The Legends Resort & Country Club, often called simply Legends, was a hotel located on County Route 517 in Vernon Township in Sussex County, New Jersey, United States. In the 1970s, Hugh Hefner built the facility as The Great Gorge Playboy Club Hotel , and it officially opened in 1972. The Playboy Club was sold in 1982 to the Americana Hotel franchise . The hotel was sold again to the Seasons Investment Corp. and reopened in 1991 as the Seasons Resort and Conference Center. The property was sold yet again to parent-company Metairie Corp (owned by Hillel A. "Hillie" Meyers with individual hotel rooms owned by Andrew Mulvihill), [1] which reopened the hotel as the Legends Resort & Country Club. The hotel declined severely after 2000 and has been nearly derelict with the amenities all damaged and shut down. The hotel did stay open but mostly housed recipients since about 2005. After evicting long term tenants, the hotel finally closed to public operations in April 2018 with various plans to restore it for commercial use of some sort. In July of 2024 Mayor Anthony Rossi announced that the property had been sold to an affiliate of Lockwood Hotels.[ citation needed ]
During the 1970s, the Great Gorge Playboy Club had 800 rooms, but various owners since that time have combined units and converted many into condominiums, reducing the total number to less than 400 rooms at the current Legends Resort & Country Club. [2] The eight-floor hotel has a cabaret, ballroom, restaurant, a fitness center, indoor pool, jacuzzis and an Olympic-sized swimming pool located outside. Most of the rooms have been renovated at least once, but some are still set up as originally constructed in 1970s decor. Much of the hotel became derelict by 2005.
The Playboy Club, in the 1970s, was the host of the first New Jersey Special Olympic Games. [3]
In 1978, six Bunnies were among about dozen women who were lured to a house in nearby Glenwood Lake, drugged and filmed in various non-consensual sex acts. The women were blackmailed to give up money and act as drug mules. [4]
David Haulmark, a 36-year-old contract laborer living in the Legends Resort & Country Club, was beaten to death outside the hotel on August 17, 2008. Haulmark, an Oklahoma native who was working on a pipeline project in nearby New York, was found lying on a sidewalk near the east entrance of the resort around 3 a.m. He had been battered around the face and head, and authorities determined the cause of death to be blunt force trauma to the head, neck and face. Jacob R. Gentry, 27; Jarrod C. Gentry, 20, of Port Jervis, New York and Emily M. Henry, 24, of Plymouth, Michigan, were arrested in Port Jervis on August 17 in connection with the homicide. The Gentry brothers were charged with first-degree murder and endangering an injured victim. Henry allegedly pepper sprayed Haulmark and left the scene of the crime; she was charged with endangering an injured victim and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. [5]
Defense attorneys said Jarrod Gentry jumped in to defend his brother after Haulmark and Jacob Gentry got into a fight. Gentry family members said Jacob Gentry had previously lived in Legends and moved out due to prior physical altercations with Haulmark over Henry, who was Jacob's girlfriend. Jacob Gentry also worked as a contract laborer with Precision Pipeline, the same Eau Claire, Wisconsin-based company where Haulmark worked. The Gentry brothers and Henry, all previously lived in Michigan (the Gentry brothers are originally from Tennessee), waived their extraditions from Orange County, New York on August 19 and will be tried in Vernon. [6] The crime was the first murder charged in Sussex County in almost two years. [7]
All three suspects were incarcerated in Sussex County Jail, [8] but Jarrod Gentry was released in 2011, having been sentenced to time served. [9] Jacob Gentry was sentenced to 30 years in prison for his primary role in the murder. [10] 19 February 2016, after having his original conviction overturned, Jacob Gentry was found not guilty on all charges in a jury retrial. [11] [12]
In December 2008, Haulmark's family sued the owners of Legends Resort, alleging that negligence of hotel staff led to Haulmark's death. According to witnesses, two hotel bartenders saw Haulmark bleeding profusely outside the hotel doors on the night of his death but did not assist him, and in fact one bartender allegedly instructed patrons not to call 9-1-1. The suit alleged that the hotel had become a "den of trouble" including fights and drug use, with frequent responses to the hotel by police. The suit also alleged that the hotel bar did not have a bouncer or check for underage drinkers. [13]
On March 16, 2012, the McAfee Fire Department and other fire units from Sussex County and Orange County responded to a 9-1-1 call at 9:02PM reporting a fire at the resort. The fire was restricted to the balcony of a vacant apartment, room 518, and caused limited damage. It was under control by 10:45PM. [14] [15] The fire was not considered suspicious, and may have been caused by a tossed cigarette. [14] Fire units were forced to break open the front lobby doors to the hotel since they were locked. It was reported that 35 people were inside at that time and were forced to evacuate for a brief period of time. People were already leaving the hotel through a side door when firefighters arrived. [14]
We were promised this was going to be the jewel of the Northeast, and it's the pits.
