LEVERETT — Late Yankee Candle founder Michael Kittredge’s 60-acre estate is being sold for $4.55 million to a New Jersey golf professional who intends to keep the site intact as a private residence, according to a representative of the Juggler Meadow Estate who explored redeveloping the property into hundreds of affordable and market-rate homes.
Joshua Wallack, of Wallack Holdings LLC, said Monday that representatives for Kittredge’s son, Michael “Mick” Kittredge, who himself started Kringle Candle in Bernardston, sold the property on May 26.
The buyer, according to records filed with the Franklin County Registry of Deeds, is Juggler Meadow LLC, whose manager is David Reasoner of Saddle River, New Jersey. Reasoner is the PGA Head Professional at the Ridgewood Country Club in Ridgewood, New Jersey.
“For the locals, there will be no changes and no development is planned,” said Wallack, a Florida developer who stays in close touch with Kittredge, who lives in nearby Miami Beach.
The estate is bounded by Amherst Road to the east, railroad tracks to the west and Juggler Meadow Road to the north, and it extends into Amherst to the south. It first went on the market for $23 million in the summer of 2022.
Amenities at the site, in addition to the main home and a guest residence, include a 55,000-square-foot spa building with a sauna, a steam room, locker rooms, massage rooms, a 4,000-square-foot gym and full kitchen, an indoor tennis court, a 4,000-square-foot stage at one end, a video arcade with slots, pinball machines and carnival-style Skee-Ball, a three-lane bowling alley and billiards room, and an indoor water park with slides, waterfalls and palm trees.
Wallack first presented a concept in December 2023 for what the property could become at a community meeting that filled the Leverett Elementary School gymnasium and brought 100 more people online, with ideas for both housing and adaptive reuse of the property.
The Select Board in 2024 asked Wallack for more details, such as a business plan, financial backers and his credentials, all necessary to take additional steps to respond to the development. It came as the board understood the developer would likely enter the 40B Local Initiative Program, which would have allowed the town to negotiate what the project might look like and get technical expertise from the state.
By November 2024, Wallack had presented two more detailed plans to town officials. One would have 48 homes on the Leverett side and 352 homes in Amherst, to meet the state’s Chapter 40B affordable housing law that allows developers to skirt municipal zoning if a community doesn’t meet the minimum thresholds under the Massachusetts subsidized housing inventory.
The second plan would have placed 150 homes in Leverett and 250 homes in Amherst.
Those plans yielded concern from residents and by early 2025 the Amherst-Leverett Alliance formed, acting as a clearinghouse of information about the project and the development team. But there had been no more updates on the plans in the ensuing 18 months.
Select Board Chairwoman Patricia Duffy said town officials are aware of the ownership change, but Town Hall hasn’t officially been notified about the transaction, or how the property might be used.
“We welcome the new owners to Leverett and look forward to learning more about their plans for the property, if and when they decide to bring forward any proposals,” Duffy said.
But as with any property in town, future development or changes in use, Duffy said, would be subject to town and state reviews.
Wallack said he spent about three years with Robert Engler of SEB Housing of Needham, an expert in affordable housing, and the state’s Chapter 40B law, coming up with the right plan that could have addressed the housing needs for the town and beyond.
Wallack praises the Massachusetts law as one of the best ways to incentivize a variety of housing and, as a Florida resident, would like to see changes made to that state’s Live Local Act.
There were also conversations with Amherst officials about extending water and sewer lines about 1½ miles from Amherst to accommodate the housing. But there had been questions about whether the town’s roads could handle such an influx of housing, and whether the elementary school would have sufficient capacity.
“I’m sad about it, but this brings a long and winding road to a close,” Wallack said.
