By Nick Grabbe
Could there be a development at the enormous Kittredge estate that would address the region’s housing shortage, be acceptable to Amherst and Leverett residents, and still be financially feasible?
That’s the question that Jacob Park of the new Amherst-Leverett Alliance is pondering. He’d like to consider alternatives to the current proposal for an over-55 development with 400 units, spanning the two towns.
āGiven that Leverett only has 738 households, a 400-unit development on a property that sits mostly within Leverett is radically out of scale for the surrounding community,” Park says.
Michael Kittredge started the Yankee Candle Company in South Deerfield in the early 1980s. As it became a roaring success, he bought up more than 60 acres for his personal residence, mostly in the southern part of Leverett. Kittredge sold most of the company in 1998 for a reported $500 million.
By the time he died in 2019, the Kittredge estate in Leverett included a 25,000-square-foot mansion, 55,000-square-foot spa and fitness center, indoor tennis court, 9-hole golf course, car barns with space for 60 vehicles, video game arcade, water park and 3-lane bowling alley, among other luxuries. His son and heir, āMickā Kittredge, put the estate, now called Pioneer Pointe at Juggler Meadow, on the market in 2023 for $23 million but it attracted no buyers. It is still available for sale for $14.9 million,
The realtorās website describes the Kittredge estate in detail. āThis extraordinary, newly-listed compound is truly a one-of-a-kind offering,ā it says. āJuggler Meadow represents a rare opportunity for the individual buyer seeking a remarkable legacy property or the corporate entity looking for a premier retreat or upscale function space.ā
At the same time, Kittredge has worked with development manager Joshua Wallack, who initially proposed up to 700 units of housing, mostly in Leverett, maintaining access to all the amenities of the property. In response to objections from residents, he pivoted to a 55+ development. One plan would have 48 units in Leverett and 352 in Amherst, and another would have 150 units in Leverett and 250 in Amherst, as shown on the accompanying maps.
Under state law, he could override local zoning with a ācomprehensive permitā by making a percentage of the units āaffordable,ā but with a cap of 48 units in Leverett. Wallack proposes to make 25 percent of the units āaffordable.ā
āI am committed to ensuring that any development at this site not only serves its residents but also preserves yet strengthens the social fabric of the region,ā Wallack wrote in a column in the Amherst Bulletin. He cited the āsignificant tax revenueā that the development would generate and the āeconomic and social vibrancyā it would bring.
Park isn’t buying it. He questions the scale of the project, Wallack’s development history, and the high cost of maintaining the extravagant amenities at the estate, estimated at $1.5 million a year. The website of the Amherst-Leverett Alliance details problems the Alliance sees with the Wallack proposal.
āMy main objection is the fundamental contradiction between a luxury estate and affordable housing,ā Park says. āHe utterly lacks the experience and track record to build affordable housing in this area. I’m more interested in a credible alternative from a credible developer of affordable housing.ā
Park lives on Juggler Meadow Road, near the Kittredge estate. So you might think he would favor seeing nothing happen there, or having some billionaire or corporation buy the property and leave it as it is. But he is not a typical obstructionist NIMBY.
He recognizes that there’s a housing shortage in the area, and accepts that some development is likely to happen at the Kittredge estate. For example, he would be comfortable with a cohousing development similar to Cherry Hill Cohousing off Pulpit Hill Road in North Amherst, he says.
Ideally, this kind of development would be intergenerational, have an affordable component, and set aside conservation land for hiking trails, Park says.
It isn’t clear that a group planning cohousing would have enough money, say $10 million, to make Kittredge abandon his plans to sell it for $14.9 million or to build a larger development there.
And it isn’t clear what would happen to the 25,000-square-foot mansion. Park thinks it is unsuitable for reuse and might have to be razed.
Many Leverett residents would support an affordable housing development at the Kittredge estate, Park says. But with skyrocketing construction costs over the past five years, financing of affordable housing is difficult to achieve without governmental subsidies and grants
The Wallack proposal has attracted more attention in Leverett than in Amherst. But last Friday, opponents came to the Cushman Cafe to talk with Town Manager Paul Bockelman and Assistant Town Manager David Ziomek.
