Durst lists 1,946 acres for sale in Pine Plains and Milan, N.Y.

Once part of Thomas Carvel’s ill-fated Sports City development, the property has been the subject of debates for decades.
Patrick Grego/New Pine Plains Herald
Once part of Thomas Carvel’s ill-fated Sports City development, the property has been the subject of debates for decades.
This story was originally published in The New Pine Plains Herald.
In a move that could reshape the future of Pine Plains and its surrounding communities, The Durst Organization has listed its expansive property for $36 million. Put on the market on Oct. 14, the former Carvel estate spans 1,490 acres in Pine Plains and 456 acres in Milan, and has long been at the center of debates over land use and preservation.
“We have decided to list the property for sale as we are currently focused on our New York City portfolio, specifically the development of Halletts Point in Astoria, Queens,” Alexander Durst, principal and chief development officer at The Durst Organization, told the Herald. “Another property owner may be able to realize the full potential of this remarkable property. The Durst family has a longstanding appreciation for the Hudson Valley and we will continue to be a part of the community.”
The Durst Organization is one of the oldest family-run commercial and residential real estate companies in New York state. Established in 1915, its portfolio includes the New York City properties of One World Trade Center and The Bank of America Tower.
The company owns approximately 2,633 acres of land in Pine Plains, representing about 13% of the town’s total acreage, according to Dutchess County tax records.
The Dursts initially purchased the 1,900-acre core of the listed property from the estate of the late ice cream magnate Thomas Carvel, in 2002 for $7.78 million.
After the initial acquisition, The Durst Organization expanded its holdings in Pine Plains, purchasing an additional 711 acres between 2015 and 2019 for nearly $6 million. The property is owned by two limited liability companies: 1133 Taconic LLC and Stissing Mountain Properties LLC.
In the late 1960s, Thomas Carvel launched an ambitious development known as the All-American Sports City after acquiring several parcels of farmland in Pine Plains. His vision included a golf course, clubhouse, lake and 500 homes. While the lake, golf course, clubhouse and 16 homes were built, the broader project stalled and remained incomplete at the time of Carvel’s death in 1990. In the decades that followed, the property’s infrastructure — including roads, water, and wastewater systems — fell into disrepair due to neglect, ultimately leaving it in a deteriorated state by the time it was sold.
While the listed property encompasses the original Carvel property, it does not include 685 additional acres in Pine Plains that remain under Durst ownership. Separately, in early October, the company listed another property, featuring a historic 19th-century farmhouse on 65 acres at 115-133 Mount Ross Road, for $599,000.
The company touts the Carvel property as a “sanctuary offering endless possibilities,” with potential uses including a family compound, corporate retreat, or winery. The listing highlights the property’s views of the Catskills and Stissing Mountain, as well as its remaining structures — following the demolition of several houses and barns over the years — which include four single-family homes, a two-family residence, and an office and warehouse facility.
Over the past two decades, The Durst Organization has put forward three development proposals for the Carvel property and its expanded holdings. While each plan was scaled back in response to public concerns, the company worked to incorporate community feedback and adjust its vision accordingly. The final plan, submitted in 2020, envisioned a 2,700-acre “eco resort” including open space, farmland, outdoor recreation areas, and 237 residential lots in Pine Plains, along with 51 lots in Milan. While the project received preliminary approval from the Pine Plains Zoning Board, it went no further.
The first proposal, in 2003 was for a 951-unit residential development centered around Lake Carvel and prompted Pine Plains to impose a moratorium on development and, eventually, to implement zoning laws for the first time.
The new zoning code, passed in October 2009, included some of the strictest regulations in Dutchess County, limiting building sizes and preventing large-scale commercial projects. The Dursts returned in 2011 with a revised plan for 591 units, in compliance with the new zoning code, but in the face of public opposition, and the stock market collapse of 2011, that proposal lay dormant for nearly seven years.
In the first half of 2018, The Durst Organization tried to revive the project, hosting two public meetings at the Pine Plains Community Center to receive feedback from residents. In June 2018, the company presented a new proposal, a “conservation subdivision,” that included plans to restore the golf course Carvel had built in the 1960s and construct 281 homes, placed in small clusters, around a central “recreation-oriented resort.”
In April 2020, The Durst Organization submitted pre-sketch plans for the conservation subdivision to the Planning Board. This stage focused on determining the maximum number of residential lots permitted under Pine Plains zoning laws, with the Dursts proposing 223 lots.
