A company that develops upscale, swanky resorts in New
York City and Texas is looking to build its next destination in the Poconos.
C. Castle Group of Queens, N.Y., the would-be developers
of Spa Castle Grand Pocono Resort, made an initial proposal to the Pocono
Township Planning Commission this week – a presentation that ended abruptly
once residents voiced concerns, according to a township official.
The massive resort project includes a hotel, spa,
80,000-square-foot water park and 270 condo units slated for the site of the
abandoned Birchwood Resort on Birchwood Road near the small town of Analomink.
“Anytime you have a project of this size, you have
benefits and drawbacks,” said Gregg Schuster, township administrator for Pocono
Township. “From an economic development perspective, it’s going to be a
positive.”
Positives include putting a large, dilapidated site back
to active use, bringing a lot of job growth from the resort’s restaurants, spa
and hotel and generating growth for the tax base, he said.
One of the drawbacks is that there are residences
surrounding the project, and the impact to these homes needs to be examined,
Schuster said.
The impact on the sewer system also will be significant
since it would require building about four miles of piping to connect to the
site.
While the project is calling for the use of existing
roads, traffic studies by both the township and the state Department of
Transportation need to be completed to see what improvements can be made.
“Once we get all that information, it will help us guide
the decision-making process,” Schuster said. “There will be future meetings.”
Calls to C. Castle Group requesting comment were not
returned by press time.
Schuster does not see the resort competing at the same
level with the new Kalahari Resorts in nearby Tobyhanna Township or the
Camelback Mountain Resort and Lodge project which recently opened in
Tannersville in Pocono Township.
“This is really a specialty kind of resort,” Schuster
said of Spa Castle Grand.
According to a master plan document for the project, Spa
Castle Grand Pocono Resort would reuse the existing on-site infrastructure and
redevelop the resort area.
Highlights include:
• 155-unit hotel.
• 270-unit condo development.
• 180 villas and 21 renovated villas.
• 70,000-square-foot-spa.
• 80,000-square-foot indoor waterpark with a
40,000-square-foot outdoor lazy river.
• 25,000 square feet of meeting space.
• Restaurants.
• Observatory.
• Private dining tent.
• Family entertainment center.
The spa will be the focus of the resort, said Deanna
Schmoyer, senior engineer for Borton-Lawson, based in Wilkes-Barre, the company
serving as the engineer for the project.
The six-story hotel, spa and indoor water park will all
be within one building, she said. Plans include building an observatory on an
island on the lake and maintaining the trails for hiking and biking. Also, the
nearby old airport hangar will become a family entertainment center, she said.
While a sketch plan appeared before the planning
commission on Monday, the next step in the approval process is a land
development submission scheduled to be submitted at the end of July or early
August, Schmoyer said.
The site covers 292 acres but only 30 percent of the site
will be built out, Schmoyer said.
"We are preserving a lot of the resources,"
Schmoyer said. "We are going to have some innovative designs for
stormwater management."
These plans include a subterranean parking garage below
the waterpark, spa and hotel that offers 695 parking spaces, she said.
Also, water and sewer service will come from the existing
lines on Route 611.
Source: LVB
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