Meet Syrup Proprietor, and Woodbury Village Board Candidate, Tyler A. Etzel Jr
The sketchy history of Tyler A Etzel Jr, former Woodbury Town Councilman, Monroe Planning Board Member, and now Woodbury Village Board Candidate backed by hanhallah.
Before we get into this …
This is not an exhaustive deep dive into Mr. Tyler A. Etzel Jr. For example, I didn’t FOIL his fifteen years on the Town of Monroe Planning Board and his time on the Woodbury Town Board.
(I’m open to suggestions on what I should FOIL there. You can send me tips at BJMendelson@duck.com or via other means here.)
Think of this post as more of an introduction. I’m going to take some time here and introduce you to hanhallah’s hand selected candidates for the Woodbury Village Board.
That means, the more I find on Mr. Etzel, the more I’ll share.
So, let’s get into it what I have so far.
Wayne Corts & Falkirk Estate and Country Club
Fallkirk is something a few of you have been emailing and messaging me about, and I just haven’t had time to get into it just yet.
Honestly, South Blooming Grove is the priority right now because of the pending DEC ruling and the lawsuit against Washingtonville which could have ramifications for everyone in New York State.
Plus, the New York State government is trying to push through a bill that would allow religious groups to essentially override all local zoning rules and regulations to build housing. This is a handout to hanhallah disguised as a solution to New York’s, housing crisis.
So … You can understand why I’ve been so focused over there.
But Fallkirk is something we’re going to talk about in more depth later. Today, we’re just focused on how this ties in with Mr. Tyler Etzel Jr.
And that connection begins with Mr. Wayne Corts.
It’s Wayne’s World
Wayne Corts is a major player in Southern Orange County Real Estate. For our purposes, there’s a couple of key things to know about Mr. Courts.
First, he is the developer of the Greens of Woodbury, which was a 63 home development built off Smith Clove Road. That project got underway back in 2003, after The Nature Conservancy sold the land to Corts. The Nature Conservancy acquired the land after it was left to them by Katherine Stainton after she died. Katherine spent a good portion of her life trying to preserve Woodbury’s green space. At the time, the Orange County Land Trust was understandably pissed about this sale to Corts, pointing out that it went against what the Nature Conservancy claimed to stand for.
On June 21st, 2013, Wayne Courts created Greens of Woodbury Partners LLC, using PO BOX 308, Central Valley, NY, 10917. On December 11th, 2017, using this same address, a company called Kimbrooke Investors LLC was formed.
We’ll get back to one of these LLCs in a bit.
Second, we have to talk about ACE Farms
ACE Farms was created in 1917 and is said to have gotten the name “ACE” during the Great Depression. The farm was initially a goat farm but switched over to poultry and eggs after the Depression. Their slogan was, “For Babies, Invalids, and Particular People.” In an interview with 101.5fm WPDH, Michael Grindord, representing the farm and Tyler Etzel Jr.’s cousin, stated that the odd slogan from the 1930s was meant to indicate that eggs were the perfect food for those who needed it.
In 1972, Tyler Etzel Jr. became part of the farm’s management team.
Now, here I have to state for legal purposes that Mr. Courts, to this day, denies any involvement with the sale of ACE Farms to Mayer Hirsch. According to the Times Herald Record (THR), Hirsch is a former Kiryas Joel Trustee and Chairman of both the Village and Planning Boards, as well as a “major property owner and powerful force in Kiryas Joel, operating behind the scenes.”
In 2017, it was revealed by Politico that Hirsch was also one of Governor Andrew Cuomo’s top donors.
He also is a member of hanhallah (re: Aaron Teitelbaum’s leadership group), and worked, according to the THR, to block the sale of ACE farms from Tyler Etzel Jr. to a dissident group. (This dissident group may or may not be the same that went on to buy property in South Blooming Grove.)
Corts was said to have been operating as a “front man” for the dissident group according to statements provided to the THR by Pinkus Jakobowitz, a member of the dissident faction.
Corts and his friend and fellow developer Ralph Petruzzo would buy the property from Etzel JR., and then sell it back to the KJ Dissident group, splitting the money. But that’s not what happened.
Petruzzo at the time was owner Petruzzo Products Inc. in Corinth, N.Y. Later, it would be revealed that he retained 20 acres of the ACE Farms property after the sale. Petruzzo incorporated in 2003 a company called New York Bio-Conversion, and had an option to develop a bio-conversion business on that land.
(This is a minor point, but as a former Glens Falls resident, Corinth is pronounced Corrrre-inth. It’s very stupid. I don’t know why. But people get really mad up that way if you pronounce it Cor-inth. It’s sort of like how Madrid, New York is not “Madrid” but “Mad-Rid”.)
