Day: November 18, 2025

The sale of the 36,600-acre Whitney Park estate in the Adirondacks to Texas developer Todd Interests has failed after six months. The $125 million deal collapsed due to restrictions preventing state ownership of any of the land.

A final compromise—a 200-year lease of 32,000 acres to the state—was proposed to bypass the estate terms of the late John Hendrickson, who had opposed state ownership due to poor stewardship of a previous land sale (citing the eradication of native trout from Little Tupper Lake). However, according to Todd Interests, Gov. Kathy Hochul’s administration rejected the lease option.

“The one clear plan that we could execute on with our seller’s consent, was a 200-year lease to the state of New York,” said Shawn Todd, chairman of Todd Interests, in a statement to Adirondack Explorer. “In contrast, the state wants solely to acquire the 32,000 acres of land from us upon our acquisition, which is something we are willing to do but do not have the capability of doing so, absent relief from our seller. To that end, this seems to be an unsolvable challenge.”