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Exterior of The Hobbit House at June Farms on Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2022 in West Sand Lake, N.Y. The Hobbit House is one of many theme based Airbnb rental units on June Farms owned by Matt Baumgartner.
Front door to The Hobbit House at June Farms on Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2022 in West Sand Lake, N.Y. The Hobbit House is one of many theme based Airbnb rental units on June Farms owned by Matt Baumgartner.
Interior of The Hobbit House at June Farms on Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2022 in West Sand Lake, N.Y. The Hobbit House is one of many theme based Airbnb rental units on June Farms owned by Matt Baumgartner.
Light fixture outside The Hobbit House at June Farms on Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2022 in West Sand Lake, N.Y. The Hobbit House is one of many theme based Airbnb rental units on June Farms owned by Matt Baumgartner.
Window in The Hobbit House at June Farms on Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2022 in West Sand Lake, N.Y. The Hobbit House is one of many theme based Airbnb rental units on June Farms owned by Matt Baumgartner.
June Farms owner Matt Baumgartner is seen riding one of his ATVs at June Farms on Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2022 in West Sand Lake, N.Y.
The TiPi is one of many theme based Airbnb rental units on June Farms owned by Matt Baumgartner. on Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2022 in West Sand Lake, N.Y.
Construction on a cabin in Stuy Town is seen at June Farms on Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2022 in West Sand Lake, N.Y. This will be one of many theme based Airbnb rental units on June Farms owned by Matt Baumgartner.
Construction on a cabin in Stuy Town is seen at June Farms on Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2022 in West Sand Lake, N.Y. Foundations are started on the right for more units. This will be one of many theme based Airbnb rental units on June Farms owned by Matt Baumgartner.
Exterior of The Hobbit House at June Farms on Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2022 in West Sand Lake, N.Y. The Hobbit House is one of many theme based Airbnb rental units on June Farms owned by Matt Baumgartner.
Exterior of The Hobbit House at June Farms on Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2022 in West Sand Lake, N.Y. The Hobbit House is one of many theme based Airbnb rental units on June Farms owned by Matt Baumgartner.
Interior of The Hobbit House at June Farms on Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2022 in West Sand Lake, N.Y. The Hobbit House is one of many theme based Airbnb rental units on June Farms owned by Matt Baumgartner.
Bathroom of The Hobbit House at June Farms on Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2022 in West Sand Lake, N.Y. The Hobbit House is one of many theme based Airbnb rental units on June Farms owned by Matt Baumgartner.
Custom sink in the bathroom of The Hobbit House at June Farms on Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2022 in West Sand Lake, N.Y. The Hobbit House is one of many theme based Airbnb rental units on June Farms owned by Matt Baumgartner.
Bathroom of The Hobbit House at June Farms on Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2022 in West Sand Lake, N.Y. The Hobbit House is one of many theme based Airbnb rental units on June Farms owned by Matt Baumgartner.
Kitchen area of The Hobbit House at June Farms on Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2022 in West Sand Lake, N.Y. The Hobbit House is one of many theme based Airbnb rental units on June Farms owned by Matt Baumgartner.
Interior of The Hobbit House at June Farms on Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2022 in West Sand Lake, N.Y. The Hobbit House is one of many theme based Airbnb rental units on June Farms owned by Matt Baumgartner.
Custom made sink and countertop in the kitchen The Hobbit House at June Farms on Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2022 in West Sand Lake, N.Y. The Hobbit House is one of many theme based Airbnb rental units on June Farms owned by Matt Baumgartner.
WEST SAND LAKE — A rental cabin straight out of “The Hobbit” complete with a map of Middle Earth is the latest addition to June Farms, the luxury agri-tourism resort that Matt Baumgartner has developed over the past five years.
How did Baumgartner, the serial restaurateur-turned-gentleman-farmer decide to build a Hobbit house as the latest rental unit at his farm?
“Over the years, people are always throwing suggestions at me,” Baumgartner said.
Along with a tree house, a Hobbit House is the most frequent suggestion, he said, so he took it to heart.
Contractors burrowed and drilled their way into a rocky hillside in the farm’s forest and dug out a rounded, underground cabin, albeit one with a window, black walnut countertops, radiant heating, flickering yard lamps and manicured gardens out front.
