image description — The Outdoor Center at the Greylock Glen opened last fall, one of the first phases of the development. A campground is now on the back burner after the developer pulled out.

Greylock Glen Campground Developer Pulls Out Over Financing

By Tammy DanielsiBerkshires Staff
06:45PM / Tuesday, March 25, 2025Print Story | Email Story

ADAMS, Mass. — Shared Estates has pulled out of the campground project at the Greylock Glen.

In a letter to the town, managing partner Daniel Dus said the company was not able to find the financing for the project.

"Developer does not anticipate being able to close the financing by the financing contingency date, and therefore hereby exercises its right to terminate this agreement," Town Administrator Kenneth Walto read to the board at Tuesday's budget workshop meeting.

Shared Estates was selected to develop the campground in 2022.

Selectman Joseph Nowak said he wasn't surprised at the news.

"I think the problem was that we opened the Outdoor Center with so much fanfare, and we didn't have our ducks in a row," he said. "When that building was open, everything should have been in place so that the buzz would have kept on going. ...

"It's a bad break for the town of Adams."

Chair John Duval said he was disappointed as well but it wasn't the first setback they'd had, noting the failure of the first developer of the Memorial Building to find financing.

But the next company chosen is expected to provide an update plan next month so it is moving along, he said.

"So yes, we had the same kind of a problem there. Someone couldn't get the investment, the funding support," said Duval. "We went back out and we found someone, and they're just about ready to go. So it's happening again. It's just, again, disappointing, but we need to continue on with this project."

The campground was projected bring in $3.5 million to $6 million a year and provide $8 million or more in revenue directly to the town over 25 years. The year-round facility was expected to bring hundreds of people to Adams on a regular basis, based on Shared Estates' bookings.

The company has redeveloped a number of significant and historic properties, including George Westinghouse's Playhouse in Lee (featured on Netflix's "World’s Most Amazing Vacation Rentals") and Christopher Reeve's home in Williamstown, for leasing on the short-term rental market.

Walto said he'd met with the town's interim community development director, Donna Cesan, to find a way forward.

Cesan, who's been involved with the glen project for more than 20 years, recommended the town focus on the Outdoor Center and getting the agreements in place with the vendors — Mass Audubon and food service provider Chez Hospitality Group LLC.

And get the request for the proposals out for the lodge and "take a step back" and look again at the campground project before putting out another RFP.

"She recommended to me ... to get the leases with the two entities that are going to occupy the building," Walto said. "We should get licenses in place as soon as we can, so that they can operate during the summer. Starting that tomorrow."

Tags: Greylock Glen,

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Letter: Progress Means Moving on Paper Mill Cleanup

Letter to the Editor05:00PM / Wednesday, February 11, 2026

To the Editor:

Our town is facing a clear choice: move a long-abandoned industrial site toward cleanup and productive use or allow it to remain a deteriorating symbol of inaction.

The Community Development team has applied for a $4 million EPA grant to remediate the former Curtis Mill property, a site that has sat idle for more than two decades. The purpose of this funding is straightforward: address environmental concerns and prepare the property for safe commercial redevelopment that can contribute to our tax base and economic vitality.

Yet opposition has emerged based on arguments that miss the point of what this project is designed to do. We are hearing that basement vats should be preserved, that demolition might create dust, and that the plan is somehow "unimaginative" because it prioritizes cleanup and feasibility over wishful reuse of a contaminated, aging structure.

These objections ignore both the environmental realities of the site and the strict federal requirements tied to this grant funding. Given the condition of most of the site's existing buildings, our engineering firm determined it was not cost-effective to renovate. Without cleanup, no private interest will risk investment in this site now or in the future.

This is not a blank check renovation project. It is an environmental remediation effort governed by safety standards, engineering assessments, and financial constraints. Adding speculative preservation ideas or delaying action risks derailing the very funding that makes cleanup possible in the first place. Without this grant, the likely outcome is not a charming restoration, it is continued vacancy, ongoing deterioration, and zero economic benefit.

For more than 20 years, the property has remained unused. Now, when real funding is within reach to finally address the problem, we should be rallying behind a practical path forward not creating obstacles based on narrow or unrealistic preferences.

I encourage residents to review the proposal materials and understand what is truly at stake. The Adams Board of Selectmen and Community Development staff have done the hard work to put our town in position for this opportunity. That effort deserves support.

Progress sometimes requires letting go of what a building used to be so that the community can gain what it needs to become.

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