Developer proposes luxury hotel, 55-and-over community in Goshen

A developer is asking Goshen to absorb a major change along Route 17M: a luxury hotel paired with a 55-and-over community on 47 acres at 1728 Route 17M, a plan that could reshape traffic, services and the town’s housing mix if it moves ahead.

Big Sky Farm, LLC brought the proposal to the Town of Goshen Town Board in an initial presentation at Town Hall, 41 Webster Avenue, Goshen, on May 28, and no vote was taken. The company needs a special permit from the board before the project can advance, putting the town in the middle of an early but consequential land-use decision.

The project is not a simple subdivision. Town planning records show it has been described as a Planned Adult Community and Hotel on 47.2-plus acres, with subdivision, site plan and special permit approval all on the table. The land sits in the RU Zone and HC Zone, with AQ-3, Scenic Road Corridor, and Stream Corridor and Water Supply Watershed overlays, layers of regulation that often sharpen scrutiny over visual impact, drainage, stormwater and environmental effects.

The latest description adds more detail to the stakes. The total project would cover 47 acres divided into three parcels, including a currently operating small working farm. The developers have said they want the project to be cutting edge and beautiful, and they have also said they plan to use solar and geothermal energy. The residential portion is aimed at empty nesters, with homes expected to sell for about $750,000 to $900,000.

That price range places the proposal squarely in the upper end of the local market, while the hotel component raises a separate set of questions about how much traffic and visitor activity Route 17M can handle. Developers have said Orange County planners have expressed a need for more hotel space, and they have argued that Goshen’s central location near major attractions makes the site a strong candidate.

The Planning Board was already processing the project months before the Town Board presentation. A December 2025 agenda described it as a planned adult community and hotel, and town records show a November 26, 2025 filing that included a signed and notarized application, a long environmental assessment form, an agricultural data statement and a conceptual subdivision and site plan. The Planning Board’s role is to review whether development in one area will adversely affect surrounding areas, which makes this proposal likely to draw close attention from neighbors and officials alike.

Goshen has seen this kind of pressure before. In 2021, the town was already dealing with a separate hospitality proposal on 63.3 acres that called for three four-story hotels, two restaurants, five extended-stay cottages, an office building and caretaker quarters. The new Big Sky Farm concept fits that pattern, and if it advances, the hardest questions will be who benefits, what the town must absorb and what safeguards the board will demand before the project can move any further.