Five years after it opened, Baumgartner’s June Farms, which is more like a verdant patch of forest than a farm, is going strong, hosting visitors for vacation or weekend “glamping” stays, Wednesday night food truck visits and other attractions such as the violinist who serenades the farm’s heritage livestock.
Soon, all of this activity will likely be featured in a yet-to-be-named streaming show about life on the farm, which Baumgartner aims to transition into more of a high-end event venue for celebrities and social media influencers.
The show, which they are hoping to shoot a pilot for later this year, would be along the lines of “Below Deck,” the hit Bravo channel series about the trials, tribulations and antics of the young people who work as deckhands aboard a chartered yacht for the rich.
Baumgartner’s got a lot to work with.
Earlier this year he was seeking to hire staff/cast members for the farm with headshots required for some of the positions.
Just as important as the human backdrop, though, will be the unique rental cabins at the farm including a retrofitted Airstream trailer and a tepee.
The Hobbit house, which was set to get its certificate of occupancy this month, will rent for $275 a night weekdays or $295 on weekends.
In addition to acres of forest, walking paths and golf-cart roads on the 120-acre farm, there are fields and livestock pens containing heritage breed chickens, ducks, Scottish Highland cattle and Tamworth pigs.
Initially, Baumgartner conceived of the farm as his country home, with the livestock supplying farm-to-table food production.
But he didn’t like the idea of killing the animals, so now “they are just pets,” he says.
He’s also got miniature Nubian goats, a dog and barn cats (The “barn” is actually a custom-built rustic open-air dining room with bar).
Baumgartner opened downtown Albany’s Bombers Burrito Bar in 1997, followed by other venues including Wolff’s Biergarten, and the Olde English Pub as well establishments in Syracuse and Troy.
But he has since exited the restaurant business. He still has four restaurants under contract and the Olde English Pub is up for sale.
The decision to switch from restaurateur to rural getaway house was prompted by reflections during the COVID-19 shutdown and a feeling that the grind of running those businesses was wearing thin. The customers, who seemed to get more and more demanding, were a factor as well.
COVID-19 closures added to challenges. And the broad agri-tourism business is expected to grow over the next few years. Straits Research, a business survey firm, predicts that global agri-tourism will grow by almost 14 percent by the end of the decade. And the U.S. is the leader in this trend.
As opposed to restaurants where people are drinking and gobbling down, say, fat burritos late at night, people come to June Farms to mellow out.
“A lot of guests use the word unplugged,” said Baumgartner.
That’s not to say that June Farms is a retirement gig.
During a recent visit, Baumgartner was in constant motion, meeting with contractors, racing around the grounds in one of the farm’s golf carts to check on guests and progress on final touches to the Hobbit House.
Every few minutes he’d shout a memo or reminder into his cell phone, such as the need to clean the golf carts three times a week.
Baumgartner does take time off to breathe – the farm is a summer operation and he spends January through May in Miami to decompress and think about his next business move.
Mostly, it seems that June Farm is a place where Baumgartner’s imagination can run wild.
As the Hobbit House was opening, contractors about a quarter mile away were working on the next set of rentals – a series of four Quonset hut buildings that Baumgartner has dubbed the Pig Stuy, an apparent ode to both pig farming and the Stuyvesant Town, or Stuy Town, a residential neighborhood on the east side of Manhattan.
It will include hot tubs and a luxury/agri theme with what could be plush “pig pens” inside the structures. He also envisions an A-frame, which is another oft-suggested idea, or a Japanese tea house.
Baumgartner relies on a pair of Bethlehem-area contractors he’s long worked with, Phil Rowlands and Tom Brennan, to turn his visions into reality. “They are like artists,” Baumgartner said of the two.
Both men and another worker, Clint Junco, were at the first Quonset hut to go up and were working through ways to put the trim on the outside of the structure.
These huts are built as utilitarian steel structures, so making them into whimsical agri-tourism cabins will entail some imaginative design and construction.
Brennan said they enjoy the uniqueness and construction challenges of realizing Baumgartner’s visions.
“The projects are challenging in a good sense,” said Brennan. “You don’t just go to the store and buy Hobbit House beams or Airstream doors.”
“There’s nothing that’s typical or in the norm around here and we love that,” added Rowlands.
Rick Karlin covers the environment and energy development for the Times Union. Has previously covered education and state government and wrote about natural resources and state government in Colorado and Maine. You can reach him at rkarlin@timesunion.com or 518-454-5758.