There are many issues for Amherst to consider: the impact on roads and traffic, emergency access, and potential development near water and sewer lines that would have to be extended into Leverett. It is unclear how much more volume the wastewater treatment plant can handle.
There are also questions about whether the proposed development is consistent with Amherst’s master plan, which calls for new housing to be near the center of town or village centers, with easy access to jobs, shopping and public transit.
And, as with most housing proposals, the prospect of college students living there could become an issue.
As this drama plays out, it will be interesting to see if something can be worked out that would provide more housing, minimally disrupt the rural nature of the surrounding area, and be attractive to a developer.
This post has been edited. The cohousing in North Amherst is the Cherry Hill Cohousing, not Pioneer Valley Cohousing. The images of the property maps are sourced from the Leverett Select Board. And, Mr. Park’s quote about the scale of the proposed development has been edited.
Nick Grabbe is a co-founder of The Amherst Current. He has been a resident of Amherst for nearly 40 years and served as writer and editor for the Amherst Bulletin and the Daily Hampshire Gazette 1980-2013.
THE AMHERST CURRENT 
I may have missed it, but I didnāt see information about how many acres of this property are in Amherst.
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Thank you for the question! The property is approximately 60 acres, according to the estate website: https://www.jugglermeadowestate.com/, with about 10 acres in Amherst.
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A 55+ development there with amenities would be exactly the right fit for my disabled sister. I would love it if she could move close by and have a place to live affordably with social spaces right there. She has a very difficult time leaving her house and she is quite lonely because of it.
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My family had property on Leverett Road for 46 years and we are very excited to see this development shake out. It meets a large appetite for this type of housing in the area and it will be well thought out and designed. They have deliberately been having conversations with residents to hear their feedback.
Tom Crossman
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I agree very much with Jacob and am concerned that whatever development happens there be similar to Cherry Hill Cohousing as opposed to a huge luxury development with a few token affordable units.
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Sure, everyone wants affordable housing. But how would that work? No budget or financial plan has been submitted to the Leverett Selectboard, just the pictures. If Kittredge is now paying $1.5 million in upkeep for the fabulous amenities, you can bet that future residents in a condo development would pay hefty fees for access.
A lot more concrete information is needed in order to evaluate the feasibility of this vague development idea.
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Thanks to the author for providing coverage of this issue in a more even-handed way than other publications. From conversations that I’ve been a part of with other Leverett residents, there is nearly universal agreement that if anything close to the proposed development plans would be built, it would have a large net negative effect on the town of Leverett and north Amherst. The proposal is akin to building a sky-scraper in a low density residential area from an impact point-of-view. There seems to be no way to do something like this without significant and continued investment from the public in the form of higher taxes in order to build and maintain the infrastructure to support the massive influx of folks that this would represent. I think that most folks in Leverett are in support of trying to alleviate the home affordability crisis (that spans much of the developed world — not just the Pioneer Valley), but it makes the most sense to do so in a way that is consistent with Amherst’s well-considered master plan that calls for higher-density infill where the infrastructure already exists.
Despite claims to the contrary, it’s hard to see how the proposal isn’t simply an effort to recoup some of the resources spent by Mr. Kittredge on a rather opulent family residence. If claims of “caring for the local community” and addressing local housing affordability were true, rather than chasing a maximum return to grow an already-immense fortune, the proposal would be scaled back to something that fits better into the existing communities or written off as wasteful indulgence and split up and sold, resulting in more organic, low-density development within the bounds of existing zoning laws. As it stands, the proposed development strikes its neighbors as a quite transparent attempt to steamroll them into absorbing the public cost so that private benefits of the development can grow the Kittredge family fortune.
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Itās a pretty well established axiom in the restaurant business that the first few Yelp reviews are from friends and family(or in this case, business folks that have done work for the kittredges). All of a sudden the developer and land owner care deeply about our community- the same family that twice sued the town of Leverett for over assessing their property (at a value much less than they currently trying to sell it for). The same developer that bought his first plaid shirt to wear when he addressed the community for the first time. The same owner that separated themselves from the community with a giant green wall around the property Just saying, read between the lines
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I am delighted with the objectivity that underlay this thoughtful interview. As it turns out, I live across the street from the Kittredge estate and have chatted with Mick Kittredge a couple of times. He seems like a decent sort, with a nasty problem: How to deal with this huge white elephant with its enormous main house, many subsidiary buildings and pools, spas, waterparks and all the rest? How many people in the entire world are interested in purchasing and maintaining such a collection? So this is the conundrum faced by not only Mick and the Kittredge Trust but the entire North Amherst and Leverett community. But Josh Wallack’s solution, as presented to the community in a town meeting and in presentations to the Select Board, are just plain silly. They would economically impoverish the area by imposing massive internal maintenance costs for these questionable amenities along with horrendous external costs such as roadwork, sewage, water, and much else that would become apparent with a review including an impact statement such as has been requested by the town but so far not provided. Yes, of course I would be delighted to have a water slide across the street. But at what cost?
