‘America’s Greatest Zoo’-turned Hotel Listed For $3.6M

The coronavirus pandemic has forced the owners of this Borscht Belt landmark to sell the farm.

Upstate New York’s Catskill Game Farm has listed the property housing its petting zoo-turned-boutique hotel after a brutal business period.

“We’ve had three-quarters of our reservations canceled in the last two months,” Sid Blauner, the current owner of the property, told The Post.

Blauner, who grew up going to the zoo, said that, amid the ongoing uncertainty around the pandemic, he had no choice but to list the 193-acre plot. The cancellations had also become a financial liability, he added.

The property at 400 Game Farm Road offers a unique array of amenities, including six bedrooms, a game room, an outdoor hot tub, multiple “glamping” sites and a large, living room-style common area. But it also boasts a rich history. The site started in 1933 as the first privately owned zoo in the US, and, in its heyday, earned the name “America’s greatest zoo” in homage to its 2,000 animals and some 500,000 annual visitors, according to New York Upstate.

In 2006, after 73 years in business, the Catskill Game Farm closed and became a popular destination for urban explorers enticed by its strange, abandoned zoo aesthetic. Then, in 2012, it got another lease on life after Ben and Cathy Ballone bought it and subsequently renovated the crumbling giraffe barn therein, turning it into a hotel. They reopened the space in 2019 as the Long Neck Inn.

Elements of the old zoo have been retained.

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It’s a well known landmark in the Borscht Belt.

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The property was abandoned for a brief period in the early 2000s.

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Blauner bought it for $1.9 million the following year. it is currently listed for $3.6 million.

In an attempt to stave off the need to sell, he recently converted the booking system to be Airbnb-only, but unfortunately the hotel’s key demographic of families has been hit hard by the Omicron wave and remain reluctant to stay in a hotel.

“Probably 70% of the people come as adults with their children,” he said, with many of the older folks former visitors to the property’s petting zoo incarnation. “You can imagine the memories they have. We’ve seen people break down and cry remembering the happiest memories of their childhood, together with their parents [here].”

A nod to its petting zoo.

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The property spans 193 acres in total.

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Blauner himself attended the zoo as a child. While “we can’t have a restrictive did,” he hopes that whoever owns the property next will keep it open to the public.

The last owners converted the former giraffe barn into an inn.

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A large common space in the converted barn.

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The current owners have so far managed the getaway exclusively over the course of COVID-19.

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One of the inn’s six bedrooms.

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‘America’s Greatest Zoo’-turned hotel listed for $3.6M

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