Future development in Wilmington, NY?

Throwing this out there in hopes WFM locals will chime in.

Is anyone aware of development plans, commercial or otherwise for the Wilmington area? Thinking of building a house there and unaware of any future development in the area. Seems like a great place to have a vacation home. Am I missing anything here?

Thanks

Missing the boat if you dont act soon.

APA approved subdivision w/ amazing views of WF, Ester and the Stephenson Range has choice lots starting around 40K.  Town water and good soils for onsite septic - Whiteface Overlook or called something similar.  Right hand turn off Rt86 just past Little Super on your way towards Jay.  If you build up there on a lot we ride through to access Quaker Mtn you have to give us permission to continue to do so...  

Commercial development ongoing at four corners.  Holiday is slowly being revamped.  Will be motel, country store, liquor store once complete but this will be awhile.

Mels is also presently under construction.  Five news rooms and a new entrance that will eventually hold bar should be ready to open by ski seasons.

New wood fire pizza joint next to Italian restaurant on 86 is under construction.  

Two townhouse projects one next to Town Beach and the other next to Ledge Rock approved but very little action in 5 years....

Wilmington will grow but never change its existing character.  (We hope!)  

Also check out Jay

In "the acres" you can buy a lot for $8 to 12k for an acre+ lot with water and electric at the street ready to be hooked up to.  No sewers - all septic.

Its 6 to 9 miles (the acres are really pretty big) to Whiteface and it has some really cool home owners preks.  There is a small lake, tennis courts, ausable river fishing access and 10+ miles of hiking , mt biking, x-c skiing trails that homeowners have access to by joining the association for $75 a year.  Lots range from river front to mountain side with some good views in spots.  All have forest on them now.  Covents on deeds are to leave them forrested and clear only what is needed for the house.

Nancy Colon at Century 21 in Lake Placid is a good real estate agent for the Acres and Wilmington.

Wilmington is a great town to live in or have a vacation home. So much to do so close in the great outdoors. Since Coach recommended an agent in this thread I will too. Bob Miller, Merrill L. Thomas, Inc. in LP does a great job without the BS you here from a lot of agents.

Thanks everyone...

Interesting, as I have engaged with and conducted business with both Merill and Century21 High Peaks.
Got a feel for the whole Wilmington renovation/develpoment a few months back. Actually in the porcess of closing a deal on an Outlook lot at the moment. I've spoken to a number of folks in LP/Wilmington and received a mixed bag of info. I have all confidence in my decision to purchase and pursue building a house on the lot I'm purchasing, as my vision indicates Wilmington will develop consistently over the course of the next 5 years. Entry price of building lots in reasonable areas of LP way higher form what I see.

One of the most negative things I have heard thus far, is the lack of a gas station, following the shutdown and ongoing battle of the one once standing. This seemed to be serious concern of a proninent LP resident I spoke to, however it doesn't strikr me as a huge problem. Electric rates as compared to LP and LP school taxes another concern of this gentleman, but not concerning me all that much at the moment. Don't get me wrong, tax payments suck, but unavoidable.

Figured I'd reach out to the forum, as I know there are locals participating who can offer unbiased, accurate information. Thanks again for the input.

I have skied WFM (primary east coast destination, Gore second runner up), for the last 40 years on a regular basis. Not newbie just showing up on the scene. Wilmington looks like a good investment based on the increased popularity of WFM and LP.

Jon951 wrote

Thanks everyone...

LP school taxes another concern of this gentleman, but not concerning me all that much at the moment. Don't get me wrong, tax payments suck, but unavoidable.

Huge difference in school taxes between LP and Ausable Valley district.  Wilmington has both districts and the Ausable Valley (jay) is way, way as in way higher!  Wilmington property tax is also low compared w/ surronding municipalities.

