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Concord Resort Hotel

The Concord Resort Hotel was a large-scale vacation destination in the Borscht Belt of New York's Catskill Mountains, situated in Kiamesha Lake, Sullivan County, and renowned for its role in mid-20th-century Jewish-American leisure culture.^[1] Originally acquired by Russian immigrant Arthur Winarick in 1935 as the Ideal Plaza in settlement of a debt, it was redeveloped and renamed the Concord, opening with 500 rooms by 1937 and expanding significantly in the 1950s to include extensive facilities such as multiple theaters, swimming pools, golf courses, and recreational amenities catering to thousands of guests annually.^[2]^[3] The resort achieved prominence as an entertainment hub, featuring performances by entertainers including Barbra Streisand, Sammy Davis Jr., Judy Garland, Tony Bennett, Joan Rivers, and Aretha Franklin, while also hosting significant events such as the 1963 award presentation to Martin Luther King Jr.^[1]^[4] Its defining characteristics encompassed lavish Borscht Belt-style programming with comedy, music, and social activities that drew urban vacationers seeking escape from city life, though it faced decline from shifting travel preferences, competition from air travel, and economic pressures leading to bankruptcy and closure in 1998.^[3]^[5] The property sat largely abandoned until demolition commenced in 2000 on older structures and culminated in 2008, paving the way for redevelopment as the Resorts World Catskills casino resort.^[6]^[4]^[7]

Location and Facilities

Physical Layout and Amenities

The Concord Resort Hotel occupied a 1,600-acre site in Kiamesha Lake, New York, featuring a sprawling main hotel complex with multiple wings that expanded over time to accommodate guests. The property included over 1,200 guest rooms distributed across the central building and attached extensions, designed to provide a comprehensive vacation experience within the premises.^[8]^[1] Recreational facilities emphasized outdoor and indoor activities, with two swimming pools—one indoor and one outdoor—alongside two 18-hole golf courses known as the Monster and the International, and 24 tennis courts. Additional amenities comprised an ice skating rink and a 3,000-seat theater named the Imperial Room, used for live performances and events. The resort also offered non-gambling gaming areas resembling casinos, where guests engaged in card games and social activities.^[3]^[9] Dining options centered on a massive hall comparable to a football field in size, capable of seating 3,000 patrons, with kosher-style meals prepared to cater to the primarily Jewish clientele from the New York area. Lavish interior decor, including modern wings designed by architect Morris Lapidus featuring bay windows and specialized bathrooms, contributed to the hotel's reputation for luxury comparable to urban establishments.^[1]^[10]

Capacity and Infrastructure

The Concord Resort Hotel was engineered to host large crowds, distinguishing it as the largest property in the Borscht Belt with infrastructure scaled for peak occupancy of approximately 3,000 guests. This capacity was supported by at least 1,200 guest rooms and a main dining room sized like a football field, accommodating up to 3,000 diners in a single seating, which necessitated expansive kitchen operations to serve kosher meals on that scale.^[11]^[1] The resort also featured a 3,000-seat Imperial Room theater, underscoring its logistical emphasis on mass entertainment venues.^[11] Significant expansions bolstered the hotel's accommodation infrastructure, including a 1959 addition of a ten-story building with 210 new guest rooms, reflecting post-World War II construction standards for high-volume hospitality.^[12] Overall facilities encompassed two swimming pools, two 18-hole golf courses, and 24 tennis courts, all integrated into a 2,000-acre site to handle the demands of thousands of simultaneous visitors without straining local resources.^[3] These elements, including robust electrical and plumbing systems adapted for such density, enabled efficient operations during peak seasons.^[13] Transportation infrastructure further supported guest influx, with the resort's Kiamesha Lake location providing convenient access to regional roads and proximity to Sullivan County International Airport in nearby Monticello, facilitating air travel for conventioneers and vacationers arriving from major cities.^[14] Fire safety measures, aligned with era-specific building codes for wooden-framed mega-resorts, included compartmentalized structures and sprinkler readiness scaled to the property's size, though specific retrofits evolved with occupancy growth.^[3]

