FORMER GIRL SCOUT CAMP LISTED FOR $9.2M
A tract of Candlewood Lake’s shore is now among the most expensive parcels in Connecticut outside “Gold Coast” Fairfield County — and it’s one that generations of former Girl Scouts throughout the region know extremely well.
The Girl Scouts of Connecticut included Camp Candlewood in a planned sale of three campgrounds in Connecticut, along with Camp Katoya in Milford and Camp Laurel in Lebanon.
Listed for $9.25 million, Camp Candlewood totals 87 acres on the hilly Spear Point neck that separates Candlewood Lake and Squantz Pond, with vistas of water, wooded shores and hills.
That makes Camp Candlewood among the priciest vacant parcels in Connecticut of those spanning at least 50 acres.
“The response has been overwhelming,” said Ryan Cornell, a broker in the Westport office of William Pitt Sotheby’s handling queries. “We have people flying in from all over the country to look at the property in person, in addition to a whole bunch of local people. We’ve got national builders who are already evaluating the property, we have local builders and developers who are looking at the property. We’ve got two camp [operators], .... and other not-for-profits who want to keep the property not as a camp but as a retreat; and other people who want to conserve and preserve the land as open space.”
The Bogus Hill Road parcel includes about 2,000 feet of shoreline, according to listing brokerage William Pitt Sotheby’s International Realty.
In announcing the decision in March, the Girl Scouts indicated the pandemic’s impact on property values drove the decision, giving it a chance to cash out and plow the proceeds into improvements at other local camps. As of September 2019 on the eve of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Girl Scouts of Connecticut listed net assets of $10.9 million.
Along with the Connecticut River, Candlewood Lake is Connecticut’s premier inland mecca for water recreation, with parks, marinas and private docks dotting its shores that extend 11 miles.
The Girl Scouts purchased the original parcel for Camp Candlewood in 1959, just over a quarter century after the Connecticut Light & Power Co. flooded the valley to power a hydroelectric dam.
William Pitt Sotheby’s does not rule out buyers surfacing with the goal of maintaining the property as a youth camp, but floats other possibilities — including a gated community of luxury residences, or even a private retreat for a single family or corporate entity.
The most expensive Candlewood Lake home on the market today — across the water on Sail Harbour Drive and Point Hedden — is listed for nearly $4.3 million. Bogus Hill Road has one listing — a deck house built 45 years ago with sweeping views of the lake — priced at $1.5 million.
Other high-priced parcels in Connecticut include a nearly 250-acre property along the Niantic River in East Lyme at $40 million and a 19-acre property on Long Island Sound in Greenwich — the most expensive land listing today in Connecticut — that’s listed at $45.8 million.
Three parcels of land are on the market today in Connecticut spanning more than 600 acres, including Litchfield’s “town farm” property that went up for sale last October for $10 million, with the owners shaving the price this past March to just below $9 million.
Pat Del Monaco, first selectman of the town of New Fairfield, expressed hope that at least some of the Camp Candlewood property be preserved as open space. But she acknowledged as well the sizable tax revenue the property could generate, and said the spring real estate market remains strong including increased new construction.
“Personally I would like to see it remain as a recreational site,” Del Monaco said Monday. “It’s an absolutely beautiful piece of property with all kinds of opportunities for outdoor use . ... We value our lake front and open space here.”