The hotel was designed to be the anchor of an office complex that was never built, with towers around the central lake, I believe. I think the idea was that there would be restaurants and shops in the development. You can see the shape of the rest of the abandoned development better in an aerial view:


The town of Suffern is not far, less than a mile to the north, but it's behind the hotel, separated by a river, so there's no way to walk there. Mahwah itself is just a series of strip malls and motels along the highway to the south.