History

Origins and Early Development

The Concord Resort Hotel traces its roots to the Ideal House, a modest bungalow colony established near Kiamesha Lake in New York's Catskills region during the 1920s, which provided affordable summer retreats for working-class families, particularly Jewish immigrants and their descendants from New York City escaping urban heat and congestion.^[8]^[1] These early operations aligned with the emerging Borscht Belt phenomenon, where small rooming houses and colonies offered simple accommodations, kosher meals, and basic recreational activities amid the economic hardships of the Great Depression.^[1] In 1935, Russian-born entrepreneur Arthur Winarick—a former barber who had built a fortune manufacturing Jeris hair tonic—acquired the Ideal House property in settlement of a business debt, recognizing its potential as a site for expanded hospitality ventures.^[8]^[2] Winarick, leveraging his business acumen from the personal care industry, rebuilt and renamed the facility in 1937 as the Concord Plaza, introducing approximately 500 beds to accommodate growing middle-class demand for family vacations as the U.S. economy began recovering from the Depression.^[2]^[15] The initial development emphasized kosher dietary observance and wholesome, family-centric amenities such as organized social events and outdoor pursuits, positioning the Concord as a wholesome alternative to city life while capitalizing on the post-Depression surge in domestic tourism to the Catskills.^[16] This entrepreneurial pivot transformed the site from a rudimentary colony into a branded hotel, setting the foundation for its role in the region's vacation economy without yet pursuing the large-scale extravagance of later decades.^[17]

Expansion and Peak Under Winarick Ownership

Under the leadership of Arthur Winarick, who acquired the property in 1935 and rebuilt it as the 500-room Concord Plaza by 1937, the resort experienced rapid expansion in the post-World War II era, capitalizing on growing demand for accessible luxury vacations.^[2]^[18] In the 1950s, Winarick commissioned architect Morris Lapidus to design modern guest wings, transforming the property into a sprawling complex emblematic of opulent, all-inclusive hospitality dubbed the "Fontainebleau of the North."^[1] A key addition was a 1959 wing featuring 210 rooms with innovative elements like projecting bay windows and his-and-her bathrooms equipped with dressing areas, enhancing capacity and appeal for families and groups.^[19] These developments, alongside the 1951 opening of a tropical indoor pool, positioned the Concord to compete directly with rivals like Grossinger's by emphasizing scale and amenities.^[20] By the late 1950s and into the 1960s, the Concord achieved peak occupancy during summer seasons, often filling its expanded inventory of over 1,500 rooms amid post-war prosperity and limited international travel alternatives that favored domestic resorts.^[21] The hotel hosted large-scale conventions, weddings, and social events, leveraging its 3,000-seat dining room—spanning the length of a football field—and 2,000-acre grounds to accommodate mass gatherings.^[1] Winarick's strategy of "too much was never enough" drove innovations in group bookings and entertainment programming, including headline performances that drew crowds from the Northeast, solidifying its reputation as a premier Borscht Belt destination with sumptuous kosher cuisine and year-round activities.^[1]^[22] This era marked the Concord's recognition as one of the world's largest resort hotels by room count and facilities, a testament to Winarick's acumen in scaling operations from a modest acquisition valued at $10,000 to a flagship of Catskills tourism.^[17]^[23]

