Frequently Asked Questions About the Kittredge Development
1. WHAT AND WHERE IS THE KITTREDGE ESTATE?
During his lifetime, Michael Kittredge II, the founder of Yankee Candle, created an extravagant estate in the small Western Massachusetts town of Leverett, at 113 Juggler Meadow Rd.
He purchased a number of adjacent lots and over the years built a 25,000-square foot mansion, two luxury car barns, a spa building with indoor water park, bowling alley, tennis courts, video game arcade, and other amenities. Most of the property lies in Leverett with a small portion crossing over the border into Amherst.
Photos and a video tour of the estate can be found on the Juggler Meadow Estate website.
After his death in 2019, his son Michael “Mick” Kittredge III inherited the estate and decided to sell it. It was put on the market for $23 million in early 2023 but has so far failed to attract a buyer. The price has been lowered four times and is now $14.9 million.
Source: JugglerMeadowEstate.com
2. SO WHAT’S THIS ABOUT A PROPOSAL TO BUILD HOUSING THERE?
Although the estate is still on the market, it is also being proposed as the site for a very large housing development. There aren’t a lot of details at this point, but the most recent concept shared with the Leverett Select Board in November 2024 envisions that a 400-unit housing development be built on the property.
An earlier proposal called for most of the units to be built in Leverett. Following strong opposition from residents of Leverett (described below), this latest proposal envisions putting a majority of the units onto the small portion of the property that lies in Amherst.
3. WHO IS BEHIND THIS IDEA?
The housing development is the vision of Joshua Wallack, a Florida nightclub owner and real estate developer, who is the development manager for the estate.
Wallack is the owner of the Orlando nightclub Mango’s Tropical Cafe, a spinoff of a Miami club founded by his father.
As detailed below, Wallack has no known experience with affordable housing and his track record raises serious concerns. Over the years, he has promised communities that his projects would create thousands of jobs and generate hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue. These promises have not been kept.
Source: JoshuaWallack.com.
4. IS A LARGE HOUSING DEVELOPMENT ALLOWABLE UNDER CURRENT ZONING?
No.
The scale and form of this proposed housing development would not be permitted by either Amherst’s or Leverett’s zoning bylaws. Current zoning allows for single- and two-family uses, as well as agricultural uses.
However, Wallack seeks to circumvent zoning by applying for a “comprehensive permit” under the Massachusetts state law Chapter 40B. If the proposed development includes 20 to 25 percent affordable housing units, a developer can override local zoning regulations with such a permit.
5. EVEN WITH A 40B PERMIT, 400 UNITS SEEMS ENORMOUS. IS THIS FEASIBLE?
This would be one of the largest housing developments in western Massachusetts and the scale is radically misaligned with the rural character of the surrounding Amherst/Leverett community. (For reference, the entire town of Leverett has just 738 households.)
The Franklin County Regional Housing Plan notes that “a typical housing development that fits within the context of Franklin County communities usually ranges between 5-15 units in size.”
The state of Massachusetts, recognizing that there needs to be a maximum upper bound for developments, created a “large project” development cap for 40B projects, which is proportional to the communities in which they are built. For a town of Leverett’s size, the cap would be 48 units.
Wallack had originally planned to put most of the units, in the form of townhouses and other low-rise buildings, on the Leverett side–which has 40-45 acres of developable land and is where the mansion and amenities are located.
However, strong community opposition (as described below) means that he is unlikely to be able to place more than 48 units there–the maximum that state law would enable him to force through using a 40B permit.
To achieve the scale he wants, he is now trying to situate most of the units on the Amherst side, which has 8-10 acres of developable land, in the form of multi-level “stacked flat” buildings.
6. WHAT IS JOSHUA WALLACK’S EXPERIENCE WITH AFFORDABLE HOUSING?
Wallack has no known experience developing affordable housing.
This is based on a review of the public record, Wallack’s self-published memoir, and the resume he submitted to the Leverett Select Board.