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Wallackās vision is completely out of touch with the reality of folks who live in Leverett and Amherst. I have, however, seen all of this generate some incredible ideas for the use of the space, and look forward to wallackās idea being retired from the conversationā¦
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I would love to see affordable housing in Leverett but I am skeptical that this project will yield that. This property is a white elephant and transforming it into an affordable (in this area, under $350k for a two bed two bath condo with HOA fees under $400 per month) does not seem feasible given what the preliminary plans have been. Perhaps the Kittredge Family Trust can be charitable and make this work for those who cannot afford the high prices that have been presented.
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In light of the “looming oligarchy” nationally, we now have our own relative situation here in Leverett and Amherst. As a 24 year resident of Leverett I saw the fences go up and small homes bought to enhance the Kittredge fantasy estate. Now the family is stuck with a property that no one wants. Leverett residents should not have to suffer because of Kittredge greed.
The proposals from Wallack are ridicules. Our roads are too small, old, and narrow, the Juggler Meadow bridge way too small, to handle increased traffic. If we were to add affordable housing in Leverett we would be better off starting from scratch on 15 acres.
Kittredge family should lower the price to a selling point and forget harassing Leverett and Amherst with unrealistic “plans”. Look at the co-housing models in our area. they did not start with renovating mansions.
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agree with the numerous posts bringing up the important issues of infrastructure, affordability, tax burdens, the number of units being out of scale for the area, and the many concerning, documented facts on the Amherst-Leverett Alliance webpage.
First, the housing crisis we are facing has been caused by many factors, and until we address them, nothing is going to change. The universities, notably UMass, are playing a big role in this crisis with continued expansions and increasing enrollments that do not meet student housing demands, especially when more students are wanting to live on campus. Allowing UMass to continue to go unchecked will only continue to exacerbate this problem in the area, especially as most new construction has been aimed at the student demographic and the high profits that go along with it. This allows UMass to continue to shun their part of the responsibility and make it the surrounding communities’ issue to deal with, not theirs.
With the current Kittredge Estate proposal with the 55+ age restriction (and that could be changed after the fact with a petition to the state), it has been explained that the solution is that seniors will sell their single family homes to free up the market for families and young professionals, as they go to live in this new development. However, this is not so simple and such an easy fix. The pattern in Amherst is investors (often not owner occupied, cash buyers/can afford bidding wars) buying these freed up single family homes to become student housing for high rents. Families and young professionals are not benefitting. So is this proposal truly going to help the crisis, or just continue to fuel it?
Also, are those 55+ in the area actually interested in selling their homes to live in the high-density, close environment of the Kittredge development? Many people would be coming from living in homes with acreage, space between neighbors, quiet, nature, and enjoy that type of living. That is why they chose those communities when we already have many urban, suburban, and rural cities and towns to choose from in the area. Their homes may be already paid off, or they are already paying far less on a mortgage than what would likely be for a unit in this development. Are they willing to give that up to live in an “overpriced micro-unit”?
We need truly affordable homes and not just an insignificant percentage. I agree with many of the ideas being presented such as the Cherry Hill Co-Housing Community, which could be ideal. When looking at the current rents, selling prices, and HOA fees in new senior communities, apartments, and condos/townhomes in the immediate area, without the grand amenities that the Kittredge Estate has, they are far from affordable. How could something this grandiose be considered truly affordable? That has yet to be determined.
Finally, Amherst and Leverett pride themselves on addressing social justice issues. One of the players on the “dream team,” has a long, documented history of wage theft and other related issues. What hypocrisy it would be to welcome such companies to do business in our communities.
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