Real estate developers Michael Dubb and Larry Roth won approval Thursday night for their $50 million Adelphi hotel and apartment project in the center of downtown Saratoga Springs.
The 200,000-square-foot development would transform the Adelphi Hotel and neighboring former Rip Van Dam hotel on Broadway into a resort with concierge services, massages, a ballroom and a restaurant serving 20-ounce, dry-aged porterhouse steaks.
The 84 studio, one-bedroom and two-bedroom apartments will rent for $2,000 to $5,000 a month. And the existing 32-room hotel will double in size.
“This will keep us on target for [completion in] late spring 2023,” Dubb said Friday.
Dubb is founder of Beechwood Homes on Long Island and his business partner Roth is the former owner of Marchon Eyewear Inc., one of the world’s largest eye care companies.
Together they want to bring a five-star quality resort to the center of downtown Saratoga Springs by renovating and expanding the Rip Van Dam building on Broadway and connecting it to the Adelphi, which Roth and former business partners rebuilt for $28 million four years ago.
“Saratoga is such a special place. This is an opportunity for Larry and I to make an imprint, to be able to restore something that fell into disrepair to its grandeur,” Dubb said in March when he and Roth first described their vision.
The developers, who also are avid thoroughbred race horse owners, have hired a team of local builders, architects and support staff. Bonacio Construction of Saratoga Springs is the general contractor. The LA Group Landscape Architecture & Engineering oversaw the layout and quarterbacked the approval process. Designs are by Dominick Ranieri Architect of Schenectady.
Renovations to Salt & Char restaurant and the exterior of the Rip Van Dam began several months ago.
The city planning board granted site plan approval for the expansion on Thursday and the design review commission approved the building’s mass and scale last week. There are a few remaining administrative approvals needed and the city must complete its architectural review.
Dubb is not overly concerned about the volatile market for building materials over the past year. Between his experience constructing more than 10,000 homes around Long Island and Bonacio Construction’s background constructing large urban infill condominium, apartment and commercial projects, Dubb said he is optimistic they will find a way to build the project as efficiently as possible.
The developers have a vision of reviving a piece of the luxury grand hotel era that made Saratoga a playground for the wealthy in the 1870s. In those days, the massive Grand Union and United States hotels were the focal point of downtown, forming an area known as Millionaire’s Row where 20 of the world’s richest people would meet each summer to talk business.
“One of the goals of the apartments is to cater to a market that might be there, that’s not there now,” Dubb said in the spring. “We want to give Saratoga the crown jewel in the center of town that it deserves.”
Original article from Albany Business Review
By DONNA ABBOTT-VLAHOS