Drive Route 17A through Tuxedo this week and you will pass two things that have almost nothing to do with each other except the calendar. Past the turnoff for Sterling Forest, pennants still mark the entrance to the New York Renaissance Faire, now down to its final three weekends. A few miles on, a leasing office has opened at 5 Bridle Trail Road, the first storefront of a town center that Related Companies has been describing, in one form or another, for decades.
Neither of these is new information if you have been paying attention to your own town. But most years, a place like Tuxedo changes in increments too small to notice. This fall it is changing in three directions at once, and all three land in the same six weeks.
A Town Center Forty Years in the Making Finally Has a Front Door
Related Companies opened leasing on September 14 for the first 336 rental apartments at The Village at Tuxedo Reserve, the town-center piece of the 1,200-acre Tuxedo Reserve community sitting between Harriman State Park and Sterling Forest State Park, roughly 30 miles from Manhattan. The building, a three-story mixed-use structure at 5 Bridle Trail Road designed by Aurae, the luxury division of Suffern-based Aufgang Architects, holds one- and two-bedroom units ranging from 700 to 1,400 square feet. Listed monthly rents run from $3,595 for a one-bedroom up to $7,035 for a two-bedroom, two-bath layout, according to the developer's own leasing announcement.
Related's Greg Gushee, an executive vice president on the project, has said the plan for this site goes back "over 40 years." Ground did not actually break until May 2025, with Related handling the town center and Lennar building the surrounding single-family homes and townhomes. The first of those homes, in a section called West Terrace, welcomed its earliest residents this past June. The apartments now leasing are the second piece of that same long build-out, and first move-ins are expected in October.
The scale of the ambition shows up even in the trade press coverage. When New York YIMBY published its item on the leasing launch, the headline placed the project in Tuxedo, New Jersey. Commenters corrected it within the hour, pointing out that Tuxedo is very much a New York town, and the outlet's own body copy said as much. It is a small mixup, but it says something about how new this address still is to outsiders. Locals will not need the correction.
What Actually Opens This Fall, and What Is Still a Rendering
It is worth separating what exists now from what is promised later, because the two are getting blended in a lot of the coverage. The apartments and a seasonal ice-skating rink are what Related has confirmed for this fall. The rink sits inside Market Square, the planned commercial heart of the development, alongside a timber-framed food market that is part of the design but not yet open for business.
Everything else on the developer's list, the restaurants, cafes, taverns, specialty food shops, wellness providers, and general retail, is described as rolling out through winter and into spring. Related has been building what it calls a Founders Circle of inaugural tenants to shape that commercial mix, but as of this fall the storefronts around Market Square are still mostly plans on paper.
That distinction matters if you are picturing a finished village square with lights strung between buildings this holiday season. What you will actually find in October is a leasing office, an apartment building filling up, and a rink under construction. The rest is coming, but not yet. For residents in adjoining neighborhoods, the amenity package attached to the apartments is worth knowing about regardless of whether you ever lease there: a resort-style pool, fitness facilities, basketball and squash courts, tennis and pickleball courts, a dog park, and direct trail access into the surrounding woodlands, all sitting on land that borders more than 70,000 acres of preserved forest between the two state parks.
The Faire Has Three Weekends Left
Meanwhile, the other end of town is winding down for the year. The New York Renaissance Faire runs weekends from August 15 through October 4 on 65 forested acres in Sterling Forest, just off Route 17A. Gates open at 10 a.m. and entertainment runs until 6 p.m., with adult tickets between $35 and $45 depending on advance purchase, $18 for children 5 to 12, and free admission for kids under 5. Weekend crowds have run between 5,000 and 10,000 people, so the parking lots and shuttle lines off 17A fill up fast, especially before noon.
That leaves three weekends on the calendar: this coming one, the following one, and the closing weekend of October 3 and 4. September temperatures in the 80s have been giving way to cooler days in the 60s and 70s, which makes the later dates a better bet for anyone who finds a wool jousting cloak uncomfortable in August humidity. Once the gates close on October 4, that stretch of Sterling Forest goes quiet for the season, and the woods it borrows for six weekends a year go back to being just woods.
Sterling Forest Trades Costumes for Blaze Orange
That handoff happens to coincide with two other seasonal shifts inside the park. Fall officially arrives at 8:05 p.m. on September 22 this year, and Hudson Valley foliage forecasts suggest color starting to show up broadly by late September, with the region's historical peak running from mid-October through early November. That puts Sterling Forest's hardwood cover, the same hills visible from the Frank R. Lautenberg Visitor Center, on track to be at its most photogenic right around the time the faire packs up its tents.
It also coincides with the start of hunting season inside the park. New York State Parks notes that Sterling Forest allows no hunting in September, but permits for the 2026-2027 season went on sale August 10, and the season proper begins in October. Anyone hiking the park's trails from October through February, and again in May, is advised to wear blaze orange. There is one useful exception for anyone who would rather skip that step entirely: the land immediately around Sterling Lake, including the popular blue-blazed Sterling Lake Loop, a walk of a bit over four miles around the water, is designated a no-hunting zone regardless of season. If your fall hiking plan is the lake loop and a stop at the visitor center, the orange vest stays optional. If you are heading up toward the Bare Rock Trail and the overlooks along Sterling Ridge, it is not.
One Compressed Autumn
None of these three threads caused the others. The town center's timeline was set by a construction schedule that started in 2025. The faire's calendar is set every year by its own August-to-October run. The hunting season dates come from the state's wildlife management calendar. But this year they are stacking on top of each other in a way that a typical Tuxedo autumn does not usually produce: a leasing office opening its doors, a six-weekend event closing its gates, and a hiking season quietly changing its rules, all inside the same month.
For a town used to slow, visible change, that is worth noticing. Most years you would feel the town center arrive gradually, watch the faire wind down without much thought, and adjust to hunting season the way you always have. This year all three showed up on the same block of the calendar, which means the next few weekends carry more decisions than usual. Faire or foliage. Orange vest or lake loop. Leasing office or wait and see what actually opens next spring.
If any of this has you thinking about what a changing town center means for property nearby, or you are simply curious what it does to home values on your side of Tuxedo, that is exactly the kind of local shift CENTURY 21 Elite Realty tracks as part of the job. Reach out and ask for a Get a Free Home Valuation to see where your home stands as the town around it keeps moving.