By contrast, he has attempted to develop luxury housing (and, as explained below, entertainment complexes). Notably, none of these projects were ever built.
In 2020, Wallack and his father secured an option to purchase three properties in Miami Beach with the notion of creating luxury residences and retail space. In his memoir, he describes his idea of “a Fendi Chateau building to join the Versace Mansion on Ocean Drive.”
A promotional video described the development idea as “a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to shape the future of Miami Beach.”
However, according to his memoir, after putting out an RFP they failed to receive a single formal bid and abandoned the project.
7. IF NOT HOUSING, WHAT HAS HE DEVELOPED?
With financing from his father and other family members, Wallack built the Orlando outpost of Mango’s Tropical Cafe, his father’s Miami Beach nightclub. He also constructed an adjacent parking garage and a large digital billboard on the side of the garage.
8. IS THAT ALL HE HAS DEVELOPED?
He tried to develop two large entertainment complexes: Skyplex and Polercoaster. But after years of unmet promises both of these projects were abandoned.
1. Skyplex, Orlando, FL
Starting in 2012, Wallack and his family raised more than $54 million to acquire several parcels in Orlando, intending to build a $500-million entertainment complex they called Skyplex. Due to be completed in 2016, Skyplex was to include a 501-foot tall “Polercoaster” (billed as “the world’s tallest roller coaster”), a hotel, retail shops, “the world’s largest Perkins Restaurant” (a casual dining chain), “the world’s largest man-made surfing wave pool,” and other attractions.
Wallack described the development as “an incredible renaissance project” for Orlando. He claimed it would create thousands of jobs and deliver an annual economic benefit to the community of $284 million.
“With the addition of […] the amazing Skyplex, Orlando will once again cement its reputation as the attractions capital of the world and the No. 1 vacation/convention destination,” Wallack vowed.
This promise of jobs and economic development helped garner local support. For example, Sam Butler, who worked as a deacon in an underserved community near the site said:
We’re going to have a complex over there that I’m told is going to have an excess of 3,700 jobs, and those jobs are going to be within walking distance of my community. I don’t see anything but a win-win situation… There’s enough honey to go around for everybody.
Wallack also promised to bring upscale retail to the area. According to a 2014 article from the Orlando Business Journal:
The retail portion of the complex is slated to have what Wallack deems “NYC brand” retailers. Frontage stores could include spinoff stores of global brands such as Adidas Y-3, which is a store filled with Adidas apparel designed by Japanese fashion designer Yohji Yamamoto, as well as stores found on Madison Avenue in New York City.
However, despite years of hype, Skyplex was never built. The promises of thousands of jobs and new, upscale retail went unrealized. In 2023, the project was quietly abandoned and Wallack put the property on the market in 2024.
According to the Orlando Business Journal the site now includes three vacant parcels, a Burger King, a Hulk Hogan’s Wrestling Shop, and a Perkins.
Site of the planned Polercoaster in Atlantic City. Source: Route 40.
2. Polercoaster, Atlantic City, NJ
During roughly the same time period, Wallack and his family sought to develop a similar project called the Polercoaster in Atlantic City. The $138 million entertainment complex, of which Wallack was the managing director, was to include a variety of rides and amusements, a “nightlife component,” and retail space. Like Skyplex, the centerpiece was to be a towering vertical rollercoaster.
In 2016, the city razed a local park to create a parking lot for the project. According to an article in The Press of Atlantic City:
The seven-acre park, called Wonder, will be replaced by a parking lot, an attorney for the owner of the underlying land said Thursday. An Orlando-based developer wants to erect a 360-foot-high Polercoaster on an adjacent one-acre Boardwalk-fronting parcel.
In 2017, the New Jersey Economic Development Authority (which seeks to revitalize communities through redevelopment initiatives, with a particular focus on expanding employment opportunities) gave $38.4 million in tax credits to subsidize the Polercoaster project. This was predicated on a claim that Polercoaster would create 400 construction jobs and 150 year-round jobs.
