Raj Bhakta, a former contestant on “The Apprentice” who also ran an unsuccessful congressional campaign and co-founded the WhistlePig whiskey brand, purchased the Green Mountain College campus in August 2020 for a 77% discount to its appraised value of $20 million, he said. The college had closed in 2019 amid declining enrollment.
Bhakta, 50, told the Wall Street Journal he wanted to fill the void in Poultney with a resort that could teach young Americans the craft of spirits. His vision, outlined in documents filed with the town and state, included 93 hotel rooms, 18 condominiums, a micro-distillery, a 200-seat restaurant, a spa, and a 10-seat home theater. The college library would have been used for spirits storage and a tasting room. He planned to move his family into a historic campus building.
The town’s Development Review Board approved the plans in early 2023, but Bhakta still needed environmental and community-impact approval from the state’s Land Use Review Board. He filed an application in early 2024, but the board labeled it incomplete. A second attempt in 2025 still drew questions from regulators, according to public documents: who the home theater was for, whether he was storing a vintage-car collection on site, what would be kept in the library besides spirits, whether he had horses, and whether the distillery would produce an odor.
Bhakta withdrew his application last September, the records show.
“Vermont’s red tape antidevelopment regime killed the project,” Bhakta said. He questioned the regulators’ request for clarification on the home theater’s purpose. “How do you clarify or explain the purpose of a ‘home theater?’ It is where people watch things on a screen,” he said.
State regulators this year notified Bhakta of alleged violations related to the campus, according to documents provided by the agency. The notice cited issues including renovations to his home on the state’s Register of Historic Places, storage of spirits on campus, and running a private school there without state approval. Bhakta defended each of those activities. A business partner of Bhakta’s has asked the state about a possible deal to address any violations, according to an email exchange viewed by the Journal.
Peter Gill, executive director of the Land Use Review Board, told the Journal that of roughly 380 permit applications processed last year, none was denied.
Some local residents expressed frustration. Devon Fowler, a Poultney native who lives across the street from Bhakta’s home, told the Journal he believed early on that Bhakta’s plan would bring prosperity. “I eventually just got to the point where I didn’t think he was going to do anything,” Fowler said. He also accused Bhakta’s German shepherd of killing his chickens. Bhakta denied the charge, blaming feral cats, and called it a shakedown attempt.
James Johnson, owner of a local bike shop, said he believed 90% of the town wanted to support Bhakta initially. “People who don’t have a lot of means often search for a hero figure,” he said. At a July 4 parade, Bhakta was driving what he said was one of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s 1933 Lincolns when it ran out of gas. Helpers pushed it. “It was an encapsulation of his whole program,” Johnson said.
Bhakta’s request for a new owner yielded more than 50 applications in the first five weeks, according to the Journal. He has narrowed the field to 10 contenders but said it is not clear the right caretaker has appeared.
“It’s hard to have faith that any one entity can maintain that entire campus,” said Jaime Lee, a town planning-commission member.
Bhakta said he is looking for applicants who can show “an alignment with the vision of the revival of the United States, Western civilization and Christendom through faith-based education.” His website recommends the recipient budget $1.5 million a year for maintenance.