By June 2020, the Planning Board had unanimously endorsed the pre-sketch plan, which designated more than 50% of the land — about 1,397 acres — as open space. The designated areas included wetlands, steep slopes and buffer zones around water bodies. This approval allowed The Durst Organization to proceed with developing a formal subdivision plan, which would undergo a full environmental review before any final decisions were made.
However, after the property was listed Monday afternoon, Oct. 14, it seems as though the back and forth has come to an end — for now.
“The Pine Plains countryside is an oasis in the Hudson Valley,” Durst said. “With 1,946 acres of land in an ideal location and unmatched natural beauty, the property offers the opportunity to create something special.”
As for what kind of buyer would purchase a property of this size? “It’s going to range,” said listing agent Larry Havens. “I don’t want to set any limitations on that.”
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Rosa setigera is a native climbing rose whose simple flowers allow bees to easily collect pollen.
After moving to West Cornwall in 2012, we were given a thoughtful housewarming gift: the 1997 edition of “Dirr’s Hardy Trees and Shrubs.” We were told the encyclopedic volume was the definitive gardener’s reference guide — a fact I already knew, having purchased one several months earlier at the recommendation of a gardener I admire.
At the time, we were in the thick of winter invasive removal, and I enjoyed reading and dreaming about the trees and shrubs I could plant to fill in the bare spots where the bittersweet, barberry, multiflora rose and other invasive plants had been.Years later, I purchased the 2011 edition, updated and inclusive of plants for warm climates.
On the cover of the new edition, a quote from Adrian Higgins of The Washington Post boasts, “Michael Dirr is the oracle of ornamental horticulture. I trust his judgements implicitly.”I heartily disagree with Mr. Higgins:I blame this book — and my poor use of it — for some of my worst tree and shrub choices.
I realize some readers might find this declaration inflammatory. The book still occupies a place of high regard among experienced and novice gardeners alike, so please allow me to explain.
In addition to giving the reader his opinion on the aesthetic worthiness of the woody plants included in the book, Mr. Dirr makes good on the book’s title with a review of each species’ hardiness. What makes a tree hardy?It thrives in its intended site, resisting disease with leaves and bark not readily eaten by insects and other critters.
Non-native plants make up the majority of the recommended hardy plants in the book.And here is why:Native trees and shrubs are, by evolution’s design, food source and host to our native fauna — critters large and small. There is no substitute equal to the fauna’s co-evolved flora.A native caterpillar cannot eat a kousa dogwood leaf, as it has not evolved to digest it.Non-native plants seemingly have the advantage if the lens we look through values pristine, uneaten leaves.
In the days when there were sufficient thriving ecosystems to maintain local habitats, a non-native specimen tree here and there was just fine.But where we live in Northwest Connecticut, our woods, meadows, marshes and other natural areas have, for a couple of decades, been severely compromised by invasives that have almost entirely removed the food sources for native insects. It is up to us — now — to plant native plants to save the food chain.Without insects, not only will native animals die, but human food sources will also be at risk.
The security of our food pipeline seems a worthy exchange for some caterpillar-eaten leaves — and to be clear, we’re not talking about non-native infestations such as spongy moth, but rather native caterpillars, which are the singular food source for nesting birds.
My issue is that, in being a trusted source for plant selection, Dirr’s book should give equal — if not prioritized — space to information on ecological impact.For example, it would be good to know when selecting a tree, that a native oak provides food and other ecosystem services to more than 400 native animal species, while a native tulip poplar supports fewer than 30 — though that includes the Eastern tiger swallowtail. Including information on the birds and insects attracted to a given plant would enable reader to weigh these factors in choosing what to grow.But this information is not mentioned at all.
Dirr makes no mention of the role some of these plants have played in the degradation of our natural areas — an omission that is highly relevant, as many of the plants featured in his book are, in fact, invasive culprits. Plants like barberry, porcelain berry and tree of heaven are showcased for consideration alongside native plants without recognition of the devastating infestations they can manifest. Tree of Heaven is now responsible for hosting the spotted lanternfly, which is devastating crops.