I hear the tax angle quite a bit but after having lived elsewhere I don't see the taxes as being that high.  If you pay less for your home in Jay and get more home what is the big deal to paying more per $1000 value in tax if your home is rated at less?  Ultimately at the end of the day or year I think Jay net costs less all factors considered.

Of course LP has more ratable property.  The schools in Jay are better rated and LP has had quite a few high profile gaffs  with their school system in recent years.

There also is quite many homes for sale in the acres and it currently is quite a bit cheaper to buy existing homes compare to build new.

Congrats on your new home Jon.  

Thanks Coach,

One thing nice about building new is having the ability to make the house energy efficient. I am used to heating with natural gas versus propane or electric,, so I have a bit of concern there. I do plan to install 3 wood burners as supplemental heaters. Of course they carry overhead to fuel them as well. I figured I'd go with a combo of propane fired hydronic and forced hot air heat. I now this sounds crazy, but I plan to have two independent areas to heat. One is the main house, the other, additional rooms above the garage with bath, when being inhabited by friends/family, or when I decided not to energize main house.Does anyone have a rough idea of the fuel costs to maintain a house's temp at 55 degrees through the winter months in the ADKs? I know this is a lot to ask, but I'd be looking at an average winter season, in a reasonably insulated house, with a rough fuel consumption number per square foot. I haven't done a manual J on the house's desgn, but need to get this done to have figures to work with. In addition, if someone could post the name of their propane provider, I wil touch base with them to source any info they can provide.

I think the point is that you can live in Wilmington, where property values are higher, and still be in the AuSable Valley School District.  School districts are separate municipalities and their boundaries cross Town and in some cases even County lines.  But there are homes within what I'd call the "hamlet" of Wilmington (what we all know as Wilmington, ie the four corners, Lil' Super, Steinhoffs) that are in the AuSable Valley SD.  Two blocks over and your in the LP School District.  Just the way the district lines were drawn.

I think the AVSD includes parts of the Towns of AuSable, Jay, Wilmington and Keene and straddles Clinton and Essex Counties.

Coach Z wrote

I hear the tax angle quite a bit but after having lived elsewhere I don't see the taxes as being that high.  If you pay less for your home in Jay and get more home what is the big deal to paying more per $1000 value in tax if your home is rated at less?  Ultimately at the end of the day or year I think Jay net costs less all factors considered.

Of course LP has more ratable property.  The schools in Jay are better rated and LP has had quite a few high profile gaffs  with their school system in recent years.

There also is quite many homes for sale in the acres and it currently is quite a bit cheaper to buy existing homes compare to build new.

Congrats on your new home Jon.

I gotta disagree with you on this one coach. It's not that AV is unreasonably high it's because LP is really low. AV school district is around .16 per 1,000 and LP is about .065. If your house is in LP then I agree with your comparable cost assessment. However, if your house is in Wilmington and you are paying .095 per 1,000 more than the guy who also lives in Wilmington, but is on the LP side of the districting line, well that just doesn't seem right to me.

There must be a reason why they split the town in half, but I don’t know what it is. You’d think such a small population of kids could be accommodated in one district or the other. I think it would be better for the kids too because they could go to school with all their friends in town. Just sayin.

Any word on Steins??? Really hope that place is open this year. Having that place open right next to where we stay will be killer.

Not to ruin your day, but the place is up for sale and rumor has it all copper was removed and sold for scrap.

Sorry

p.s...if you have 319k (I believe this is the asking price), it can be all yours. Sounds to me like the place is a mess. Received the detail from a "reliable" source.

http://www.adirondackestates.com/property/steinhoffs-sportsmans-inn-1

Merill Thomas is listing the place

Lots to answer here so I will combine all my comments into this one post

I checked my tax bill and it was at a .13 rate.  LP has all that ratable expensive ratable propert so naturally their rate will be less.  I did know that Wilmington was split in two school district but I did not understand how closes the lines were drawn not living there.  The section closer to Upper Jay I had figured would be the only part going to Ausable.  I have no idea why they do that but have to assume it had to do with school capacity.  Now that AuSable elementry school has been expanded maybe that will change and more kids will go to AuSable.  Because I have a school age kid maybe I'm not as sensitive to school tax issues since I want my kids school to be as good as possible.

