Is There Really a Red Swan?

 

Warwick – A once-familiar village landmark, long since burned and nearly forgotten, may be about to raise itself up from the ashes.
   Plans are afoot to re-establish the Red Swan Inn on a site adjacent to its former location, on the southern edge of the Village of Warwick.
   Originally built at the turn of the 20th century on land that is now the Warwick Country Club, the inn boasted 100 rooms. With its imposing architecture and dramatic vistas, the Red Swan became both Warwick's premiere hotel and a well-known vacation destination for city dwellers.
   The inn's glory faded over the years until it lapsed into disrepair and finally burned to the ground in the 1950s.
   Now, the descendants of one of Warwick's oldest families want to resurrect the inn just steps from its original location, on another piece of land that used to be the Welling Pioneer Farm and Dairy, one of the village's oldest working farms.
   The plan includes a scaled-down, 35-room version of the inn, along with retail shops, a restaurant and tavern, and an as-yet undecided number of town houses on 10.5 acres.
   Mike Demetroules, managing partner of Demetroules R.E., LLC, the family business that owns the Welling property and is putting the plan forward, said resurrecting the Red Swan makes sense for Warwick.
   "Our goal is to create a hospitality neighborhood, walking distance from the downtown Village of Warwick, where local resident and visitors feel welcome and comfortable to dine, stay, meet and relax," Demetroules said. "The cornerstone of this new neighborhood would be the Red Swan Inn, an elegant country inn situated among a public green and botanical gardens."
   Demetroules says the design will embody hallmarks of so-called smart-growth such as mixed-use development, pedestrian-friendly design and plenty of green space. He says it will bring much-needed jobs and tourism to the village.
   "In thinking about the best way to utilize our family's homestead, it is important for us to continue the Welling family legacy by developing the site for the benefit of the community," Demetroules said.
   But there are serious hurdles ahead before the plan can become a reality.
   Going ahead would require the village to create an entirely new hospitality district on its zoning map – a process that would prove lengthy and that is likely to stir considerable controversy.
   The site, near the intersection of routes 17A and 94, was also the center of a bitter development controversy in 1998, when a proposed Grand Union supermarket there sparked widespread protests that killed the project. Add current concerns about traffic, noise and the loss of what is now a large chunk of pristine open space, and Demetroules could be in for a major headache.
   "We really have to sift carefully through all of this and see what's what," said Mayor Mike Newhard. "These decisions will be with us for a long, long time. There's a lot of things we need to look at very carefully, and we want the public to be involved all the way."
   A public meeting to discuss the plan is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Thursday at Park Avenue Elementary School