Similarly Euonymous alatus (winged euonymous) and Actinidia arguta (hardy kiwi) — two highly invasive plants touted in the book — have been banned or are close to being banned for sale from nurseries in the state of Massachusetts. To his credit, Dirr does point out the invasive nature of Ligustrum sinense (Chinese privet), calling it “a terrible and devastating escapee that terrorizes floodplains, fencerows and even open fields, reducing native vegetation to rubble.” Yet Japanese honeysuckle gets an understated warning, with Dirr describing this massively invasive shrub as “bullying their way into understory and open areas.”
The latest edition of Dirr’s book devotes seven pages of copy and photos to various Berberis species, about which Dirr waxes poetic. He notes the addition of “30 new cultivars” in the latest revision and complains that “this species is under assault for its aggressive invasive nature.” He refers to Berberis thunbergii — Japanese barberry, the most invasive of them all — as “the species of major importance in garden commerce.” This plant has already been outlawed for sale in New York, Pennsylvania, New Hamphsire and Maine.A few weeks ago, a bill was passed in Connecticut recognizing the harm of a broad group of invasive plants. Under this new legislation, barberry will be phased out from sale or transport by October 2028.
In understating the invasive nature of many non-natives and de-prioritizing the importance of native species, Dirr’s widely used reference may be partly responsible for many a devastated woodland, forest, meadow and marsh in New England — if not across the U.S.Certainly, the evolution of species, and scientific knowledge about the environment, is changing faster than new editions of books can be printed. I can only hope that if a new edition of Mr. Dirr’s reference book is in the works that it will account for this criteria we now know to be vital in plant selection.
Which brings me back to that quote on the cover from The Washington Post and the larger issue it suggests:Should “ornamental horticulture” get a pass when it comes to ecological survival?I think we can agree — it should not.The consequences are simply too destructive.
Dee Salomon ‘ungardens’ in Litchfield County.
Foxtrot Farm & Flowers’ historic barn space during UAW’s 2024 exhibition entitled “Unruly Edges.”
Art lovers, mark your calendars. The sixth edition of Upstate Art Weekend (UAW) returns July 17 to 21, with an exciting lineup of exhibitions and events celebrating the cultural vibrancy of the region. Spanning eight counties and over 130 venues, UAW invites residents and visitors alike to explore the Hudson Valley’s thriving creative communities.
Here’s a preview of four must-see exhibitions in the area:
1. Wassaic Project (37 Furnace Bank Road, Wassaic)
“So It Goes” is a powerful group exhibition curated by Eve Biddle, Bowie Zunino, Jeff Barnett-Winsby, and Will Hutnick. The title, drawn from Kurt Vonnegut’s “Slaughterhouse-Five,” signals a reckoning with how we process the horrors of the world. Through play, reflection, and immersive scale, 43 artists respond with urgency and imagination. Installations can be seen throughout the town of Wassaic at Maxon Mills, Gridley Chapel, and Luther Barn, each space transformed by this deeply thoughtful show.
2. Foxtrot Farm & Flowers (6862 Route 82, Stanfordville)
“Queer Bestiary,” a group show curated by Charlotte Woolf, is inspired by Patricia Ononiwu Kaishian’s book “Forest Euphoria.” The exhibition investigates queer ecology and human relationship to land through the work of 10 artists using painting, sculpture, textiles, and photography. The exhibit is accompanied by a variety of interactive experiences including tattoo pop-ups, karaoke, book readings, and pick-your-own flowers.
3. ChaShaMa North/ChaNorth (2600 Route 199, Pine Plains)
ChaShaMa North (ChaNorth) will have open studios all weekend and has partnered with Paradice Palase, a platform for emerging artists, to mount a site-specific sculpture exhibition featuring 20 artists entitled “Alone, You Are Heard.” On Saturday evening, July 19, stop by for Weird Music Night for an audio-visual synthesis of experimental music, performance art, and unexpected happenings. Don’t miss this opportunity to experience an eclectic lineup of acts that redefine the boundaries of performance.
4. Millbrook Arts Project(3 Friendly Lane, Millbrook)
The Millbrook Arts Project is hosting a curated exhibit entitled “Generated Utility” at the newly renovated gallery at the village library. The exhibit will feature the work of artists Natalie Beall and Kathy Greenwood. Additionally, visitors will have access to 12 open artists studios across town. The weekend culminates in a free outdoor concert on Saturday evening at 6 p.m. at the Millbrook Bandshell. Enjoy the Indie-Folk sounds of Strawberry Runners and She Keeps Bees.
For more information and a complete list of participating artists and locations, visit: upstateartweekend.org