Management Transitions and Operational Challenges

Following Arthur Winarick's death from a heart attack on November 21, 1964, management of the Concord Resort Hotel transitioned to his son-in-law, Raymond Parker, who assumed the role of chairman and chief executive officer.^[17] ^[24] Parker, alongside his wife Clara Winarick, directed operations for approximately 40 years, overseeing continued expansions while navigating the resort's evolution amid shifting industry dynamics.^[25] The hotel's leadership later passed to Parker's sons, Robert and James, maintaining family control into the late 20th century.^[2] Phil Greenwald, serving as entertainment director from the late 1940s until his death in 1982, contributed to operational stability by booking prominent performers that broadened the resort's appeal beyond traditional Borscht Belt audiences.^[26] His efforts, spanning over three decades, included innovative programming that defied Catskills conventions, such as featuring major non-local acts to sustain attendance during periods of market uncertainty.^[13] In the 1970s, as family-oriented summer vacations waned due to competition from air travel to warmer destinations like Florida, the Concord adapted by emphasizing corporate conventions, singles weekends, and off-season events to bolster revenue and occupancy.^[1] These shifts helped offset seasonal fluctuations but were complicated by rising labor costs from unionized workforce demands, which strained budgets without specific wage settlements detailed in operational records.^[27] Management implemented internal efficiencies, including targeted cost controls under Parker's oversight, yet the resort's vast scale—with over 1,200 rooms and extensive amenities—imposed persistent high fixed costs for maintenance and utilities, foreshadowing infrastructural pressures.^[28]^[29]

Financial Decline and Closure

The Concord Resort Hotel's financial decline accelerated in the 1980s and 1990s amid broader shifts in the vacation industry, including the proliferation of low-cost air travel to Florida and the Caribbean, which diverted customers from the Catskills' seasonal, all-inclusive model.^[30] Consumer preferences evolved toward more varied, year-round destinations, diminishing demand for the fixed-price, amenity-heavy Borscht Belt resorts like the Concord, while the residual effects of the 1970s recession sustained low occupancy through persistent economic caution among middle-class families.^[31] These market-driven pressures were compounded by the resort's internal challenges, including aging infrastructure that required ongoing but deferred maintenance to sustain operations, leading to escalating repair costs and diminished appeal to potential guests.^[32] By the mid-1990s, operational losses mounted due to high fixed expenses, such as utilities and labor, against falling revenues from underutilized capacity. In March 1997, the Concord filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, reporting $56.9 million in assets against $26.6 million in liabilities, with Sullivan County emerging as its largest creditor owing more than $8 million in unpaid property and room taxes.^[33]^[34] Efforts to restructure faltered as potential buyers, including developers eyeing casino prospects, withdrew amid the resort's mounting debts and inability to modernize facilities competitively, highlighting self-inflicted vulnerabilities from years of inadequate capital investment rather than solely external market forces.^[35] The bankruptcy process failed to yield a viable turnaround, culminating in the hotel's abrupt closure on November 3, 1998, after owners could no longer cover operating costs or secure financing.^[32] This shutdown resulted in over 400 immediate job losses for staff, many long-term employees reliant on the seasonal hospitality economy, underscoring the causal chain from unaddressed structural inefficiencies—such as outdated amenities and inflexible cost structures—to terminal insolvency.^[32]

Cultural and Economic Significance

The Concord Resort Hotel served as a prominent entertainment venue in the Catskills region, particularly during the mid-20th century, hosting headline performers in its Imperial Room, which accommodated large audiences for shows featuring music, comedy, and variety acts. Barbra Streisand, in the early stages of her career, performed at the resort on August 9 and 10, 1963, drawing crowds to the venue shortly after her Broadway debut.^[36] Other notable acts included frequent appearances by Buddy Hackett and Tony Bennett, contributing to the resort's reputation as a hub for live entertainment that attracted guests seeking escape from urban life.^[37] Social activities at the Concord emphasized communal engagement, with tummlers—energetic hosts who organized games, dances, and interactive events—facilitating guest interactions and fostering a lively atmosphere typical of Borscht Belt resorts. These programs encouraged social mixing among families and singles, often centered on Jewish traditions such as kosher dining and holiday observances, which appealed primarily to Jewish vacationers from New York City but extended to non-Jewish guests as well. The resort's matchmaking efforts, led by maître d'hôtel Irving Cohen over five decades starting in the mid-20th century, paired thousands of attendees during meals and events, reinforcing its role in facilitating personal connections and family formations within a culturally specific environment.^[38] In later decades, the Concord diversified its programming to include conventions and group events, hosting business gatherings that provided opportunities for professional networking alongside recreational activities like shows and dances, helping to sustain occupancy amid shifting vacation trends. These events maintained the resort's function as a social gathering place, blending formal meetings with entertainment to appeal to corporate and organizational groups.^[20]

