NJ once had a Playboy Club: Abandoned for years, site could face new life

VERNON — The property of a once-fabled club opened by Playboy mogul Hugh Hefner could finally face a new chapter after sitting empty for years.

The once-opulent eight-floor Great Gorge Playboy Club opened in the early 1970s on about 1,000 acres in this northwest New Jersey township.

The club and hotel included a 27-hole golf course, indoor swimming pools and an Olympic-sized outdoor pool.

Locals enjoyed several years of top entertainers doing live shows, including Frank Sinatra, Harry Belafonte, Tony Bennett, Johnny Cash, Sammy Davis Jr.Bob Hope, Dean Martin, The Supremes and Dionne Warwick, as recounted by NorthJersey.com columnist Ann Genader.

By 1976, the resort was sold and renamed Seasons Hotel.

Later, it was called Legends Resort & Country Club — which was ultimately closed by 2018.

Hillel "Hillie" Meyers is president of Metairie Corporation, which owns Legends.

In December 2020, a tentative deal that would have forgiven a share of back taxes was shot down by the Vernon Township Council, Sparta Independent reported.

At that point, the township had received “hundreds of thousands of dollars in past due property taxes,” according to New Jersey Herald.

On March 14, new Vernon Mayor Anthony Rossi announced in a Facebook post that Legends was finally being sold.

Rossi was scarce on details, saying that he had met with the new owner and was working on helping outline new plans for the site.

Great Gorge Golf Club has been separately owned and operated, since the owners of Mountain Creek Resort bought it in 2016.

Raymond Gallagher shared a short film of the now vacant Legends site to YouTube, spliced with short video from its earlier heyday.

Skyland Creative also shared drone video from the vacant property.