Preserve at Upper Saddle River by Toll Brothers. Goodbye Apple Ridge

 

Buyer beware.

Arriving in mailboxes now.

Have you got yours?

With continued push from Upper Saddle River, Mahwah and Saddle River residents over Toll Brothers construction at Apple Ridge and Orchard Ridge, and the lingering questions over highly toxic soil contaminants and poisoning of water there was a lot of bad press. If you google some variation of the words, Toll Brothers and Apple Ridge, with housing thrown in there, you’re going to get quite a few negative articles to do with protests and arsenic levels.

However, Toll Brothers think that they can outsmart the home buying public by doing what many companies do when they are struggling.

Re-brand.

Instead of continuing to keep the name Apple Ridge, which is what is posted on the signs along Route 17 ‘New Homes at Apple Ridge, Toll Brothers’, they’ve decided to pick a new name.

Preserve at Upper Saddle River.

Interesting.

First, let us first look at the definition of Preserve.

pre·serve/prəˈzərv/verb

1. maintain (something) in its original or existing state.

Oh they are definitely going to preserve the lands in their original state: full of arsenic and toxins that were used to maintain the orchards and golf course back in their day. Maybe somewhat mitigated, but who really knows.

Or you can also choose the other definition of “an area restricted for the protection and preservation of natural resources (such as animals or plants)”. Sensing an oxymoron here. But, that’s just one point.

Re-branding like this may be good business practice but is wrong on so many levels. You have people looking for new homes, families with children, and when googling the name few, if any, of the mounds of articles to do with the issues come up. Thankfully a few show up but it’s not overwhelming like before the name change. You have to sift through a lot of things to find it now.

Some of the homes, due to the expanse of the lot, will be in Upper Saddle River and some will be in Mahwah. So how does this name work? Well, they have two names. There is Preserve at Upper Saddle River and Orchard Ridge of Mahwah. When you google either, no seriously negative articles currently come up. Sneaky!

According to a letter between Boswell-Engineering and Upper Saddle River Mayor Minichetti back in April 2018, the name The Preserve at Upper Saddle River was used to describe the location. However, during the entire process of fighting by residents over the past year of so, they were the Homes at Apple Ridge. So was this other name kept quiet deliberately? Did they think there would be bad press so they had a backup name to cover themselves? Something seems a little off.

For houses priced around $1.4 million, starting price, one would hope for truthfulness. But, this is not a utopia. Actually, we’re far from it.

Now onto the card that they sent out.

Bold print across the top. Why is their biggest selling point public utilities in Upper Saddle River? Who decided out of all the things listed – proximity to NYC, style of home, even the school district – that they were going to talk about the utilities first and foremost? Is that your only selling point???? That’s slightly concerning…

Toll Brothers can rename their properties as often as they want and change the window dressing. But at the end of the day, it’s still going to be a field full of toxins, that is regularly dumped into the local waterways, that they have refused to have transparency about, or work with residents to allay fears and concerns.

As always, buyer you really need to be aware.

Aerial Photo Credit: Derek Michalski