—Robin Barren
timeshare owner with Legends Owners United [2]
The Legends Resort & Country Club has been subject to several complaints and lawsuits in the 2000s (decade) by timeshare owners who argued that promised amenities were no longer available and that Legends officials were being dishonest and unreceptive to their concerns. Dozens of the owners, who formed an organization called Legends Owners United, said little upkeep had been done on the property, parts of the facade were falling off, the parking lot was cracking, tennis courts were deteriorating, interior ceilings were stained, hallway lighting was spotty, plywood covered some windows and many services were regularly closed, including an indoor pool, gym, restaurant, club and store. They also claimed Legends officials failed to provide them with statements documenting where money for repairs had been spent. [16] About 1,600 people own Legends timeshares, which sold for between $8,000 and $11,000 each. [2] Timeshare buyers generated $15 million in revenue for the Metairie company, as well as thousands more each year in maintenance fees. [16]
Three lawsuits against Legends have been consolidated and are currently pending in New Jersey Superior Court; two were filed by timeshare owners alleging mismanagement or impropriety in selling timeshares while the building was in violation of state fire codes, and one seeks class-action status for all timeshare owners. [2] In a separate matter, Mountain Spa Inc., a McAfee-based spa company that rented space at Legends, sued the resort for $1 million in May 2006, alleging that the hotel frequently failed to provide heat and electricity when the spa rented space there starting in 2003. As a result, spa officials said they were frequently unable to operate its health club and had to close in August 2005. [17] Hillel Meyers, Metairie Corp. president, acknowledged to state officials in a May 2005 letter that "the property may be properly characterized as 'distressed.'" [2] Legends was previously part of RCI, one of the largest timeshare brokers in the world, but in December 2006, RCI removed it from the program, which many timeshare owners said significantly reduced their ability to trade vacation weeks with other resort locations. Legends Owners United has filed complaints with the Federal Trade Commission, the New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs and the state Real Estate Commission. [2] State real estate regulators launched an investigation into the Legends Resort & Country Club in early 2007 in response to the complaints. [16] Legends and Metairie officials have indicated they plan to sell some of the company's assets and make improvements, but have not provided specific plans or a timetable for any such changes. [2]
In 2005, the Vernon Township Zoning Board rejected a proposal by Metairie Corp. and another firm that included 372 townhouses on 580 acres (2.3 km2) surrounding the property. Township officials refused to allow any new construction at the resort until renovations were completed at the hotel itself, which officials described as an "eyesore." [2]
In 2011, the Vernon Township Council made several suggestions for the future of the Legends Resort property, including a potential Sussex County golf course, a medical center, or a community college branch. [18] Also in 2011, The New Jersey Herald reported that according to Vernon mayor Vic Marotta, the owners of Legends Resort were in negotiations to sell the property. The property is "a problem for our community on many, many fronts," Marotta said. If successful, the sale could lead to a $100,000 construction project within the following five years. [19]
In March 2024, Mayor Anthony Rossi announced that the building had been sold to an unnamed buyer, although the property's owner, Metairie Corporation, had not announced the sale themselves. [20] On July 5, 2024, the sale was finalized and approved by the town's attorneys. Rossi stated that the sale had been made to an affiliate of Lockwood Hotels who intend to turn the property into a 300-room, internationally branded hotel with a world class spa, 150 residential condos, and the ability to hold concerts. [21]
Portions of the 1989 comedy See No Evil, Hear No Evil , starring Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder, were set and filmed at the hotel, referred to simply as the "Great Gorge Resort" in the movie. The swimming pool scene in the opening of the movie Dream House starring John Schneider and Marilu Henner was filmed there
Vernon Township is a township in Sussex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is located about a one hour drive from New York City and is part of the New York Metropolitan Area. As of the 2020 United States census, the township's population was 22,358, a decrease of 1,585 (−6.6%) from the 2010 census count of 23,943, which in turn reflected a decline of 743 (−3.0%) from the 24,686 counted in the 2000 census. It is both the most populous municipality and the largest in area in the county.
