BY JENNIFER FARNSWORTH AND R.J. DELUKE
Environmental Design Partnership of
Clifton Park and Glens Falls will be breaking
ground early this year on Waite Road
in Clifton Park on a single-family home
project, known as Lands of Kahn.
The project is one if many on the area
in what appears to be a busy year for area
building contractors and developers.
It will feature eight to nine modest family
homes, according to Gavin Vuillaume,
consultant for the project.
Vuillaume said they have not chosen a
builder at this time and therefore they cannot
comment any further on a timetable.
“We have just received conceptual approval
from the town. Next we will look
for a builder that will best fit the project,”
said Vuillaume.
Environmental Design Partnership
specializes in civil and environmental
engineering, landscape architecture and
land surveying. Recent projects include the
Halfmoon Public Library, Water Pumping
and Treatment Facility in Wilton, Wilton
Water and Sewer Authority, Van Patten Golf
Course Club House and Banquet Facility,
Barberry Fields in Clifton Park, and Knollwood
Hollow Condominiums of Milton.
Mike Munter, vice president of Munter
Enterprises in Middle Grove, said his
company is busy despite the harsh winter
weather.
His company is in the midst of building
the new Druthers brewery and restaurant
at 1053 Broadway, Albany. Druthers currently
operates a restaurant and small
craft brewery on Broadway in Saratoga
Springs. The business is going in a renovated
building that will have large windows so
passers-by can observe brewing operations
on the Broadway side of the building. The
entrance to the restaurant will be from the
Bridge Street side of the building.
The company is also finishing a six-unit
townhouse project on Ballston Avenue
(Route 50), just south of the Price Chopper
shopping plaza.
Munter’s company recently started
clearing land in the Grande Industrial
park inn Saratoga Springs in advance or
building a 30,000-square-foot building
that will be the new home of Greenfield
Manufacturing Inc., a contract chemical
manufacturing company. The company
currently leases space in the park.
The space will allow for a more streamlined
production process.
Munter Enterprises is also building
a building for Donnelly Construction
on Route 67 in Mechanicvillle. The
8,000-square-foot building will be a sspot
for the company’s equipment and vehicle
maintenance.
Munter said one of the springs projects
will be relocating the Hoffman’s Playland
rides and facilities from Route 9 in Newtonville,
where it operated for decades until
closing last year, to land adjacent to Huck
Finn’s Warehouse on Erie Boulevard in the
north end of Albany. The furniture store is
getting grants and load to do the project
and keep the playland alive.
Munter said his company will be building
some new concession building, relocating
other buildings, and relocating the rides,
including the well-known train at Hoffman’s.
Crews will put in concrete pads
for the rides and walkways for customers,
and do site work including putting in the
necessary utilities.
Don McElroy of DCG Development
Co. said Homewood Suites, a four-story,
96-suite residential-style hotel in the
southwest parking area of the company’s
Clifton Park Center, is still under construction.
Bast Hatfield is the general contractor,
as it is on the Embassy Suites Hotel being
built by DCG in Congress Plaza in Saratoga
Springs.
The Clifton Park project is expected to
be completed early this year, McElroy said.
Work is still being done inside the Embassy
Suites, but it should be open in February.
DCG is also adding a building to Clifton
Park Center. Work on that building will
begin when the weather breaks, McElroy
said. It will add 2,800 square feet of retail
space to the center.
“We’re pretty busy,” he said, adding
that construction of a new Panera Bread
bakery-cafe will also begin this spring at
Malta Commons near Northway Exit 12.
Frank Alessandrini, principal of construction
company F.H. Alexander Inc. in
Ballston Lake, said he is still bidding on
jobs for 2015. One of the projects his company
is involved in is the new Hudson River
Community Credit Union (HRCCU) branch
in Corinth. The 3,000-square-foot branch,
replacing the current branch at 312 Palmer
Ave., should be completed by June.