Two racehorse owners want to transform one of the most prominent corners in downtown Saratoga Springs into a resort with concierge services, massages, a ballroom and a restaurant serving 20-ounce, dry-aged porterhouse steaks.
Beechwood Homes founder Michael Dubb is partnering with Larry Roth, former owner of one of the world’s largest eye care companies, on a plan to construct 90 apartments and 65 or more hotel rooms, creating a complex unlike anything else in the city.
They want to reimagine the northwest corner of Broadway and Washington Street by renovating the former Rip Van Dam Hotel, connecting the property to Roth’s Adelphi Hotel and constructing an adjoining five-story, 150,000-square-foot addition.
The proposed $50 million project seeks to revive 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,” said Dubb. “We want to give Saratoga the crown jewel in the center of town that it deserves.”