ELDRED — From the ashes of the devastating fire in 2015, The Old Homestead Restaurant will be reopening under new owners and at a new location. The restaurant will be the centerpiece of a new resort built on the site of the former Eldred Preserve on Route 55 in Eldred. The new 28-room resort will also adopt the name of its predecessor as the Eldred Preserve.

It will not only offer year-round lodging and the restaurant, but will include a gym and convention space for weddings, bar mitzvahs and other parties.

“I am happy the planning board approved this,” said Dan Silna, new owner of the Eldred Preserve. “Our objective was to bring something significant to the town, so the area will hopefully center around [the resort] and begin to thrive more and more. I spent all my life in the Catskills and I want to bring people up here to show them why I've been coming all these years and why I love it.”

Paul and Alice Edelman, former owners of The Old Homestead that was located in Bridgeville, agreed to establish the new restaurant once the resort is built.

Silna purchased the site in early 2016 and started development in September 2016.

A presentation was given by Keith Simmel of Cooper Carry, who are the lead architects and designers for the new resort, during Wednesday's Town of Highland Planning Board meeting.

The planning board approved the site plan under conditions that the County recommended. Ken Ellsworth, Keystone Associates, out of Binghamton, is being held on retainer on behalf of the town to make sure the recommendations and the project remains within the site plan. The new owners have agreed to pay for the services that Ellsworth will provide for the town.

The site is currently being worked on and the demolition of many of the buildings is well underway.

The original Eldred Preserve Resort was one of Sullivan County's premiere outdoor resort catering to fishing and shooting enthusiasts.

The new resort will have modern facilities and amenities, the designers have used the surrounding area as inspiration and made sure the hotel fits within the landscape, making use of the ponds and trails that surround the preserve.

There will be a new lodge with rooms available as well five private cabins.

The lodging and new restaurant will sit on the old footprints of the former resort.

One of the new additions to the resort will be a gym for guests to use while they are staying at the resort. The gym will be tucked into the landscape along Route 55 and will feature an agricultural rooftop, which will have a layer of sod so the structure will be able to blend into its surroundings.

Another feature of the new resort, according to Simmel, “is using the existing landscape as an attraction,” which all the rooms and private cabins will have a view of.

Much of the original bridges and walkways will remain intact and some will be reenforced.

The owners hope to have the resort open by 2019 to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the Woodstock Festival that happened in Bethel, just 12 miles away.