Contributions to Local Economy and Employment

The Concord Resort Hotel functioned as a primary employer in Sullivan County, a rural region with few diversified economic opportunities beyond agriculture and small-scale trade. In 1970, during a period of active operations, the resort employed approximately 600 to 700 union members alongside 80 supervisory staff, with staffing levels varying seasonally to accommodate peak summer and holiday guest influxes.^[27] By the late 1990s, as attendance waned, it sustained over 400 full-time positions, many held by workers with decades of tenure, offering consistent wages in an area where such stability was rare absent government intervention.^[32] Beyond direct payrolls, the resort generated multiplier effects by procuring supplies from local vendors, elevating demand for regional agriculture, construction materials, and maintenance services to support its expansive 2,000-acre campus and 1,500-room capacity. These activities indirectly bolstered ancillary employment in transportation and logistics, including usage of nearby roads and facilities enhanced by tourism-related traffic. Tax contributions from operations prior to financial distress further aided county services, as the broader Catskills hotel sector—anchored by properties like the Concord—formed the dominant economic driver, funding infrastructure and public amenities through property, sales, and occupancy levies.^[39] The Concord exemplified private-sector dynamism in a specialized market catering to urban Jewish vacationers, fostering self-sustaining growth through entrepreneurial expansion under owners like Harry Winarick without reliance on subsidies, thereby modeling viable job creation in niche hospitality amid limited regional alternatives.^[32]

Controversies

Labor Disputes

In March 1970, roughly 600 employees represented by Local 343 of the Hotel and Restaurant Workers Union struck at the Concord Resort Hotel, prompting an indefinite closure that turned away approximately 2,000 guests during peak season.^[27] The walkout, which lasted nine days, stemmed from expired contract negotiations and halted all operations at the self-proclaimed world's largest resort hotel.^[40] Workers approved a new three-year contract on March 24, allowing reopening, but the disruption underscored how union-mandated work stoppages imposed immediate revenue losses on management amid rising operational pressures.^[41] A similar deadlock occurred in March 1973, when contract talks broke down at the expiration of the 1970 agreement, leading to another suspension of operations and the displacement of nearly 800 guests, along with the cancellation of multiple conventions affecting up to 2,000 attendees.^[42]^[40] The hotel resolved the impasse on March 27 through arbitration, resuming activities shortly thereafter.^[43] These recurrent shutdowns, driven by collective bargaining impasses, amplified cost rigidities from union contracts, which featured standardized wage structures and work rules that constrained managerial adaptability relative to non-unionized regional competitors facing similar market shifts.^[40] Over time, such labor actions eroded the Concord's competitive edge in the Catskills resort industry, where high fixed labor expenses—locked in by successive union pacts—exacerbated vulnerabilities to declining attendance and inflation, without commensurate productivity gains.^[40] Management's repeated concessions to avert prolonged closures provided short-term stability but perpetuated an environment of escalating overheads, contributing to broader operational strains as the Borscht Belt resorts grappled with external economic headwinds.