Concerning the propane question.  We use and like Amerigas.  We spend about $3000 in propane a year but use it to cook for our stove and our gas grill is hooked up to our master tank as well.  We only use electric in the bathroom as supplmental heat when you are going to take a shower.  We live in the house year round so we are going to use more than if Jon is going to be a part time resident.  Since you are going to be building get a tank from Amerigas that is rated to go in ground and have it buried so you don't have to look at it.  Its also safer that way.  My contractor suggested this and I love it. If you sign up for a long term contract with Amerigas you can get them to give you the tank for free if you negotiate well.  You want to renegoiate your propane rate each summer when the rates are low and then lock it in with automatic deliveries at the summer rate all your long.

Propane has more BTU's than Natural Gas.

We have two Rynnai heater units and one Vt Castings Propane driven wood stove look alike with a thermastat.  I'd recomend both.  Rynnai is made in Finland where they know something about cold weather and heating.  They are very efficent, need almost no service and have programmable features so could have it set to 50 degrees when you are gone and program to warm the house up on Friday evening when you plan to show up each week.

I know someone that looked at buying Steins post the Irish guy gutting it.  He trashed the place and it needs a ton of work and the old owner wants way too much for it as he is way underwater.  It is unlikely to be opening again soon.  The bank will probably be owning it in a year or so and maybe then something could get done.

Z, Thanks for the input. I will certainly look into the heating items you mentioned. Stein's is a tear down from what I heard. should be interesting to see what happens there. I agree with you....won't be sold anytime soon. Honestly, I never patronized the place and cought wind of it twice. Once from a guy I rode a lift with who loved the place before one of the bartenders hurt his back and stopped working there, secondly, from my son's fiance's dad who's neighbor had ties to one of the owners. Not sure if the original owner, or the one who drove the place into the ground. Something tells me it was the one who ran the place to its demise. Heading uo this afternoon for the next day or so. My wife and I will be floating around enjoying the area and drinking beers! I've never been in the area checking out the foliage, so look forward to seeing it at full peak. Hopefully the weather holds out. Cheers

Coach Z wrote

I checked my tax bill and it was at a .13 rate.  

I checked too and this is what I found:

http://www.co.essex.ny.us/downloads/2012-2013%20TAX%20RATES.pdf

Wow - so the AVSD actually covers parts of 5 towns in Essex County alone. I'm assuming it also include parts of AuSable in Clinton County because the HS is actually located there.  Maybe parts of Black Brook too?  That school district gets around.

Edit: From here, "The District encompasses in whole and/or part of the Towns of AuSable, Black Brook, Chesterfield, Jay, Wilmington, Keene, Franklin, Peru and Willsboro."

That's 9 towns across 3 counties.  Gotta be some sort of record.

Coach Z wrote

We have two Rynnai heater units and one Vt Castings...

LOL selective edit, but we have two Rinnai's and a Vt Castings too.

We heated our utilities building and all our hot water last season for $128.  It was probably only 40 days of hot water, and the bathroom is only 9 x 12, but the heat was on from Thanksgiving to Cinco de Mayo. That seems really cheap to us.

The Rinnai's are total quality.

You missed Keeseville.  The district goes from Wilmington to the lake which is like almost 30 miles.  Only 2 counties Essex and Clinton.  Not sure where Noah got a 3rd county?

That list is only for the middle and HS

The elementary school is roughly half of that as there is another elementary school in Keeseville

Coach mentions school district ratings.   As a 26 year teacher I wouldn't put much stock in any ratings that come out of Albany.   The State Education Dept snobs are all about politics and could care less about kids.  There is no doubt some schools are better than others.  The best people to rate schools are parents.