Westchester County purchased the property from John Sites for $2.8 million, according to Henry Fries, principal of Henry W. Fries Real Estate of White Plains, who represented the buyer and the seller in the deal. Sites has retained a total of 63 acres on two separate parcels at Hilltop Hanover Farm and is in the approval process to build single-family homes at the site.

Salvatore Carrera, director of real estate and the Office of Economic Development for Westchester County, said Westchester is in discussions with the New York City Department of Environmental Protection to sell the city approximately 123 acres to be set aside for watershed protection.

Westchester County Executive Andrew Spano first announced the intended purchase of Hilltop Hanover Farm on July 11, 2001. The county plans to convert the former dairy farm into an environmental educational center that will also include a working classroom in pesticide-free agriculture, a laboratory and learning center for Westchester County residents. Carrera notes that Westchester is hoping to work with Cornell Cooperative Extension and other environmental and horticultural groups on the project.

About 57 years ago the property was a dairy farm, first for Holstein cows and later for Guernseys, which were bred and raised on the farm. The breeding operation was discontinued in the early 1990s and the former owners sold the cows in the mid 1990s. The property was originally occupied in the late 1600s and the main residence was built around 1785.

There are a number of houses, a cow barn, silo and a stable on the Hilltop Hanover Farms grounds that are located on Hanover St. and Croton Heights Road. The Watershed Agricultural Council is currently renting space at one of the houses on the property. The county plans to make improvements to the other existing buildings to create the environmental/horticultural center, Carrera says. A five-acre parcel will be set aside for county parkland and be managed by the Westchester County Parks Department.

Carrera says that negotiations were long and sometimes difficult, but notes that the original selling price for the entire 250-acre property was approximately $6 million.

Instant Insights /

Westchester Buys Hilltop Hanover Farm for $2.8M

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