Ansonia Lodge sold to local developer  

Changes are coming to Ansonia Lodge, a multifamily residential property in Mohegan Lake known for its historic, Second Empire-style architecture dating back to the 1860s, that will modernize the property while preserving its historic charm.

A 5,000-square-foot commercial building and a 40-unit, garden-style multifamily development is being proposed for the 4.6-acre property located at 1860 East Main St., which sits off of Route 6.

DTS Provident, the engineering, planning and architectural firm for the project, is seeking final site plan approval for the 5,000-square-foot building and 40 units from the Yorktown Planning Board.  

The rest of the layout of Ansonia Lodge will remain the same, Carlito Holt, a partner with DTS Provident, told the Planning Board during the board’s Aug. 10 meeting. Ansonia Lodge currently has 17 multifamily units on the site, with nine apartments in the mansion house and eight apartments in the two-story accessory building.

Holt and William Bottiglieri testified at the Aug. 10 meeting. Bottiglieri is listed as the applicant and owner of the property on the preliminary site plan application. 

The currently proposed project seeks to make Ansonia Lodge a modernized lakefront community with mixed-use development. The proposed apartments for the site will have one to two bedrooms, according to Bottiglieri. The mansion house will be preserved as part of the plan and used as a community building.  

Other changes the current applicant wants to make include a driveway and parking area that would allow the public access to the Mohegan Lake waterfront. The applicant will maintain the proposed driveway that will function like a small roadway, giving people access to Mohegan Avenue and allowing them to reach the traffic signal on Route 6 and make left turns. The area will also include parking. The applicant will also maintain the current lodge building for amenity space. More parking spaces and a walking trail are also being proposed.

“One of the things we’re trying to understand is we’re trying to look at that road out through the town-owned parcel,” Holt said during the planning board meeting, asking if the Town Board could also give the applicant feedback about how a driveway can connect the property to the waterfront at Mohegan Lake.  

The proposed changes come before the planning board several days after the lodge was sold to local developers for $2.9 million, Nadia van Hauwaert of Houlihan Lawrence Yorktown and Kenneth Lefkowitz at Klein Lefkowitz Commercial Team announced on Aug. 18.

“The new owners are local developers who understand the area and see the same potential we saw in Ansonia Lodge. Their vision is not simply to add housing, but to renovate the existing property, significantly improve access to and enjoyment of the lakefront, and create a modern mixed use community that can be an asset to Mohegan Lake for decades to come,” Lefkowitz said in an Aug. 18 press release announcing the sale. 

Ansonia Lodge is one of 90 notable properties that should be considered for designation on the local and/or National Register of Historic Places, according to the Town of Yorktown Reconnaissance-Level Survey conducted by Larson Fisher Associates in 2006.

The lodge was originally home to New York merchant Henry S. Billinge, according to the survey, and after his death, the house was converted into a school for young women. Over the years, the property had other owners, contained apartment dwellings, and served as a summer home that represented the lake’s early resort period.  

Residents nowadays live in the 17 multifamily units on the site, according to property tax records. 

The applicant wants the lodge to keep its historic charm in a way that would be beneficial to the community and the residents who live there. 

“After approximately a century of ownership by the same family, there was a real responsibility to find the right buyer for this unique property,” Lefkowitz said in the press release.