Spirits entrepreneur Raj Bhakta is abandoning his ambitious plan to redevelop the former Green Mountain College campus in Poultney after more than five years of sputtering business and tax disputes.
Bhakta told Vermont Public that his family will be leaving Vermont in the coming months and relocating his liquor business, Bhakta Spirits, to another state. He described his broader vision for the campus as a “gigantic philanthropic exercise” that he can no longer afford.
“The spirits business is going through a challenging period, and I’ve got to focus on the core business,” he said.
Bhakta plans to dispose of the 155-acre campus, either by giving it to a Christian entity — if one steps forward — or by selling it on the open market.
Bhakta’s departure dashes the hopes of 3,000 or so town residents whose economic fortune became entwined with the brash, smooth-talking former contestant on The Apprentice in 2020 when he bought the vacant campus at auction for $4.55 million.
Leah Romine, president of the Poultney Area Chamber of Commerce, said Bhakta’s decision is a “huge,” discouraging blow to the area.
“Basically, we’re starting all over from square one,” Romine said. “I think people are just a little worried and want to know what will happen next.”
Bhakta made no effort to temper expectations when he purchased the defunct campus a year after its 2019 closure. “I’ll bet in 10 years, we have the greatest college — greatest work-ag college — in the entire world,” he told WCAX at the time.
Bhakta arrived in Poultney as a successful businessman with a reputation for theatrics. He founded WhistlePig Whiskey in Shoreham and oversaw substantial growth, before its board forced him out over alleged antics and misdeeds. Bhakta sold his WhistlePig stake in 2019 and used some of the proceeds to buy the Green Mountain College property.
Poultney residents credited Bhakta and his wife, Danhee, with keeping the campus from falling into disrepair and allowing locals to use its facilities for events. Danhee started a small independent school, Green Mountain Community School, on the property that currently enrolls 19 children, including the Bhaktas’. The transfer of campus to a for-profit entity has also boosted the town’s grand list.
“It’s been great having him here. It’s been great for Poultney,” said Sheryl Porrier, select board chair. “And he’s paid his taxes.”
Bhakta floated a yearslong redevelopment plan with the town that would cost upwards of $100 million and included a helipad on the green at the end of Main Street. He submitted an Act 250 application to convert two campus halls into hotels and add some residential condos. But he withdrew the application last fall.
At the same time, Bhakta sued the town over his property valuation. Following a town vote, town officials and Bhakta have been negotiating a separate deal to ease his future tax burden. “For a number of reasons, those negotiations did not produce an end result,” Paul Donaldson, the town manager, wrote in an email. He didn’t elaborate.
During those negotiations, Bhakta told town residents that if he couldn’t strike a tax deal with the town, he would sell the campus to a tax-exempt religious group.
This month, Bhakta created a new website announcing that he wanted to donate the campus to a religious organization — preferably Catholic, which he said is his family’s faith. Seven Days first reported the news last week.
The website emphasizes that the campus costs at least $1 million to $1.5 million annually to maintain. His offer of a gift entails a deed restriction that the new owner uses the property for “causes supporting the Mission.”
Of that mission, Bhakta said: “I think the collapse of spirituality in America is at the very core of what's rotting our civilization and fracturing the country.”
And if Bhakta doesn’t find a deep-pocketed religious beneficiary to revive the campus? “We’ll sell it,” he said.
In the meantime, Danhee Bhakta said she has agreed to transfer leadership of the Green Mountain Community School to a local outdoor educator, Brylea Davenport.
Davenport said she hopes to grow the school and “make it more accessible to more families.” First, though, she may need to find a new location.
Longtime resident Kyle Callahan said he hopes that whoever takes over the campus will do more to help reinvigorate Poultney. He graduated from Green Mountain College years ago, and without the college, Poultney has come to feel like an “old, rural town.”
He spoke of the last five years with a mix of amusement and fatigue.
“It was just like having this kind of weird, very rich person in town who thought they could do anything,” Callahan said.