Yet, while the NJEDA anticipated that construction on the development would start in May 2017 with an opening by Memorial Day of 2019, development never commenced. By March 2018, the site was still untouched and a contemporaneous press report notes that “messages left with the manager, Joshua Wallack, have gone unanswered since January.”
The site remains empty to this day, with no trace of the jobs and economic revitalization promised by Wallack.
In 2019, an audit by the New Jersey State Comptroller revealed “startling deficiencies in monitoring and oversight” of the NJEDA tax credits program. Governor Phil Murphy said, “The idea that up to $11 billion was awarded without so much as basic verification of claims regarding job creation and retention should shock and appall every New Jersey taxpayer.”
In 2023, the Atlantic City council unanimously rejected a request to put a smaller “Unicoaster” ride there “after hearing complaints from residents and business owners that the ride was a bad choice for such a prominent location and that the developer shouldn’t be trusted.”
One local resident observed:
This developer has had it 10 years. To award it right back to somebody who leaves the place in such ruins is an insult.
Another resident said of the site:
For years, there has been broken glass, it’s full of trash—an eyesore in beautiful Brighton Park. There has got to be a better project that can actually happen. If it’s given to this developer, nothing will happen again.
In October 2024, a city official confirmed that the city plans to seek other options for the site.
9. WHAT WOULD AFFORDABLE HOUSING AT THE JUGGLER MEADOW ESTATE BE LIKE?
Wallack has told the Leverett Select Board that, even sitting empty, the site costs “more than $1.5M a year to maintain.”
Given his proposal of 400 housing units, the current maintenance costs on the mansion and amenities would work out to $3,750 annually per household. Those costs would be even higher if the facilities were in operation.
It’s unclear how Wallack intends to reconcile the fundamental contradiction between affordable housing and an extremely expensive luxury estate, but he has hinted at two possibilities:
1. Micro-Housing
In an email to Leverett’s Planning Board, Wallack wrote “there can be a significant amount of ‘micro units’ that themselves have various nuances for the intended homeowner. Since Juggler Meadow has so many public spaces (both indoor and outdoor), there is no need for all apartments to be larger and thus unaffordable.”
He included “for reference” a link to a Miami Today article that describes how “housing development projects that include micro (300 to 400 square feet) units and studio apartment are becoming more popular” as a way to “to tackle the dilemma of affordable housing while living in the most popular neighborhoods” in South Florida.
Wallack also included a link to this video from Gizmodo that portrays New York City’s first micro-unit building. The captioning reads: “A new type of housing development meant to fix the city’s housing crisis…by legally packing more New Yorkers into tiny, overpriced apartments.”
2. Tiered Access
In a conversation with members of Leverett’s town government Wallack also suggested implementing a tiered system of access (e.g. gold, silver, bronze) to the amenities.
These comments suggest that Wallack may envision a development comprised mostly of expensive luxury units with full access to the mansion and amenities, and a smaller number of affordable “micro” units with restricted access to the amenities.
10. WOULD THE AMENITIES EVEN BE WORTH THOSE EXPENSIVE MAINTENANCE COSTS?
Wallack claims that the estate has $150 million worth of buildings, with “finishes and fixtures that could be on display in the Smithsonian Museum.” Elsewhere, he has said that the amenities are “beyond the Four Seasons, or any amazing country club atmosphere you can possibly imagine.”
However, these claims are hard to reconcile with representations made in 2019 when Michael Kittredge II contested the assessed value of his property and appealed to the town of Leverett to reduce his property taxes.
In that proceeding, the Appellate Tax Board described Kittredge’s appraiser as testifying that:
many of the amenities associated with the estate suffer from functional obsolescence and superadequacy and, therefore, contribute little to the estate’s value, in particular the pool/clubhouse and the spa/recreation center.
The appraiser estimated the value of the entire property to be $1.8 million.
Furthermore, while the amenities are extravagant for a single household, it’s unclear that they would be sufficient for hundreds of units. Will people pay the extremely expensive maintenance costs for access to a single indoor tennis court shared with hundreds of other households?
