC, which purchased the property for $500,000 in 2014.
The proposal calls for renovating the existing buildings on the property, with additions to the former school to accommodate hotel rooms, dining areas, and many of the resort’s amenities, including the spa, gym, bars, and retail space.
New construction will stretch around the outside edge of the property that sits along the west side of Route 22 between Copake and Hillsdale. Drawings show a planned road running around the perimeter of the property providing access to 15 lodges with between three and five bedrooms. Walking paths will lead to 16 additional smaller lodges, with one to two bedrooms each, planned to line a new retention pond that is to be located in the southern portion of the property.
All together, the lodge buildings will total more than 64,000 square feet of new building footprint on the property. That’s in addition to the 97-room, 82,000-square-foot hotel that is planned to occupy the abandoned school and an addition to the building.
The proposal is still in its early stages, having first been introduced to Copake’s Zoning Board of Appeals at that board’s May 28 meeting. The proposal is currently undergoing a public hearing at the Zoning Board of Appeals, which began on Thursday, July 23, at Copake Town Hall.
Gina White, who operates Mandala Yoga & Arts in a building just south of the abandoned school, said she’s waiting to watch the development move through regulatory processes before forming an opinion on the project.
Generally, though, White thinks the plans are likely to be positive for the area. “It’s a resort town,” she said.
Justine and Victor Valla in their studio with a painting of Victor’s,”Jonah and the Whale.” Robin Roraback 