Development and Bankruptcy Battles

In February 1997, the Concord Resort Hotel filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection amid mounting debts exceeding $9.5 million, with Sullivan County emerging as the largest creditor due to over $8 million in unpaid property taxes and $258,000 in room occupancy taxes.^[33]^[44]^[45] The filing stemmed from operational losses and creditor pressures, including disputes over asset liquidation priorities and the resort's inability to secure financing for revival, highlighting how accumulated tax liabilities—stemming from local government fiscal demands—exacerbated the property's financial strain beyond market-driven declines.^[33] Bankruptcy proceedings involved competing bids for the property, culminating in a 1999 foreclosure sale that transferred ownership but failed to resolve underlying creditor conflicts over recovery distributions.^[2] Following the 1998 closure and subsequent asset sales, post-bankruptcy litigation centered on redevelopment rights for the 1,500-acre site, particularly casino proposals amid New York's emerging gaming market. Developer Louis Cappelli's Concord Associates acquired interests and pursued a "New Concord Casino Resort," investing over $100 million, but faced protracted ownership battles with Entertainment Properties Trust (EPT) and Empire Resorts, who held options for casino development tied to regional exclusivity agreements.^[46] In 2009, Cappelli sued EPT and Empire in federal court, alleging interference with financing and breach of development pacts, while Empire terminated its partnership with Cappelli in 2010 citing the developer's failure to secure funding, leading to a settlement that split property parcels and relinquished key acreage to EPT Concord.^[47]^[48] These disputes underscored property rights frictions, as Cappelli renewed litigation in 2011–2012, claiming EPT and Empire conspired to monopolize Catskills gaming by blocking alternative financing and leveraging regulatory approvals for their Monticello casino project, which prioritized harness racing synergies over broader infrastructure upgrades.^[49]^[50] Courts dismissed several claims, revealing market failures in casino viability: optimistic redevelopment bids overlooked high capital costs for utilities, roads, and environmental remediation on the aging site, compounded by state licensing delays and local tax expectations that deterred investors.^[48] Such regulatory and fiscal hurdles, rather than isolated mismanagement, prolonged legal entanglements and prevented viable private revitalization, illustrating causal chains where government-imposed burdens amplified the resort's post-peak obsolescence.^[49]^[46]

Post-Closure Developments

Demolition and Site Reuse

Following the resort's closure in 1998 due to bankruptcy, the 1,500-acre property in Kiamesha Lake, New York, remained abandoned for nearly a decade, during which it experienced extensive vandalism and deterioration.^[5] Demolition of the main structures commenced in April 2008 as part of preparations for a proposed $750 million hotel and racino redevelopment project.^[36] The process addressed the challenges of dismantling a sprawling complex that included multiple buildings, two 18-hole golf courses, and associated infrastructure accumulated over seven decades of operation.^[51] Site clearance involved significant engineering efforts to remove debris and remediate environmental contamination from historical uses, such as subsurface pollutants requiring remedial action under New York State Department of Environmental Conservation oversight. Certificates of Completion for the cleanup were issued in December 2014 after addressing operable units across the site, enabling certification that remediation met state standards despite residual subsurface contamination managed through ongoing plans.^[52] No certificate of occupancy could be granted without full demolition and environmental clearance, underscoring the regulatory hurdles tied to the site's legacy industrial-scale hospitality operations.^[53] In 2011, the property was acquired by Empire Resorts, a subsidiary of Genting Group, which repurposed the cleared land for a modern casino resort to revitalize the area's tourism economy through gambling rather than traditional Catskills-style vacations.^[4] Resorts World Catskills opened on February 8, 2018, featuring a hotel, casino, and entertainment facilities on the former Concord grounds, marking a shift to gaming-focused development amid the decline of the historic Borscht Belt resorts.^[54]

