Inspire. Create. Collaborate.
Creativity flourishes at Focus Retreat Center. With support and inspiration from your retreat peers you'll do your most meaningful work. Find the relief you need from your day to day and unleash creativity.
We run retreats for coding, illustration, sewing, quilting, writing, game development, learning new skills, and working groups.
We are the perfect venue for small team offsites, startup retreats, and hackathons
We are located in Malone, NY just north of Adirondack Park.
Imagine how much you can achieve
Totally immerse in your project, sharing supportive work and living spaces with a select group of peers, away from daily responsibilities - located in New York's beautiful North Country, close to Adirondack Park, the Saint Lawrence River, and Canada.
We offer retreats focused on individual projects that benefit from a community of peers doing similar work and substantial focused time.
Here you can flourish in your most creative, most effective, most productive form. You'll build lifelong friendships and connections to a network of interesting and creative people.
The Retreat Experience
Focus Retreat Center offers a quiet environment to focus on deep, self-directed project work. There are common areas suitable for idea sharing and team work as well as private rooms for solitary work. There are about 14 guests per retreat, usually for 1 week. An online community connects you during and after the retreat. Friendships and connections made here can last a lifetime.
We provide room, board, a curated environment, carefully screened peers, and light-touch facilitation. Guests get a level of depth of focus that is exceedingly rare in modern life's hustle and bustle. The retreat center offers a reprieve from the appointments, obligations, chores, routines and distractions of everyday life. We provide a space tailored for personal development and a right-sized group of peers to enrich and support each other’s experiences and develop life-long friendships.
"It's been so amazing and I feel so happy because it's not just I got the goal done, but you were all supporting me. I've been doing Inktober since at least 2016 and I've never gotten 31 drawings done before." —Denise
Team Offsite Retreats
Bring your team to FRC to kick off an ambitious new project or creatively explore possible future directions.
.Startup Retreats
Nothing will accellerate your startup faster than an intensive incubation/hackathon retreat. Bring the team together under one roof for in-person collaboration and high-bandwidth interactions.
.Individual Residencies
Need some time to do a batch of deep work on your project? Feeling burnt out and want to do some unstructured creative work? Feeling stuck in a rut and need a change of scene and pace? A residency at FRC may be just what you need!
Spring through Fall we offer individual and small group residencies alongside our group retreat programs.
Email us at team@focusretreatcenter.com and we can help you plan an amazing event.
Get away from your daily grind, and accelerate your project or learning to the next level.
Our Values and Retreats
FRC's mission is to foster our core values of sabattical, deep work, and creative collaboration. The best way to understand what we do and whether it fits what you need is…- Learn Our Values
- Check out The Retreat Recipe
- Know What to Expect on Your Retreat
"I learned a lot from everybody. A little thing here, a little thing there. I'll never forget any of you guys or any of this experience. It's so frickin' cool. My soul thanks you." —Mike S
About Your Hosts
Hi! We are Christella Kay and Pete Lyons! We are life partners running this business together. We decided to build our lives with intention and in a way that lets us work for ourselves while helping others. We have a special fondness for Adirondack Park and are happy to be living here with nature at our doorstep.
Christella is an innovative thinker with a business degree and restaurant experience. She enjoys being around enthusiastic geeks and is excited to be fostering community and creating a curated ‘focus intensive vibe’ at our facility.
Pete has over 20 years experience in software development, and a deep appreciation for the value of personal development retreats. In his youth Pete spent 6 consecutive summers at an immersive music institute at Hartwick College in Oneonta, NY - a formative and wonderful experience he's delighted to share a flavor of with others.
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About Our Center
Our retreat center is located in the heart of the Village of Malone. All modern amenities are nearby such as convenience stores, pharmacies, a Walmart, etc. But we are also adjacent to Adirondack Park and thousands of lakes, rivers, mountains, and hiking trails just a short drive to the south. We sit directly facing a lovely small park.
Our facility is two connected buildings. The fieldstone farmhouse building to the rear dates circa 1891 and serves as our dining room and kitchen. The large brick building to the front dates from the 1930s and was originally constructed as a school building. The property has been through several uses and renovations during more than a century of service. We are located in a NY state historic district and the residential neighborhood around us includes many lovely examples of Victorian era homes.
More Info
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