Forty years after last stepping foot on the property, Patti Fitz-Gerald was overcome. From 1960 to 1973 her parents, Jean and Boylan “Doc” Fitz-Gerald, had run Paleface Ski Center and Dude Ranch on Jay’s Bassett Mountain, a family-friendly hill just down the road from looming Whiteface Mountain. After the Fitz-Geralds sold Paleface, a couple of other owners took it on until it was purchased as a private estate in the 1980s.
And with that one family it stayed until fall 2022, when Rick and Matt Vidal, who were living in the Hudson Valley, where they operate Cascada Farm retreat, purchased the property. They were looking for a place in a jaw-dropping setting, that had a happy history, and where the community could grow and gather.
In July the Vidals opened the doors to what they call NewVida Preserve—an appropriate name for the 2,000-acre spread—with trails for hiking, biking and skiing; a lodge with 14 guest suites, a bistro, bar, game room and dining room; wellness center with gym, yoga studio and soon an indoor pool; and community business space.
Patti Fitz-Gerald was among the locals who came to see what had become of the landmark that figured so big in her past. (Ask anyone who grew up in the area in the 1960s and ’70s and you’ll hear stories about learning to ski, cannonballing into the pool, even falling in love.) “It was like watching someone pick up a photo album they hadn’t seen in four decades,” says Rick. “Patti was a ski instructor here, she was part of the kitchen crew, serving and bartending, taught horseback riding … she did a little bit of everything.” And “it was her dad’s place,” he adds. “He was the visionary who poured his passion into building a ski mountain here when it was still a farm and untamed land.”
Like Patti, he says, “this community wanted it to come back.”
On a late-fall Saturday night NewVida is packed. In one of the lodge’s soaring A-frames the dinner crowd lingers, listening to the band. In the next room, people squeeze into leather booths or chat around the bar, which is decorated in vintage skis that Rick found on the property. And in the next, the focus is on ping-pong and pool or lounging on the sofas while eating tapas—flank-steak tacos, smoked chorizo meatballs and portobello chimichurri sliders. Faces are mostly familiar, folks from Jay and beyond.
The Vidals have worked hard to balance the needs of visitors vacationing here with those of locals who want a place to gather. For guests from away, NewVida offers an on-campus experience with close proximity to Lake Placid for side-trips. For community members, there’s the bistro, bar and restaurant, but also a membership program that encourages local buy-in with discounts on food and drinks and access to the wellness center and surrounding trails.
NewVida employees, at this point 20 part- and full-time in all, are from the area, with the exception of Rick’s nieces from Florida who spent last summer working in the bistro. Neighbors serving neighbors, a local business that offers stable, year-round jobs—it’s exactly what an Adirondack community like Jay needs.
The Vidals are relatively new to hospitality. Rick, who grew up in Miami, the son of Cuban immigrants, is a physician who specialized in global health, starting a nonprofit medical outreach program for underserved countries. After earning an MBA, he worked in tech, most recently as director of sales engineering and tech sales at Google. Matt, originally from Long Island, is a former vice president at Nickelodeon and currently works as product counsel for YouTube. Cascada Farm, their 400-acre property with private cabins and a waterfall, was a detour for both of them, but Rick says they “created something beautiful there,” inspiring them to search for Paleface. The couple and their kids—a six-year-old and 20-month-old twins—had been living at the farm, in Rhinebeck, but they now call Jay home.
The Vidals have been busy, marking and lighting some of their preserve’s trails for Nordic skiing and skinning. They’ve prepared the lodge, with its honey-colored woodwork, fireplaces and cozy vibe, for the après-ski crowd. They’re booking weddings and private events into the coming years. And they’re hopeful that this will be the place for all, just as it was back in the Fitz-Geralds’ time.
If You Go
NewVida Preserve is at 6394 Route 86, in Jay. Check out dinner, tapas and craft cocktail specials; a schedule of live music, wellness workshops and other events; and membership information on Instagram
@newvida_preserve or at www.newvidapreserve.com.