Legacy and Commemorations

The Concord Resort Hotel stands as an emblem of the Borscht Belt's entrepreneurial spirit, representing a self-sustaining ecosystem of Jewish-American vacation culture that emerged in response to widespread antisemitism barring access to mainstream resorts in the early 20th century.^[55] At its peak, the resort exemplified the era's all-inclusive model, fostering entertainment-driven leisure that influenced broader depictions of mid-century American Jewish life in popular media, though specific inspirations like the film Dirty Dancing drew more directly from comparable Catskills properties such as Grossinger's.^[56] Its scale—boasting 1,200 guest rooms and facilities for thousands—highlighted innovative adaptations by owners like the Ratners, who transformed a modest property into a major hub for social and cultural activities amid exclusionary barriers elsewhere.^[1] In the 2010s and 2020s, efforts to commemorate the Concord have focused on physical markers amid the site's redevelopment into the Resorts World Catskills casino complex. The Borscht Belt Historical Marker Project, launched to document the region's faded resorts, installed a dedication plaque at the former Concord site in Kiamesha Lake, noting its status as the largest Borscht Belt hotel and its role in local history.^[54] Resorts World Catskills collaborated on this unveiling, integrating the marker into the casino grounds to preserve memory of the pre-casino era despite the shift to gaming dominance.^[11] These initiatives, part of a broader Catskills historical trail, aim to educate visitors on the Borscht Belt's contributions to American entertainment and immigrant success stories.^[57] The Concord's closure in 1998 and subsequent demolition underscore lessons in market inertia and failure to adapt to structural shifts, serving as a cautionary example for over-reliant, specialized enterprises. High fixed costs, including unionized labor and expansive infrastructure, proved unsustainable against rising competition from affordable air travel to Florida and the Caribbean, which eroded the Catskills' monopoly on family vacations by the 1970s.^[58] Assimilation trends and improved air conditioning further diminished demand for ethnic enclaves, as second-generation Jewish families integrated into mainstream leisure options, exposing vulnerabilities in niche models unresponsive to demographic and technological changes.^[59] Analysts attribute the broader Borscht Belt collapse, including the Concord, to these unaddressed dynamics rather than isolated mismanagement, highlighting the risks of complacency in tourism-dependent economies.^[60]

References

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Kiamesha Lake - Borscht Belt Historical Marker Project
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Dec 30, 2011 · In the Westchester lawsuit filed last fall, Cappelli”™s attorney claimed EPT blocked a new financing arrangement being put in place by Cappelli ...Missing: disputes redevelopment
[50]
Cappelli sues in wrangling over Concord - Times Herald-Record
Mar 9, 2012 · The lawsuit alleges that Empire/EPT conspired to protect Empire's monopoly on gaming and harness racing in the Catskills. Empire owns the ...
[51]
Golfpass.com - Is golf in the Catskills on the verge of a comeback?
Opened in 2018, Resorts World Catskills sits on the property of the former Concord Resort Hotel, which sprang up as a rival to Grossinger's and built two golf ...
[52]
SESI Secures COCs For Two Project Sites March 27, 2015
SESI, in December 2014, secured Certificate's of Completion (COCs) for both the The Concord Resort site in the Town of Thompson, NY and the AC Dutton Lumber ...
[53]
Concord's owners seek state aid
Owners of the former Concord Hotel have entered a state environmental program that could fund 20 percent of cleanup and ...Missing: fixed infrastructure strain
[54]
RESORTS WORLD CATSKILLS HONORS 'BORSCHT BELT ...
Resorts World Catskills recently joined with the Borscht Belt Historical Marker Project to unveil a new dedication to the former Concord Hotel, Breezy.Missing: South 1959
[55]
The Rise and Fall of the Borscht Belt - NYS Music
Sep 2, 2024 · The Borscht Belt was a safe haven for Jewish people who had been excluded and banned from other resorts and hotels in New York and surrounding states.
[56]
Beyond Kellerman's: Inside the Real Catskill Resorts That Inspired ...
Jul 17, 2025 · But there was a darker reason these elegant, upstate New York hotels were so popular with Jewish travelers beyond their boundless kosher meals.
[57]
New Catskill Historical Trail Rekindles Glory Days Of The Borscht Belt
Aug 19, 2023 · A new historical trail celebrates the rich history of Borscht Belt and its contributions to Jewish and American culture.<|separator|>
[58]
Decline of the Borscht Belt | The Wider Image - Reuters
Oct 20, 2014 · With the advent of cheap flights, and the growing popularity of seaside holidays the resort fell into decline, and the area now has many abandoned homes and ...
[59]
A Look at What's Left of the Abandoned Borscht Belt Hotels
Apr 12, 2018 · Sullivan County historian John Conway blames this decline of resort and bungalow life on the “three 'A's”: air conditioning, assimilation, and ...
[60]
The Rise and Fall of the Borscht Belt - New York Almanack
Sep 6, 2024 · The Borscht Belt was a safe haven for Jewish people who had been excluded and banned from other resorts and hotels in New York and surrounding states.