In 2000, Tyler Etzel Jr. was in talks to sell ACE Farm to Bill Brodksy. Brodsky is the man who built the Brigadoon development in Highland Mills via his Carteret Group Inc. The deal looked like it was about to close in 2002, until Etzel Jr. and family backed out for unexplained reasons.
In 2002, Wayne Corts, representing the dissident group, attempted to purchase the land from Etzel. The reason the dissident group didn’t directly try to buy the land was because Tyler Etzel’s father, Tyler Etzel Sr., did not want the farm to be turned into high density housing.
Etzel Jr. later told the Times Herald Record, “My father didn't want to sell it to Kiryas Joel because he didn't want it to look like things look over there.”
So, to be clear, Mr. Corts was hired by the dissident group to lie to Tyler Etzel Sr.
Once hanhallah heard that ACE Farms would be sold to the dissident group, they intervened, and Mr. Corts dropped the dissident group as a client.
Mayer Hirsh then purchased the property with virtually the same deal Corts and Petruzzo had negotiated with the Etzel family.
On January 16th, 2003, Petruzzo closed the deal for $12.7M and then flipped it to Hirsch. This was an all cash transaction, and no one involved with the deal, including Tyler Etzel Jr. would comment on specifics. (The sale was originally reported as $11.7M but later reports would reveal that an additional million dollars had been tacked on.)
77 Acres Road Realty Co. was the name of the limited liability corporation that listed, at the time Petruzzo as its agent. Petruzzo was said to have relinquished the corporation to the Kiryas Joel developer (Hirsh), rather than transferring the property deed. That’s how he was able to keep the transaction invisible. (As a footnote, Hirsh, it turns out, also owned 70 acres of land that bordered ACE Farms.)
In the ensuing years, ACE Farm would remain open, much to the surprise of Etzel Jr. himself. But in that time, not only did hanhallah own the land under ACE Farm, it also was reported to have purchased 4,500 dozen eggs a week from Etzel Jr., further lining Etzel’s pockets.
In 2008, Tyler Adrian Etzel Sr. died at age 78, while residing in Wallace, North Carolina. In addition to being a graduate of Monroe-Woodbury Senior High School, Etzel Sr served on the Woodbury Volunteer Ambulance Corps for 30 years in various positions, including President.
ACE Farm would shut down for good a decade later, in July of 2018. In their follow-up story, the THR revealed that after the ACE Farm purchase closed, that the property became owned by Vaad Hakiyrah. This is a subdivision of Aaron Teitelbaum’s congregation in Kiryas Joel / Palm Tree.
In 2015, after defeating United Monroe in court, Kiryas Joel annexed 22 acres of ACE Farms into what became the Town of Palm Tree. At the time, no plans were revealed for the 188 acres of ACE Farms that belong to Woodbury.
Local residents may recall that there was an “arrangement” that no further annexation would take place for a period of ten years. A period that ends on January 1st, 2025, just 263 days away.
It’s worth noting that Etzel’s former home, until the farm closed in 2018, was also owned by Vaad Hakiyrah (aka hanhallah.)
He said to the THR that a new home was being built that he would move into.
That land was owned by Greens of Woodbury Partners LLC before being sold to Etzel.
The land was sold to Etzl Jr. from Cort’s company in May of 2017 for $200,000, and it is still Etzel Jr.’s place of residence. At least according to the paperwork filed with the Orange County Board of Elections for Mr. Etzel Jr’s upcoming run for the Woodbury Village Board.
(There is a question though about the condo in NYC … Etzel JR is also listed as having owned a New York City condo at 175 W 73rd St. Apt 8K. Whether or not he still owns the condo and resides there is not known at this time, but should probably be brought up to the Orange County Board of Elections just to check.)
Corts would go on to find himself engaged in a series of lawsuits both in Florida and in New York state. Petruzzo would go on to have troubles of his own.
For example:
In May of 2009, Wayne Corts purchased the land that had one been the Central Valley Golf Club for $2.7M and renamed it Falkirk Country Club. In 2010, an all cash offer was made to purchase the land occupied by the New York Military Academy in Cornwall. Corts would later claim that haredi from Brooklyn were trying to purchase the land. Corts put up $5.8M to purchase the land, which at the time stoked fears of the New York Military Academy being flipped in much the same way as ACE Farms.
