Hensdale Club Developer Seeking 28-Acre Land Bank Property For Public Equestrian Program

Island developer Alan Worden presented a request to the Nantucket Land Bank Commission Tuesday afternoon seeking a long-term ground lease or license of a 28.65-acre parcel of land at 41 Milestone Road to turn into a public equestrian program. The property is directly behind the 10.5-acre property slated to be developed into The Hensdale Club by Worden.

"I've got some serious concerns," commissioner Neil Paterson said. "You're taking public land or public money, people using it all the time on a daily basis, and you're taking it out of circulation. Also, I think it's a disposition of real estate, which is going to trigger Article 97, which I don't think you've studied. It would mean we have to go through Town Meeting, the State House, the Senate, the Governor, and I'm not really comfortable standing up for a private club, public/private club, taking public land at Town Meeting to say, "This is a fantastic idea." Then the mitigation, at the moment we spend $750,000 a year doing mitigation for other projects. Would you pay for all that?"

Worden said “Milestone Stables” would be formed into an independent, 501(c)(3) that will build and operate a year-round community equestrian program for Nantucket that is open to the public. While the concept of an equestrian program on the island was embraced, the request for this particular parcel of land was met with skepticism from commissioners about how feasible the endeavor would be and whether it was something the community would want.

The massive parcel of land would be completely open to the public, according to Worden, and model itself after the Nantucket Community Sailing program.

"Why would we build this privately if we could offer it publicly and make it bigger and more impactful?" Worden said to the commission. "We'd love to do it with you, and the alternative is it's small and we'll make it available in the offseason. But we just don't have enough room for the number of courses we would want to have if we were able to do Milestone Stables.”

Worden’s presentation, which lasted approximately eight minutes, was quickly followed by questions from commissioners about mitigation and their doubts about whether a project like this would even be possible in priority land (a geographic area mapped by state or federal wildlife agencies to protect rare plant and animal species). John Stackpole originally brought up the topic followed by an explanation from Land Bank executive director Rachael Freeman.

"One of the things that comes up for this that we were discussing is this falls within priority habitat, which is a natural heritage designation," Freeman said. "So if this was a two-to-one, just making the assumption, we would have to do approximately 57 acres of mitigation off-site in another area that would also include a conservation restriction on it, and it would be in perpetuity.”

Worden said his team was happy to do the due diligence to find out whether this project would work, and that this presentation was one of the first steps in determining whether they should allocate time towards doing do. He said his private club was in priority habitat land, but it “wasn’t affected” after going through the process.

"We've already done that work and I can tell you 100 percent they're there," Freeman quickly responded. "So it's definitely a priority habitat. The endangered species exist, and it would be basically 57 acres at least of mitigation, followed by conservation restriction."

In his request submitted to the commission, Worden says Milestone Stables would be “an independent island nonprofit offering riding, horsemanship, youth and beginner instruction, and therapeutic and adaptive programs to every Nantucketer, year-round.”

"After your presentation here, I can see where it definitely fits into the community," commissioner Allen Reinhard said. "It represents a benefit to the community, and I think a well-done operation out there would enhance that property."

Vice Chair Mark Donato said he wanted more time to look through the proposal, which is in the very early stages of being developed.

"I'd like to look through that a bit longer," Donato said. "I think it's a very interesting idea, and I had no idea you were going to add such a public aspect to it, but I need some more time to sit through this.

Worden said the Hensdale Club would contribute $2 million to support phase one of the capital construction of a 10-stall barn, a three-bay maintenance garage with staff housing above, paddocks and pastures and an entry road with utilities and appropriate drainage. He said the Club would also contribute $500,000 to launch its community equestrian programming.

Paterson questioned how far this contribution would go towards completing phase one.

"Two million dollars to build phase one.... is that what you're telling me it's going to cost?” Paterson questioned. “I don't think that is realistic in the slightest. First, clearing all that land. Then putting in roads, drainage, buildings. I mean, $2 million goes like that on Nantucket."

Worden said in his request that phase two could potentially include an indoor riding arena and a boarding barn while phase three could include additional recreational or agricultural facilities upon mutual agreement between the Club and the Land Bank Commission.

“Milestone Stables will fund facilities and manage programming,” the request states. “Through a property management agreement, Hensdale Club – given its proximity, staff, and equipment – will maintain the facilities. The program comes at no cost to the Land Bank. Revenue will come from donations and grants, program revenues, and boarding revenues. As is the case with Nantucket Community Sailing, a key goal of the revenue strategy is to ‘scholarship’ income qualified, year-round families.”

Worden said the ground lease or license would need to be long enough to justify the capital investment and give the program the permanence a community institution requires.

"We are in the process of building, of pricing 100,000 square feet across the street. So, as I'm saying, I didn't want to spend, you know, 200 hours on this without getting your feedback," Worden said. "And so maybe my ask is if you say, look, do you guys want us to do due diligence, and we can meet with Rachael to understand the constraints a little bit more. My proposal is understanding the constraints, and then we're willing to do due diligence to understand Article 97, to understand what the building costs are, to understand if there are donors who would also contribute. We think there is significant interest in this idea from the community and from the philanthropic community. So, it probably will be more than two million bucks, but it could be double that.”

"$200 million," Paterson said.

Commission chair Kristina Jelleme said she feels like this is a very interesting idea, however she has concerns about transforming a popular property in a densely populated area of the island into something that will be interesting to some people, but not everyone.

"I think that piece of property currently, as you said, you saw lots of people out there, lots of people walking and using that property," Jelleme said. "It sits in a very densely populated part of the island. It gives people the freedom to feel like they're out in the woods. So my concern would be the public's interest with the current population using that property and taking that out of service from the current use and making it into what will be something interesting to some people, you know, people that are interested in equestrian and all that. I'm just not quite sure this is the right location for that type of use, since it's already currently used and currently very heavily popular.”

When Worden, who co-founded the Westmoor Club, began to reiterate the equestrian program will be open to the public 12 months out of the year, he highlighted the Westmoor’s offseason wellness program, which he said allows roughly 400 islanders to use the facility every offseason.

"It is public. Right now, it's completely open to the public," Paterson said of the 41 Milestone Road property. "We're now going to be putting fields in with horses and livestock and electric fences. It's completely changing it, and I don't think the people who live next to it, the people who contacted me, not one person has been in favor of this. They see this masquerading as a private club. That's what I'm hearing. That's what I'm telling you.”

Worden was asked by commissioners whether he would be interested in pursuing the project in a different area. While he didn’t say no and said they would evaluate and consider all of their options, it appeared the Hensdale Club would be interested solely in the 41 Milestone Road property due to its proximity to the club.

"I think that there's a lot of complicated, more in-depth things that you may need to learn about as far as working with the Land Bank, Article 97, mitigation," Jelleme said. "I think we're pretty educated in mitigation. I think that's going to be a large component. My question would be what would you be willing or be thinking of doing about the mitigation? Because I'm not sure that's something that we can take on and just say, 'Oh we'll mitigate this for you.' So what I'm hearing from you is, should you do any more due diligence? I think there's a couple of hurdles that you need to see if can even be possible before we can say that we're interested in doing this or not. I think that there might be some roadblocks that just aren't going to work for you.