The Appellate Tax Board’s proceedings include this description of Kittredege’s appraiser’s findings:
She “opined that the spa/recreation center is essentially an outmoded and costly indoor swimming pool with fitness equipment, placed within an interior environment that is the equivalent of a tropical rain forest. She described the systems as being old, inefficient, and extremely expensive to operate.”
11. WHO IS WALLACK PARTNERING WITH ON THIS?
Wallack says he has assembled a “dream team” of 40B experts to partner with on this development. However, his choice of partners raises additional concerns.
SEB Housing
Wallack’s 40B consultant is SEB Housing, a small family firm run by developer Robert Engler and his two sons Geoff and Brian. In 2021, MassHousing suspended Geoff Engler, the President of SEB, from any involvement in MassHousing’s Chapter 40B application process.
According to MassHousing, this decision was “due to your lack of the forthrightness and candor that MassHousing expects and requires from applicants for Chapter 40B project eligibility, with respect to a material misrepresentation that you made.”
Callahan Construction
Wallack’s choice of general contractor raises even graver concerns.
UMass Amherst professor Tom Juravich has documented an “epidemic of wage theft in residential construction in Massachusetts.” He describes a system by which unscrupulous general contractors use subcontractors that illegally misclassify their employees–many of them undocumented immigrants–as independent contractors:
By not paying taxes on workers’ wages and by not contributing to worker compensation funds, contractors reduced their building costs by 30 percent. In addition, we document how these contingent workers—the majority of whom are undocumented immigrants—are routinely cheated out of their wages by contractors who pay late, do not compensate for overtime, and sometimes do not pay for work at all. Firms generate profits by victimizing some of the most vulnerable workers in Massachusetts, delivering poor quality homes to consumers, and leaving citizens of the commonwealth on the hook to make up for hundreds of millions in lost tax revenue.
After the MA Attorney General’s Office issued citations for such violations on a project in Amherst, town councilors Mandi Jo Hanneke, Cathy Shoen, Patricia C. DeAngelis worked with Lisa Clauson–then with the North Atlantic States Regional Council of Carpenters (NASRCC)–on an Amherst wage theft ordinance.
Speaking about Callahan Construction, Clauson (now Interim Executive Director at Community Labor United) describes them as “among the worst offenders” when it comes to these practices. Indeed, the NASRCC has compiled an extensive dossier documenting Callahan’s abuses.
Clauson says that “Callahan has a long history of systematically using subcontractors that engage in the most egregious abuses, such as wage theft and nonpayment of wages, despite being repeatedly advised of these illegal and fraudulent practices.”
She adds that “Many of the victim’s of Callahan’s practices are among the most vulnerable workers, which can make them reluctant to file official complaints with the Attorney General’s Office. However, NASRCC has gathered evidence of countless violations committed by Callahan subcontractors. It would fly in the face of Amherst’s commitment to workers’ rights and tax fairness to back a project built by Callahan.”
12. I’VE HEARD THERE’S A 55+ AGE RESTRICTION. CAN YOU PROVIDE MORE DETAILS?
Some residents raised questions about whether a large development might overburden the local school district or turn into a de facto student dormitory. In an effort to blunt these concerns Wallack added a 55+ age restriction to his proposal.
However, in 2010, the MA Housing Appeals Committee (HAC) ruled that a developer may change the terms of a 40B permit even after a development is operational in order to render the project “economic” (i.e. sufficiently profitable). In that case, a developer in Hanover, MA had proposed and built a 55+ age restricted development—but the developer successfully appealed to the HAC to let it remove the age restriction after it struggled to rent units.
This means that while a developer can claim that a 40B housing development will be age-restricted, there’s no guarantee that will actually be the case. This could apply to other conditions of a 40B permit, as well. If the development isn’t profitable enough, there is a risk that the developer can appeal to the state to have other conditions dropped.
Ultimately, a 40B permit puts nearly all the control into the hands of the developer. Other approaches to incentivizing affordable housing, such as the creation of an affordable housing overlay zoning district, put more of the control in the hands of towns and communities.
