Grossinger’s resort guests swim in the hotel’s iconic indoor swimming pool in 1960. Florida-based developer PPG Development, which purchased the long-vacant property in 2025, plans to rebuild it into a new luxury resort.
Bettmann/Bettmann Archive
LIBERTY — Upstate vacationers could once again have the time of their lives at a once-popular Borscht Belt resort staging a comeback.
Florida real estate and commercial developer PPG Development purchased the vacant land in Sullivan County that was once the storied Grossinger’s Catskill Resort Hotel for $14.75 million in June 2025, eyeing a complete rebuild of the now-overgrown property into a year-round luxury resort and residential destination.
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The new campus on 1,029 acres near state Route 52 and Sullivan Avenue in Liberty would include 100 hotel rooms, about 175 luxury private residences, two golf courses, a polo and equestrian center, a farm, a sports complex, restaurants and spa and wellness offerings, according to planning documents filed with the town of Liberty.
In an announcement about the purchase last year, PPG Development noted it acquired the grounds in two transactions, purchasing the historic resort parcel from Cappelli Enterprises and an adjacent site from Muss Development.
“Grossinger’s is one of the most iconic and storied properties in the region, and we are honored to be stewards of its next chapter,” Ari Pearl, CEO and founder of PPG Development, said in the release. “We are envisioning a thoughtful revival that celebrates its legacy while introducing a new era for the Hudson Valley.”
The main hotel and resort areas of the Grossinger’s Catskill Resort Hotel closed in 1986 and have been abandoned ever since.
Roger Hannigan Gilson/Times Union
A fence blocks access to the vacant grounds of the former Grossinger’s Catskill Resort property on July 24.
Tyler A. McNeil/Times Union
The resort’s redevelopment will happen in four phases, according to the project’s application. The first would include construction of the resort hotel, cottages, sporting facilities, farming operations and a golf course on the southern portion of the property. Initial phases also call for building 50 privately owned residences that could be used for overflow guest accommodations and 30 single-family residences with access to the resort and its amenities. Later phases would add more private residences and build a second 18-hole golf course, which will involve completely rerouting and renovating the existing Big G Golf Course.
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“It’s a project that would be quite transformative, not only for Sullivan County but for the region,” said Mark Baez, president and CEO of the Sullivan County Partnership for Economic Development. “The total investment, the adaptive reuse, bringing back a storied site that was not only well known in the region of New York state but worldwide, and again focusing on the golf resort business that was there previously, only enhancing it and bringing it up to date for what is in demand right now, and certainly the jobs investment is something that the town of Liberty can use, Sullivan County can use, and of course the region as well.”
Guests enjoy the outdoor pool area at Grossinger’s Resort Hotel in Liberty in 1977.
Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
In its heyday, in the mid-1900s, Grossinger’s Resort Hotel was one of the most popular Borscht Belt destinations.
Bettmann Archive and Universal History Archive via Getty Images
In its heyday, in the mid-1900s, Grossinger’s Resort Hotel was one of the most popular Borscht Belt destinations.
Bettmann Archive and Universal History Archive via Getty Images
In its heyday, the mid-to-late 1900s, Grossinger’s Resort Hotel was one of the largest and most popular getaways in the Borscht Belt, a colloquial term for a part of the Catskills that hosted a string of summer resorts catering primarily to Jewish visitors from New York City.
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Grossinger’s is widely considered to have inspired the 1987 film “Dirty Dancing.” The resort closed a year before the film’s debut after the Grossinger family, grappling with declining occupancy, sold the property to a group of New York City investors for $9 million. The resort was demolished in 2018, and one of the few remaining buildings on the property was later destroyed in a 2022 fire.
There have been several attempts to bring the resort back to life over the years, but none came to fruition.
Grossinger’s is set to be the subject of a new scripted series that was in predevelopment last year by Alan Zweibel, an original writer on “Saturday Night Live,” and “Dr. Ruth Show” producer Harris F.B. Salomon, according to Deadline. The series tells the story of the resort through its matriarchs, founder Jennie Grossinger and her daughter, Elaine. Elaine took over the resort in 1972 along with her brother, Paul Grossinger, when their mother died. The resort heiress passed away in January at the age of 98.
The PPG Development project is currently being reviewed by the town Planning Board. It will be subject to an environmental evaluation under the State Environmental Quality Review Act and approvals for site plans and special use permits.
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Baez said the project is expected to move through the approval process relatively quickly.
“Obviously, looking at every facet there is as we should,” he said. “The town will give it a hard look and make sure that all the I’s are dotted and T’s are crossed.”