KNOX — After foreclosing on the property in 2021, Albany County finally expects to auction off the former Highlands Restaurant in Knox this year, county spokeswoman Mary Rozak confirmed. 

She said that the county plans to add it to the next auction, which will be “up and running” in the year’s first fiscal quarter. 

Unlike other former business properties on the Hill, the Albany County Land Bank — which sells foreclosed properties at a steep discount to those who can show a commitment to community development — never asked for this property, Rozak said. The Land Bank could not be reached for comment. 

Barbara Kennedy, a former employee of the Berne-Altamont Road restaurant, wrote a letter to the Enterprise in 2014 when the restaurant closed about the memories she formed there. Kennedy told The Enterprise this week that the property was in “rough shape.” 

“The only person who’s going to buy that is someone who can afford to restore it, because it’s going to take lots of money,” she said, going over various problems she’s noticed there, like windows that let snow blow through, and a bowing roof. 

“I remember one night, working there, the basement had, like, six inches of water in it,” Kennedy said. “The only thing I could say that was good in that place was the bar top.” 

The town’s tax rolls still list the restaurant’s former owners: sisters Michele Catalano, who died in August of last year from ALS, and Sheena Tymchyn, the restaurant’s chef who could not immediately be reached by The Enterprise.

The 4.7-acre property is listed as having a full-market value of $377,949.

The 1780s center-hall Colonial, with wide plank floors, hand-hewn beams, and several fireplaces, operated as the Highland Farms Restaurant in the mid-20th Century; the “Woodshed” opened in the property’s woodshed for more casual dining in the 1960s; in the 1980s, Michelle and Dan Teal ran The Cheldon House there followed by the DeGennaros’ Highland Farms Restaurant and Tavern.

Catalano and Tymchyn ran their restaurant for eight years, closing abruptly in 2014, with the sisters citing “economic pressures” on the restaurant’s website at the time.

Ever since then, there have been hopes that it would re-open, but this would be complicated since the property — which had hosted restaurants for decades — had been grandfathered into that section of town, which was zoned agricultural and residential until the town redesignated as a mixed-use district in 2020.

The property was frequently a point of discussion as the townspeople were debating that zoning change over four years, with supporters holding it up as the kind of small business the town should welcome, while others felt that the commercial activity there made living nearby a hassle, citing traffic and noise.