13. HOW DO LEVERETT RESIDENTS FEEL ABOUT WALLACK’S PROPOSED DEVELOPMENT?
In November 2024, the Leverett Select Board held a meeting attended by more than a hundred members of the public to discuss the proposed development.
Describing the meeting, Select Board member Jed Proujansky said: “There was almost unanimous dissatisfaction with what Mr. Wallack presented to the town.”
As a Selectperson in Leverett I have attended all of the public meetings concerning the Kittredge property as well as having had multiple discussions with townsfolk. There is an overwhelming majority disapproval of any proposals presented to the town or to the Selectboard.
A previous presentation by Wallack in December 2023, also attended by more than a hundred members of the public, also generated nearly unanimous opposition. View the video below:
During that meeting, Wallack said that many of the audience’s questions would be answered in a feasibility study to be commissioned from real estate firm CBRE, and he promised that Leverett would be invited to help scope the study. He said
we will certainly scope the feasibility study with you because we certainly don’t want to go and do something like this and not address all of the issues. So we will certainly have the community and certainly the planning board involved in scoping the feasibility study.
However, neither the Planning Board nor the community were ever invited to help scope the feasibility study.
Wallack also promised that a traffic study would be shared with the community. More than a year later this also has not happened.
14. WHAT WOULD PEOPLE IN LEVERETT LIKE TO SEE HAPPEN ON THE PROPERTY?
Although it’s difficult to summarize town sentiment on any topic, Leverett recently completed a comprehensive plan grounded in extensive research and public dialogue about such topics as senior needs, affordable housing, and public infrastructure. It found that residents would value more affordable housing.
One recommendation suggests that the town “explore changing zoning to allow for different types of housing in Leverett which would include smaller units or multiple units on a lot.”
These suggested zoning modifications show that the town is not afraid of change–in keeping with the 2024 Franklin County Regional Housing Plan, which calls for the development of affordable housing that fits with the rural nature of the county.
15. WHAT IS AMHERST’S POSITION ON THE DEVELOPMENT?
The Amherst Town Council has yet to discuss the matter. However, Amherst Town Manager Paul Bockelman has indicated that Amherst values being a good neighbor to Leverett and would not want to support a development that Leverett doesn’t want
Wallack’s proposal does not align with the stated priorities of Amherst–or of those groups that advocate for more development:
1. Amherst Forward PAC
The Amherst Forward PAC says that it supports “smart, strategic development to support Town revenue needs while preserving open space, consistent with the Master Plan and informed by the Climate Action, Adaptation and Resilience Plan (CAARP).”
2. Amherst’s Master Plan
Amherst’s Master Plan calls for infill development of affordable housing near the center of town to “create more walkable neighborhoods that provide residents easy access to jobs, goods, services, and public transit.” Putting a massive housing development at the north edge of town, far from bus routes and stores, is not consistent with the master plan.
3. Amherst’s Climate Action, Adaptation and Resilience Plan (CAARP)
Similarly, the CAARP calls for a “smart growth” approach to development that prioritizes compact development, walkable neighborhoods, and the protection of open space and natural resources. “Poorly conceived development,” according to the CAARP, “degrades the integrity of our natural systems, making them less resilient to the impacts of climate change.”
Encouraging density, redevelopment, and nature-based solutions in already-developed areas, along with agricultural preservation and protection of undeveloped natural lands, can allow Amherst to enhance the health and resilience of its natural systems, sequester carbon sustainably, and ensure that all residents can be deeply connected to the natural world.
Although the proposed development is not in line with Amherst’s stated priorities, Wallack has written in his self-published memoir of working behind the scenes to garner political support for previous projects–even in the face of community opposition.
In Orlando, for example, he employed the services of “fixer” Angel de la Portilla to get approval for Skyplex from the Board of Commissioners even after the Zoning and Planning Commission recommended against it.
However, Amherst and Leverett are not Orlando and Atlantic City. Wallack may find that his vision and tactics have a less receptive audience here.