A New York hospitality company is in talks to acquire the remaining Greystone Hall property in West Chester with plans to redevelop it into a luxury boutique resort and spa.
Mirbeau Hospitality Services has a purchase agreement with the Jerrehian family, Greystone Hall’s longtime owners, Mirbeau partner Jonathan Dal Pos told the Business Journal. Located at 2450 Aram Ave., the 44-acre property includes Greystone Hall’s historic three-story mansion, a garage and a carriage house. The parcel is the remainder of the original 441-acre Greystone property.
The acquisition of 117-year-old Greystone Hall is a part of Mirbeau’s efforts to expand out of the Northeast and down the East Coast. When the company first saw the Chester County property, Dal Pos said it was “immediately obvious” that it should be home to its next resort.
“It screamed Mirbeau, and it’s just such a remarkable property that it wasn’t something we felt we could pass up,” Dal Pos said.
The company currently owns and operates three Mirbeau Inn & Spa properties across New York and Massachusetts, each of which was awarded a four-star rating from Forbes Travel Guide for its 2024 Star Awards. Mirbeau also has a spa in Albany, New York, and another inn and spa in Beacon, New York, under development.
At Greystone Hall, Mirbeau is proposing to create 80 guest rooms across several new and existing buildings. The 18,000-square-foot mansion would have eight overnight accommodations, while the carriage house and garage would house another 11 rooms combined, according to documents submitted by Mirbeau to West Goshen Township.
Adjacent to the mansion, Mirbeau has proposed to build a three-story central spa building that would house the spa on the first floor and 33 guest rooms across the next two levels. The spa, which Dal Pos called the “heartbeat” of the Mirbeau concept, would be open for daily use by non-hotel guests, which make up about 60% of its business.
Mirbeau is also proposing the construction of seven cottages on the property that would each house another four guest rooms for a total of 28 more rooms. In addition to the spa and overnight accommodations, Dal Pos said the resort will offer a restaurant serving French-inspired cuisine in the mansion that would also be accessible to non-hotel guests.
In total, he projects that the resort would create around 150 jobs for the area.
Greystone Hall was put on the market with an asking price of $9 million in fall 2022. Dal Pos declined to disclose the purchase price of the property citing the pending deal.
Around the time the site was listed, the Jerrehian family received approval for the zoning ordinance for the property to be amended to allow for 60 rooms and for new buildings with a maximum height of 35 feet to be constructed on the land. Mirbeau has proposed further amendments to those ordinances to allow for 80 guest rooms and new building heights of up to 40 feet on the property.
The proposed amendment for new building heights says that Mirbeau would not be permitted to build higher than the highest point on the roof of the historic mansion. Dal Pos said the company intends to rehabilitate the mansion to “National Park Service standards.”
“It’s a project that can preserve and respect and promote just a treasured historic asset like Greystone Hall,” he added.
At a Jan. 24 board of supervisors meeting for West Goshen Township, Mirbeau received approval from the board to move forward with those proposed changes. They will now go to the Chester County Planning Commission for review and approval.
Pending approvals and the sale of the property, Dal Pos said Mirbeau would like to break ground on the redevelopment in 2025 and have the property open in 2026 or 2027. He believes the boutique resort would be an economic driver to the area by keeping guests spending money in nearby municipalities like West Chester instead of going elsewhere in the region.
“It’s really meant to be a community asset that is not exclusively priced,” Dal Pos said. “It’s meant to be inclusive and high-end but approachable and comfortable.”
The Jerrehian family has owned Greystone Hall since 1942 and has rented it out as a wedding venue since 1992 for additional revenue, hosting more than 20 events at the property annually before the Covid-19 pandemic. Dal Pos said Mirbeau will likely still offer the resort for event rentals but it will not be its primary focus for the property.
Greystone Hall was built in 1907 for inventor Philip M. Sharples and designed by well-known Main Line architect Charles Barton Keen.
Outside of the parcel now under contract, the majority of the Greystone land was purchased by Reiser Land Development for $75 million in 2018. NVHomes later built a $450 million, 588-home residential community on the tract.
