A new colorful motel in the Catskills brims with LGBTQ pride – Times Union

It’s a tribute to the trio’s grit — and faith in their vision — that, in a year that brought so much hardship to the hospitality industry, the Phoenicia-based property found its footing (“I’ve always been a salmon — I’ve always swam upstream,” laughs Meyer. “It’s just who I am and what I do.”). But Norsdale’s butterfly-like emergence out of the chrysalis that was the COVID-19 pandemic doesn’t give credit to the years-long journey that preceded it.

The year was 2017, and Meyer was in the Catskills for the weekend to attend a friend’s birthday party in Roxbury. He’d long been toying with the idea of buying a rental property upstate with his fellow creatives Harris (a marketing director) and Harrison (an art director), loving the slower pace of life and accessibility to nature the area offered.

“The Catskills are just unlike anywhere else in the country,” says Meyer, who’s been visiting the area for years both personally and professionally. “You get there and it’s mountains, it’s greenery, it’s water, it’s fresh air, there’s barely cell phone service. You get to disconnect from your hectic life and soak up nature in all its glory.”

Honoring the past with fresh twist

When he happened upon a property for sale on his way to the birthday celebration, he knew he’d struck gold. Not only was the home a mere five minutes from downtown Phoenicia, but it boasted 9.6 acres of land and was accompanied by a four-room motel. Meyer was so taken by the roadside view that he screeched to a halt and dialed up the local realtor listed on the “For Sale” sign on the spot.    

“It was very ‘upstate,’” Meyer says of his first walkthrough of the property the next morning. “I mean, the motel was in disrepair — things were hanging down from the ceiling, there was plastic wood paneling on the walls, tiny bathrooms and the carpet was like, this blood red. It really took a vision to see what it could be.”

Never one to shy away from a challenge (after all, this is a man who planned an event for thousands of people at theNew York Public Library, and regularly dreams up celebrations around the world for hundreds of couples looking to officially cement their love), Meyer debriefed with his co-founders before the three unanimously decided to put an offer on their dream slice of real estate.

“We eventually learned that the former owners of the home had raised their family there for 33 years,” explains Meyer. “They were originally from Brooklyn and loved that we were, too — there was definitely a connection there.”

Meyer and his co-founders paid tribute to the history of the property with more than just their Brooklyn zip code, though. They used the former owner’s name for the motel, Norsedale, as the jumping off point for their own brand name, dropping the “e” but otherwise loving the vibe of the unique moniker. “We wanted to honor the legacy of this place,” says Meyer. “By dropping the “e” it was like we’re paying homage to the past and reinventing the future.”

After closing on the property in November 2017, necessary upgrades like plumbing, electrical and infrastructure work took precedence ahead of aesthetics — until the pandemic brought all plans to an abrupt halt. To help overcome the major delays caused by stay-at-home orders, Meyer and his co-founders moved up to the property with the new goal of getting the main home in good enough shape to post on Airbnb.

“It wasn’t our original plan,” he explains. “Our plan was definitely to finish renovating the motel, renovate the house, get all our final permits, and then open the whole property. But due to COVID, delays with furniture and a million other things beyond our control, we opened the main home on the property in June of last year to Airbnb renters. Everybody wanted to get out of the city.”

Dreaming in color

The income from the rental home gave the trio the bandwidth to focus their attention on the property’s CMYK Motel, whose four rooms Meyer dreamed of decorating in all-over saturated hues (CMYK stands for cyan, magenta, yellow and black — the four colors you need to print basically any image).

“If you think of Jove Meyer Events, you think of color — that’s my hope, at least,” says Meyer. “I always want more joy, more color — my whole brand is about being different and celebrating the freedom that comes with that. It was our thought that there’s really nowhere in the Catskills that’s modern, colorful, intentional and bold — it just doesn’t exist. There’s a lot of exposed wood or natural vibes or cabin vibes — a lot of cabin vibes,” he laughs. “And we thought, why not create something that has never been done before, that leads with color and character, and really makes a statement.”

The team did just that, blanketing the motel in a suite of color-saturated rooms, each awash in a single color scheme of all pink, all blue, all yellow or all grey tones, from the painted floors to the saturated wallpaper and bespoke custom finishes. (The exterior is painted a deep charcoal, echoing the black house trend across the Hudson Valley.) But the beauty lies not just in the property’s surface-level aesthetics (which are, undeniably, beautiful), but in the thoughtful and meaningful partnerships the team has forged.

To outfit the home, Meyer fostered connections with equality-minded brands likeFiestaware (who provided all the dishware in the home),Minted (who consulted on the artwork) andEast Olivia (who provided floral arrangements for each room). The sheets in every room are byBrooklinen, a company that proudly stands for LGBTQ and BIPOC advocacy; the toiletries are byMalin+Goetz, a queer-owned, New York-based brand.

“I speak about inclusiveness and advocacy for all people professionally,” explains Meyer. “And we’re all gay — we’ve all been discriminated against, and we know what it’s like to not feel welcome in a space. We wanted to be very clear that that was not the case [at our property]. It was so important that we were intentional in our partnerships.”

It’s not lost on Meyer that segments of the Hudson Valley lean very conservative but he looks at those differences as an opportunity to find commonality, not opposition. “We’re doing our part to engage in conversation and meet everyone where they are,” he explains. “We don’t ask who you voted for on the website, we don’t ask if you’re gay or straight on our website — but we also don’t hide that we are three queer owners and that is our background. People hate what they don’t know, people fear what they don’t know — I think the only way to start breaking down barriers and move forward is to really get to know one another.”

For their part, Meyer and his co-founders have made a concerted effort to involve themselves in their local community, from hosting a series of garage sales when cleaning out the original property (with the intention of meeting their neighbors), to joining the Phoenicia Town Association and committing to hiring contractors, service workers and tradespeople that all reside within an hour of Norsdale.

“If you’re going to do it right, you have to be part of a community — not better than a community or outside of a community,” says Meyer. “Community is connection, and I think we all strive for more of that. We’ve done our best to honor what was there and connect with people locally and authentically.”

After a soft launch party in early June (where they served beer fromWoodstock Brewing company, bites fromThe Upstate Table and made a point to invite every local hotel or motel, wedding venue, business, and event planner), the Norsdale property is officially open for business, offering up a full buyout of the main house and CMYK Motel for weddings, company excursions, retreats and more.

In a beautiful bit of irony, the property’s first guests will be a television production focused on telling the story of LGBTQ people of color, followed shortly thereafter by a reiki master, local wedding guests, and a retreat for mental health professionals. The already-diverse clientele speaks volumes of the open approach Meyer and his co-founders have taken with building the property’s brand.

“I don’t want to say we’re reinventing hospitality, because that sounds so large and grand,” says Meyer. “But, at its core, hospitality is love. At Norsdale, you have space and everything you need to have a great time with those you love, and I think for me, that’s what hospitality is all about. It’s the people you’re with that make life worth living, and we wanted to create a place for that to happen.”