CALLICOON – Once a thriving school overlooking the Delaware River, the former Delaware Valley Central School in Callicoon now sits vacant, its seven decades of school memories locked inside its walls forever.

It has had five owners in the past 12 years, none of whom took on the immense task of refurbishing the 100,000-square-foot, two-story brick building, which held more than 650 students, K-12 during its heyday.

This past fall, Leb Realty LLC of Brooklyn, purchased the building for $1,046,000 at the Sullivan County tax auction.

“We are still debating on what we want to do,” Mr. Leibovits, the new owner, said. “I wish I could tell you [what the plans were].”

Town of Fremont Supervisor Brian Brustman said officials in the town were contacted by the new owners.

“I know they reached out to our code enforcement officer with questions for us about special use permits,” Brustman said. “But they had no definitive plans. They were just doing research and had no formal plan yet.”

Mr. Leibovits said they did contemplate a medical center, but that did not work out.

“We’ll see,” he said. 

As for the purchase price of $1 million, Mr. Leibovits said, “It was OK, we bought it at auction.”

A little history

Delaware Valley was part of the three school merger in 1999, which included Narrowsburg Central and Jeff-Youngville Central.

As the merger progressed and the Sullivan West High School was built in Lake Huntington, both Delaware Valley and Narrowsburg schools were shuttered in 2005 and put on the auction block.

The Narrowsburg School was purchased by the Weiden family and now plays host to The Narrowsburg Union, an eclectic mix of businesses and community organizations.

Shops, office space, art exhibits and many other functions are held at the former school, which is located in the center of Narrowsburg.

The Delaware Valley Central School was eventually sold to Emily Yu in September 2013 for $1.16 million. 

The building sits on 56 acres and it was Yu’s intention to expand the Windsor School to the Callicoon campus. 

The Windsor School, located in New York City, offered college prep curriculum for foreign-born and domestic students in grades 7-12. International pupils (primarily Asian and Spanish) are also taught English and can earn  U.S. diplomas, in anticipation of attending American universities.

It was originally Yu’s plan to erect dormitories to house 200 or more students but the plan never came to fruition.

According to Sullivan County records, Yu sold the building in 2017 for $2.8 million to Sansui Trading Co, LTD, who then transferred the property later that year to New York Art Valley, Inc.

Then in July of 2022 the property was sold for $1.7 million to the U.S. National Career Training Center, Inc., which claims its offices at 40 Wall Street, New York City.

Apparently, their plans never were realized as “the company is out of budget,” according to a former U.S. National Career Training Center employee who was interviewed in 2022.

The county took back possession in July of 2025 before selling it at auction on Oct. 29, 2025.