In June of 2017, Corts sold the Stony Point Marina that he had operated for almost 40 years, saying he was entering a state of semi-retirement. But that wasn’t the end of Mr. Corts in the news, as he was later sued in 2020 after being accused of being a “willing participant” in a fraudulent scheme involving the sale of a yacht.
That brings us back to Tyler Etzel Jr …
Let’s fast forward to 2019. Tyler Etzel Jr. is a candidate for the Woodbury Town Council. Just two years after moving into the home built on land sold to him by Wayne Corts.
The only thing notable about Etzel’s 2019 run for Woodbury Town Council is that he praised Supervisor Frank Palermo, who was at the center of so many controversies that this post would need another 50,000 words for me to even begin covering them all.
Etzel Jr. also did not mention that, in the years where he did run ACE Farm as President, it was owned by hanhallah and he did a lot of business with them.
Most relevant though is that Etzel added, “Additionally, I support protecting open spaces vital to a healthy environment.”
Etzel would go on to win a seat on the Woodbury Town Board, receiving 1,097 votes alongside eventual Woodbury Town Supervisor, Thomas J. Burke, who received 1,259 votes.
I’m sure there’s a bunch of stuff that happened during Etzel Jr.’s time as Woodbury Town Councilman worth noting, but we’re going to fast forward to the Fall of 2023.
That’s when his support of open spaces and their protection goes right out the window.
“Tyler, What Are You Trying to Hide?”
In July of 2023, Etzel Jr. is running as a candidate for Mayor of the Village of Woodbury. He would lose resoundingly that Fall, only receiving 514 votes to John U. Kelemen’s 771, and Andrew R. Giacomazza’s 1,019.
Worth noting: John U. Kelemen, a Republican, has switched parties and is now running alongside Tyler Etzel Jr. as a Democrat for Woodbury’s Village Board in an upcoming 2024 election.
If it’s not already obvious, Etzel Jr., Freiband, and Kelemen work for hanhallah. A point we’ll return to in upcoming posts.
At the July 6th, 2023 Town Board Meeting, Councilman Etzel Jr. makes a curious announcement, beginning at 56 minutes. The video below should take you to that announcement.
Here, Etzel Jr. states that the Town owns properties that are not used, not needed and costing them money. So, he would like to sell them.
Maria Hunter, Chairwoman of the Woodbury Beautification Committee FOIL-ed and found those properties:
204-1-92.3, Van Tassel Court, 5.8 acres, landlocked, borders Town of Blooming Grove
213-1-104, 55 Ridge Road, 2.3 acres, old foundation remains, borders Convent of Jesus & Mary.
The first two, it was revealed later by Woodbury residents, have no taxes due or need to be paid on them. So, Mr. Etzel’s statements in the video above are false.
The third was 213-1-70, 287 Seven Springs Road, located in Amdur Park near Village of Kiryas Joel, which costs $560.34 annually, or about what a SONY PS5 and Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth go for at Target right now.
At the meeting, Etzel Jr. then said he contacted a realtor, but did not reveal at the meeting who that realtor was. (Is this the same mystery realtor Village Councilman Freiband is said to have told about land that was meant to be donated to the Village earlier this year?)
It’s clear from the video above Etzel Jr. was eager to sell these properties (and potentially others) as soon as he could. The Woodbury Town attorney helped pump the breaks on that. So did the Mayor …
In a letter written by Village Mayor Andrew R. Giacomazza, he pointed out that these properties were purchased, most likely, for future preservation efforts. He went on to state that, if the Town no longer wanted to own the properties, the Village would consider purchasing them.
On October 5th, 2023, a month before the election, Councilman Tyler Etzel Jr. proposed a rule that would limit public comment at Board meetings to only 5 minutes. A move similar to what Palermo did earlier during his tenure in office.
Etzel JR. also wanted to restrict questions and comments directed at specific board members such as himself. You can see how that proposal went down when Jimmy NG got to the podium:
Given his anti-democratic position of limiting speech at Town Board meetings — Something mirrored in Monroe by Town Supervisor Cardone limited speech to no more than 3 minutes — and his urgency to sell land using unknown realtors, the motives of Tyler Etzel Jr. and his run for the Woodbury Village Board should be of concern for all village residents.
It doesn’t matter if you’re haredi or not. Woodbury, like South Blooming Grove, is operating under water restrictions. And as we’ve seen since coming into office, Trustee James Freiband is hellbent on lifting the building moratorium and claiming there’s plenty of water to be found.
If Freiband is successful in getting Etzel Jr. and Kellemen elected to the Woodbury Village Board, you can guarantee the building will resume.
And like in South Blooming Grove right now, there will be yet another water emergency for all Southern Orange County residents to contend with.