Lasher site could lose one building, gain others
The plan by the owners of the Woodstock Way Hotel calls for five houses, 20 hotel rooms and retail space.
WOODSTOCK, N.Y. » One of the owners of the Woodstock Way Hotel says their plan to buy and redevelop the Lasher Funeral Home property on Tinker Street includes taking down the funeral parlor building, one of several structures on the site.
The plan, which has prompted pushback from town residents even before an application has been filed, calls for five small houses, 20 hotel rooms (with a lobby bar that serves meals) and retail space in an existing carriage house, Ryan Giuliani said Thursday.
“The only structure we are looking to take down is the funeral parlor building,” Giuliani said. “That building is being taken down because there is literally a creek that runs underneath the building and the building is not structurally sound.”
There is a small waterway on the property, though it’s not clear that it runs beneath the building.
Giuliani said the plan that he and partner Jesse Halliburton have developed calls for constructing five houses that would be used as residences, and four 1,200- to 1,400-square foot buildings that would have four hotel rooms each; and creating four hotel rooms on the second floor of the main house on the property . ...
“On the ground floor [of the existing house], we are proposing a small lounge area for our guests to have a drink or a small bite of food,” Giuliani said. “It will not be a full-service restaurant.
“On the front portion of that property, which would be roughly three acres of land, there will be hotel rooms, and the carriage house and barn area will be redeveloped into ... retail and common space for the hotel,” Giuliani said. “So it’s retail for the community [and] common space that can be used by the community or by the hotel guests.”
The property, at 100 Tin
ker St., measures 4.8 acres, which the developers say will be sufficient to maintain open space between the residential and commercial aspects of their project.
The developers’ Woodstock Way Hotel is at 10 Waterfall Way, off Tinker Street and within walking distance of the Lasher property.
Woodstock residents who oppose the plan said during a Town Board meeting this week that it would take away an open field and a view of the nearby mountains. They also lamented the perceived permanent loss of the town’s only funeral home.
The Lasher Funeral Home was taken over by Steve Williams after its longtime director, Ken Peterson, died in May 2019. The business has not been operating for the past five months, though, and Woodstock Supervisor Bill McKenna said the town has been seeking a replacement.
Giuliani said he and Halliburton would to “have open space and have improvements on that field.”
He also said that, because the plan includes a residential element, the project would serve multiple needs.
“With smart development of both residential development, which we need, and commercial development, which we need, this is the perfect property for it,” he said.