The Seaview is a golf club and resort on the East Coast of the United States, located in Galloway Township, New Jersey, north of nearby Atlantic City. The club hosted the ShopRite LPGA Classic in 1986-87, from 1998-2006 and again starting in 2010. During World War II, it hosted the PGA Championship in 1942, Sam Snead's first major title. The course also cooperates with Rutgers University on testing of new turf breeds and natural control of mosquitoes.
A resort is a self-contained commercial establishment that tries to provide most of a vacationer's wants, such as food, drink, swimming, accommodation, sports, entertainment and shopping, on the premises. A hotel is frequently a central feature of a resort and the term resort may be used for a hotel that provides an array of entertainment and recreational activities. Some resorts are also condominium complexes that are timeshares or owned fractionally or wholly owned condominium. A resort is not always a commercial establishment operated by a single company, but in the late 20th century, that sort of facility became more common.
Lake Hopatcong is the largest freshwater body in New Jersey, United States, about 4 square miles (10 km2) in area. Located 30 miles (48 km) from the Delaware River and 40 miles (64 km) from Manhattan, New York City, the lake forms part of the border between Sussex and Morris counties in the state's northern highlands region.
A timeshare is a property with a divided form of ownership or use rights. These properties are typically resort condominium units, in which multiple parties hold rights to use the property, and each owner of the same accommodation is allotted their period of time. Units may be sold as a partial ownership, lease, or "right to use", in which case the latter holds no claim to ownership of the property. The ownership of timeshare programs is varied, and has been changing over the decades.
Stockholm is an unincorporated community located in the southeastern part of Hardyston Township in Sussex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Its ZIP Code is 07460. Like many neighboring towns, Stockholm is home to a number of lakes including Deer Trail Lakes, Lake Stockholm, Lake Gerard, Beaver Lake, Lake Tamarack and Summit Lake.
Mountain Creek is a ski resort in Vernon Township, Sussex County, New Jersey, United States. It is located on New Jersey Route 94 in the New York Metropolitan Area, 47 miles (76 km) from the George Washington Bridge.
Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa is a hotel, casino, and spa in Atlantic City, New Jersey. It is owned by Vici Properties and operated by MGM Resorts International. The casino hotel features 2,798 rooms and is the largest hotel in New Jersey. Borgata opened in July 2003 and is the top-grossing casino in Atlantic City.
Tropicana Atlantic City, often referred to as The Trop, is a resort, casino hotel located on the beach and Boardwalk in Atlantic City, New Jersey. It is owned by Gaming and Leisure Properties and operated by Caesars Entertainment, and is the third largest hotel in New Jersey, with just under 2,400 guest rooms and the 200,000-square-foot shopping and entertainment complex, The Quarter. It has over 30 restaurants, 30 shops, 20 bars and lounges, 4 pools, the Tropicana Showroom, multiple spas, and an IMAX Theatre. In 2016, Tropicana completed over $200 million in renovations and additions, including a Multimedia Light and Sound Show, the addition of AtlantiCare LifeCenter Fitness, Garces restaurants, renovations to over 900 hotel rooms, and casino floor but Tropicana will continue investing. The Tropicana is the largest resort and casino on the boardwalk, with 2,364 rooms, 3,000 slot machines, 30 restaurants, and 30 shops, along with two 2,500-space parking garages, totaling over 5,000 parking spaces. In 2021-2023 Tropicana is said to complete renovations through these years, the renovations will include renovations to all 604 West Tower rooms, modernized elevators and escalators, pool enhancements, gaming space enhancements, and more undisclosed renovation projects.
