Demolition to begin of Water Slide World; Schermerhorn to Planning Board 1/23

By Cathy DeDe, Chronicle Managing Editor

Demolition of the former Water Slide World in Lake George is to begin “in the next few days,” attorney Jonathan Lapper said Monday in response to a Chronicle query. Mr. Lapper represents Richard Schermerhorn who purchased the 12-acre property last month for $3 million and plans a mixed-use project with as many as 200 market-rate apartments, plus commercial space for offices and retail at ground level.

“We’re just at the preliminary design stage,” Mr. Lapper said Monday.

He said they expect to send preliminary drawings to the Town Planning Board as early as November and hope to submit materials formally in December, to be on the agenda for Site Plan Review at the Town Planning Board meeting in January 2023.

They’ve met with Town Planning and Zoning Director Dan Barusch, Mr. Lapper said.

“It would be the largest project Lake George has seen, maybe ever,” Mr. Barusch told The Chronicle in March.

Mr. Lapper said, “This will have a unique look,” from Mr. Schermerhorn’s other apartment projects, with the town requiring first floor retail and offices.

“It will be a little more urban looking,” he said, but noted, “It’s really at the very preliminary stages. There’s not much to say about it yet. The design work is just getting started.”

Mr. Lapper said, “It is an important property for getting off the Northway at Exit 21, a gateway area of the town. It will be nice for the site to be redeveloped.”

Some mementoes of Waterslide World will likely be preserved. “Some people reached out and wanted some of the pieces,” Mr. Lapper said, adding that Mr. Schermerhorn himself plans to keep some.

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