By Paul Post
A Key West luxury resort developer has found his own slice of paradise at a remote Adirondack lake beneath the shadow of Buck Mountain in West Fort Ann.
Pritam Singh recently purchased the 945-acre former Crossett Lake Scout Reservation from prominent Glens Falls businesswoman Elizabeth Miller for a reported $9.5 million cash.
“I’ve been looking for a lake like this for 30 to 40 years,” said Singh. “I was absolutely floored that it’s less than a two-hour drive from my house in South Woodstock (Vt.), and about three hours from New York and Boston. The clear, spring-fed lake has three islands, is 130 feet deep and its physical location and geography is quite unique because it’s so high up, a thousand feet above Lake George.”
“And it’s surrounded by 13,000 acres of wild forest so it doesn’t have problems with salt and agricultural runoff or septic. It’s really like a hidden alpine valley,” he said. “Just amazing, idyllic. If a kid was going to draw a picture of paradise this is what he’d draw.”
The site, on the eastern edge of the Adirondack Park, will be strictly for family use as a seasonal getaway, Singh said.
The sale, which closed on April 21, was brokered by Dan Davies of Queensbury-based Davies Davies & Associates.
“There was a lot of interest, but the biggest difference between Mr. Singh and other parties is that they wanted to do substantial development and he didn’t,” Davies said. “To run a project through the Adirondack Park Agency would be heavily scrutinized and take years. Mr. Singh is going to build houses for he and his kids and that’s basically it. I’ve sold in the Adirondacks for 35 years. This is literally a sanctuary from the world, but 15 minutes from the world (Glens Falls). That’s very, very rare.”
Singh is the epitome of a classic rags-to-riches, self-made man American success story. Born Paul Arthur Labombard, in 1952, he grew up poor in Central Massachusetts and lived in foster care from age 7 to 11.
He made the first of many visits to Key West, where he eventually made his fortune. During his early 20s, he spent three years at a Sikh commune, in Massachusetts and changed his name to Pritam Singh.
His business career was launched in 1978, in Portland, Maine, where Singh formed the Great Bay company, which specialized in turning low-cost and foreclosed properties into a series of small-scale development successes, particularly focused on historic preservation. He was a driving force behind the revitalization of downtown Portland, but the best was yet to come.
From 1983 to 1985, his company purchased and developed $72 million worth of property in Maine, Massachusetts, New Mexico and California. Then he heard about an opportunity too good to pass up in Key West.
In 1986, Singh purchased ($17 million) and began redeveloping Truman Annex, which includes The Little White House where President Harry Truman vacationed 11 times during his seven-plus years in office. The 45-acre former U.S. Navy property had fallen into disrepair. But Singh spent 10 years bringing it back to life with 425 classic conch-style, single-family homes; high-end condominiums, a hotel, affordable housing, parks, a marina, retail and commercial space and museums.
From there, The Singh Company developed exclusive resorts such as Key West Golf Club, a $118 million resort community; The Village at Hawk’s Cay, Tranquility Bay; The Coral Lagoon and Boathouse Marina; Indigo Reef Marina Homes and the more than $100 million Parrot Key Resort.
Now retired (his sons run the company), Singh does a great deal of philanthropic work and helps protect the environment with non-profits such as the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and Friends of Toki, which he co-founded with help from several leading marine mammal scientists.
Miller said her late husband, Myles, bought the Crossett Pond property from a New Jersey Boy Scouts council about 30 years ago, as a vacation home. She owns Miller Mechanical Services, Park Theater and the new Park & Elm restaurant, market and deli in Glens Falls.
“My husband loved it up there,” she said. “We fixed the roads and some of the Boy Scout buildings, the main house was renovated and we did some forestry work up there. We did things to make it better and had a few ideas going forward, but he passed away and I just needed to pass the property on to another steward to take care of and make it even better.”
Singh plans to construct three new homes, a guest cottage, new lodge, arts and crafts building, maintenance barns and three boat houses.
Miller said a Boy Scout group held a gathering there last year and that classes for local BOCES students have been held there as well.
“It’s a beautiful piece of property for sure,” she said. “I much preferred somebody that would keep it in its natural state as much as possible. I believe this gentleman (Singh) intends to do that.”
Davies said, “It’s a win-win for the Adirondacks and Elizabeth Miller.”