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The owner of Putnam Resources LLC is continuing to accept proposals from private investors to move the project along.
The group has partnered with Habitat for Humanity, Rebuilding Together Saratoga County, and the city of Saratoga Springs to take advantage of state and private funding sources and other initiatives geared toward increasing the amount of workforce and affordable housing available in the state.
The project—Putnam Commons, at 53 Putnam St., Saratoga Springs—is a private-public endeavor that will transform a cleaned-up brownfield in the heart of downtown Saratoga Springs into residential condominiums offering homeownership opportunities for members of the local workforce. The property is across the street from the Saratoga Springs Public Library.
The developers have guaranteed that at a minimum 30 percent of the units in the building will be offered at a price affordable for buyers earning 80 percent of the average median income of the area. Driving the project is a collaboration of entities with common goals of ameliorating the prevailing shortage of workforce housing in the Spa City.
In addition to the slate of invested partners, Putnam Resources’s team includes First Fairfield Associates LLC, Saratoga City Center, Roohan Realty, BBL Construction Services, Witt Construction, HBT Architects, Sustainable Comfort- Jeffery Love, Fusion Systems Engineering, DPC – Mark Cambria, 260 Structural Engineering- Dale Meszler, Principal, Environmental Design Partnership,Brian Osterhout, P.E., Young/Sommer LLC, Sterling Environmental Engineering PC, and Yepsen & Pikulski, Public Affairs.
“Thanks to the extraordinary talent of our team, this once environmental hazard and eyesore will be a model for attractive environmentally sustainable, all-electric, mixed economic level housing,” said Jason Letts, a principal of Putnam Resources. “We are particularly excited by how it will advance social equality through affordable home ownership.”
“We are extremely grateful to the local and state government officials who have shown unwavering support,” added Letts.
“The shortage of affordable and workforce housing is especially noticeable in a city like ours with such a vibrant economy,” said Saratoga Springs Mayor Ronald Kim. “This project checks all of the boxes. It is a green building, offers affordable home ownership and it is located right downtown close to public transportation. We feel confident about the upcoming requests for approvals.”
In total, the project is expected to cost close to $ 12 million to complete. Grants from the Empire State Development Fund, Housing and Community Resources, NYSERDA, as well as tax credits for the brownfield cleanup, will aid the investors in fulfilling their goal to build an environmentally friendly building with affordable housing in downtown Saratoga Springs.
“This is one of the first projects of its type in upstate New York and a step towards the governor’s goal of having every upstate community increase its housing stock by 1 percent,” said Adam Feldman, executive director of Habitat for Humanity of Northern Saratoga, Warren, and Washington Counties, one of two nonprofit partners in the Putnam Resources project. “It’s great to be part of such a cohesive and competent team.”
Putnam Resources LLC is New York-based LLC focused on revitalizing distressed properties utilizing development strategies with a positive social purpose.