By Barbara Pinckney
After a lengthy delay, the owners of the
Adelphi Hotel expect to officially begin
their multimillion dollar reconstruction of
the historic building in August.
The project will take about 18 months
to complete, said Jeff Ward, construction
manager for RBC Construction, an arm of
property owner Adelphi Hotel Partners.
It involves a full historic renovation of
the 137-year-old, 4-story building at 365
Broadway.
“Every square inch is going to be touched
and felt,” Ward said. “This is an incredible
undertaking in time and money and commitment,
and is going to be totally amazing.”
He said there will be little evidence of
the work from the street, because RBC is
working with the city to avoid disturbing
the streetscape. The front of the hotel will
have a cleaner look but maintain the same
historical character, with a new canopy to
replicate the 1877 original.
“But behind those walls, all the way to
the old courtyard, will be 100 percent new,”
Ward said.
Dominick Ranieri, the Guilderland architect
who designed the new Aldelphi, said
he was hired to create a five-star boutique
hotel unlike anything else in the city.
The finished hotel will be about 47,000
square feet, including an 8,200 square-foot
addition. It will have 32 two- and three
-bedroom suites of 400 square feet and up.
Ranieri said the suites will have the ornate
trimmings of the Victorian era, marble
in the bathrooms and other finishings suitable for a luxury hotel.
The Adelphi formerly had 39 rooms, and
was open only during the summer. The new
Adelphi will be open year-round.
The lobby will cover the entire first floor,
with shops, a bar, a fine-dining restaurant
and a 1,200 square-foot, glass-walled conservatory,
which will overlook the courtyard
and gardens, he said.
“So you will have all these different
themes happening on the ground floor,
but all of it catering to the summer track
season,” Ranieri said. “Year round, actually.
It is designed to be the place to be. It will
have all the modern things you’d expect in
a new hotel, intermixed with the historical
aspects of the building.”
The entire building–including the basement,
where a new spa will be located–will
be handicapped accessible. In the past, only
the front lobby was accessible to people in
wheelchairs.
The plans call for two new elevators and
two new staircases. The existing grand staircase
will be restored and fully functional.
Ward could not say how much the extensive
renovations will cost. The owners
originally estimated $6 million to $7 million,
but that was before it became clear just how
much work had to be done.
“It will be well beyond that,” he said.
The costs will be offset by state and federal
historic preservation tax credits, both
set at 20 percent.
Adelphi Hotel Partners paid Sheila Packert
$4.5 million for the Adephi in 2012. The
principals in Adelphi Hotel Partners are
Simon Mildé, chairman and CE O of Richbell
Capital; his son Toby Mildé, president of
Richbell, and Larry Roth. Richbell has developed
a number of residential communities
in the area, including The Paddocks of
Saratoga and The Kensington at Halfmoon.
The Adelphi closed following the summer
2012 season. The owners had hoped
to reopen by this summer, but the project
proved more complicated than expected.
“Because it was so old, there were no
construction documents, drawings or
specifications,” Ward said. “Plus there were
numerous poorly-built modifications to this
structure over the years that did more harm
than good.”
Last summer, RBC began selective demolition
on the building, and realized it
was in dire structural condition. It hired
Ryan Biggs Associates, a Clifton Parkbased
engineering consultant, to analyze
the situation.
“They said they didn’t understand why
the building is still standing,” Ward said.
RBC expects to have a building permit in
hand this month, allowing it to start construction
in August. Ward said the first step will
be to make the building structurally sound.
“There is a lot of work–a lot of heavy
timber work, a lot of bracing, a lot of shoring,”
he said. “Then we will start in on
reconstructing within the four walls.”
He noted that one of the things that
makes the Adelphi work so complicated is
the building’s position between two other
buildings. One of those buildings is the
179-year-old Rip Van Dam Hotel, which
will also be undergoing renovations, and
expansion, starting in September. The two
buildings share a foundation.