Luxury resort brand pays $13.7M for 236-acre farm upstate

Six Senses pays hefty premium to snag location in Hudson Valley

Six Senses CEO Neil Jacobs and Old Stone Farm in Rhinebeck (Getty, Six Senses, Zillow)
Six Senses CEO Neil Jacobs and Old Stone Farm in Rhinebeck (Getty, Six Senses, Zillow)

Five senses are more than enough to figure out what’s unfolding at the Old Stone Farm in Rhinebeck.

Resort brand Six Senses purchased the Hudson Valley property from entrepreneurs Chid and Georgie Badiel Liberty for $13.7 million, the New York Post reported. The couple wasn’t looking to sell, but changed their mind after receiving the massive offer. The deal took place off-market.

The sellers had purchased the 236-acre biodynamic farm for $8.5 million last year, two years after it was listed for the same price. The Libertys bought the distressed asset expecting it would become a family compound.

Now, it is expected to become the latest resort under the global Six Senses banner, though the company did not confirm as much to the Post. Six Senses doesn’t have any venues in the United States yet, though the Bangkok-based company was planning to open its first U.S. hotel at HFZ’s former High Line project, the XI, before the development stalled and was sold.

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The Hudson Valley property includes a 3,600-square-foot stone house that has original details from 1768. There are two bedrooms, four and a half bathrooms, eight fireplaces and an artist’s studio. A 7,200-square-foot barn dating back to the 1780s has become a 10-room inn and spa.

The Old Stone Farm has been through several iterations. It served as a secret hotel known as The Dutchess, where Arianna Huffington once stayed. It also was once an equine therapy center.

Wendy Maitland, the CEO and principal broker of Atelier, represented the buyer and the seller.

While the purchase price may reflect the buyer’s lofty ambitions for the site, the drastic increase from the sale price of a year ago also reflects a trend of farmland price escalation in the Hudson Valley. It has been driven by wealthy New York City residents who relocated during the pandemic.

— Holden Walter-Warner