Bonnet Creek Resort is a development in the southeast corner of Walt Disney World. The land, which is not owned by Disney, is bordered on three sides by Disney-owned land and on the fourth side by Interstate 4. It is surrounded by the Bonnet Creek nature preserve and is named after Bonnet Creek, which runs through the property. The entrance is located on Buena Vista Drive, just east of the entrance to Disney's Riviera Resort.
Action Park was an amusement and water park located in Vernon Township, New Jersey, United States, on the grounds of the Vernon Valley/Great Gorge ski resort. The park consisted primarily of water-based attractions and originally opened to the public in 1978, under the ownership of Great American Recreation (GAR).
The Westin Las Vegas Hotel & Spa is a hotel and former casino near the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada. The Westin is owned by Highgate and Cerberus Capital Management, and uses the Westin brand under franchise from Marriott International. It is noteworthy for being one of the first Las Vegas resorts to prohibit smoking in almost all parts of the property.
Mountain Creek Waterpark is a water park located in Vernon, New Jersey, United States, on the grounds of the Mountain Creek ski resort. The park consists primarily of water-based attractions and opened in 1998. Its initial life as Action Park, one of the first modern American water parks, was open from 1978 until 1996 and became infamous for its poor safety record. At least six people are known to have died as a result of mishaps on rides at the original park. Despite this, the park was very popular and attracted thrill-seekers from across the New York metropolitan area.
Resorts Casino Hotel is a hotel and casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Resorts was the first casino hotel in Atlantic City, becoming the first legal casino outside of Nevada in the United States, when it opened on May 26, 1978. The resort completed an expansion in 2004, adding the 27-story Rendezvous Tower, and underwent renovations in 2011, converting the resort to a Roaring Twenties theme.
Newton High School is a four-year comprehensive public high school serving students in ninth through twelfth grades from Newton, in Sussex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, operating as part of the Newton Public School District. Students from Andover Borough, and Andover and Green townships, attend the high school as part of sending/receiving relationships.
Sussex Airport is a mile southwest of Sussex in Wantage Township, Sussex County, New Jersey. It is just outside Sussex Borough. The public-use airport is privately owned by Sussex Aviation LLC which purchased it in 2015.
The Atlantic Club Casino Hotel, formerly known as Golden Nugget, Bally's Grand, The Grand, Atlantic City Hilton and ACH, is an abandoned hotel and casino located at the southern end of the boardwalk in Atlantic City, New Jersey, owned and operated by Colony Capital. It was the city's first and only "locals casino". The Atlantic Club permanently closed on January 13, 2014, at 12:01 AM, largely as a result of dwindling casino visitors to Atlantic City due to increased competition in neighboring states. A third of Atlantic City's boardwalk casinos closed the same year, the others being Revel, Trump Plaza, and Showboat. Redevelopment proposals include a water park.
Trump World's Fair at Trump Plaza was a hotel and casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey, that occupied 280 feet of the Atlantic City boardwalk and was 21 floors in height. It had 500 guest rooms. It opened on April 14, 1981, as the Playboy Hotel and Casino, then changed its name in 1984 to Atlantis Hotel and Casino.
Ocean Casino Resort is a resort, hotel and casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey, United States. It is the northernmost casino on the Atlantic City Boardwalk, located on 20 acres (8.1 ha) of land, adjacent to the Showboat Hotel. It is notable for its white sphere structure atop its roof away from the Boardwalk, capable of displaying a wide variety of colors and designs thanks to the LEDs inside it. Revel opened on April 2, 2012, and after declaring Chapter 11 bankruptcy for the second time, closed on September 2, 2014. Revel was the third of four Atlantic City casinos to close in 2014.
Elara is a 50-story timeshare building and non-casino hotel at 80 East Harmon Avenue in Paradise, Nevada, located behind the Planet Hollywood resort that operates on the Las Vegas Strip.
