After two failed attempts in Wallkill and Monroe, the developer of a world-class dinosaur park now sets his eyes on a piece of 140-acre land in the Town of Montgomery.
The property sits at the intersection of Route 17K and Barron Road and is zoned commercial.
Neil Gold, the New Jersey-based developer, said he first had the idea of building a dinosaur park after taking his eight-year-old grandson to such a park in Leonia in 2019.
“Finally, we have a site, thanks to [Town Supervisor] Mr. Feller and County Executive Steve Neuhaus,” Gold said at a May 15 press conference in Goshen. “We are very excited about doing this. It is an educational entertainment section for children of all ages.”
The proposed park will have 60 moving, life-size dinosaurs, a fossil dig site for all ages, a theater for live performances, miniature dinosaur rides, and a train that circles the park.
Paleontologists with the American Museum of Natural History will aid in creating the experience.
Neuhaus said at the press conference that the developer chose the Montgomery site out of a couple of candidates and that only a quarter of the property would be developed.
The site’s 50 acres of wetlands would be preserved with a buffer.
The land is county-owned and will soon be sold to the Town of Montgomery at the assessed value.
“It is going to bring a really wonderful dinosaur experience to Orange County, to Hudson Valley, New York state, and the whole Northeast,” Neuhaus said. “It is going to be an economic impact that we are going to be all proud of.”
Once open, the park is expected to bring in an annual revenue of just under $40 million.
A sixth of the estimated 300,000 annual visitors are students on field trips.
About 130 jobs will be created with a payroll of over $4 million.
The developer received a state grant of $1.7 million for the project and will not seek property tax incentives from local economic development agencies.
Montgomery Town Supervisor Ronald Feller said at the press conference that he fully supported the project, as did the members of the local planning board.
“Our planning board has agreed to give their time and energy to push this process through efficiently—and in a due process—as fast as possible,” he said.
He added that residents will have opportunities to voice opinions during the planning process, which typically takes nine to 12 months.
Gold first proposed his dinosaur park idea to the Town of Wallkill, eyeing a site just east of Route 17 at the intersection of Weld and Tarbell Road.
However, the land was in a rural and agricultural district, and the local Zoning Board of Appeals declined to grant a special use permit for the park to be built.
Later, he took it to the Town of Monroe, proposing to lease property near the Gold Club at Mansion Ridge, but the discovery of large-size wetlands through a land survey thwarted the plan.
