Courtesy of Bonacio Construction
By Paul Post
A $30 million makeover of the former Longfellow’s is scheduled for completion by year’s end with a new name, Brookmere, featuring an upscale 90-room hotel, spa, restaurant and banquet facility for 200 guests.
Bonacio Construction owners Sonny and Julie Bonacio, of Saratoga Springs, and investment partner Mark Howarth purchased the popular site at 500 Union Avenue early last year from business partners Steve Sullivan and Dave Powers for $4.9 million.
“We’re currently working on finishes on one building and the main center building is heavily under framing construction for the new addition,” Project Manager Amber Mathias said.
The 90-room hotel almost doubles the capacity of Longfellow’s, which had 50 rooms. To accommodate the increase, one of the old Longfellow’s buildings, which housed the restaurant and bar, was demolished to make room the new hotel portion of Brookmere.
“Everything else, the original inn building and the newer inn at the rear of the property, was saved,” said Larry Novik, Bonacio Development president.
The new hotel will have 13 different room options from which to choose, including spa suites in which guests may obtain in-room treatment; luxury suites with a dining area and wet bar; lofted rooms with first-floor living room and upstairs bedroom; and standard double-bed and king-size bed rooms.
Saratoga Springs-based Balzer & Tuck Architecture designed the project and rooms are being done by Sims Patrick Studio, an Atlanta interior design firm.
The completed project will total about 90,000 square feet.
The Arbor Spa will be available to all hotel guests.
The 64-seat Regent restaurant will be open to the public on a daily basis. Overflow seating will be available at a comfortable front porch area and outdoor courtyard.
Special events such as weddings, galas, and bar and bat mitzvahs were a big part of Longfellow’s business, and Brookmere will expand upon such offerings with a luxurious ballroom with capacity for 200 people.
Bonacio Construction is credited with developing roughly a half-billion dollars worth of new projects during the past 30 years including 450 condominiums and 1,285 apartments. Its reach now expands far beyond Saratoga Springs, from Troy to the Adirondacks.
Last year, the company diversified into the hospitality industry with a new four-season resort, the Lodge at Schroon Lake, a more than $20 million investment on 36 acres previously owned by Word of Life. Its guests may choose from 121 rooms in a hotel rooms cabins or chalets.
Both the Lodge and Brookmere will be managed by Hay Creek Hotels, based in Exeter, N.H., a hospitality investment and management firm that has 30 independent hotels on the East Coast from Maine to Alabama.
Brookmere will employ about 50 people. Hay Creek is responsible for staffing the facility. The firm began hiring and booking events in early July, in anticipation of Brookmere’s late 2024 opening.
Bonacio obtained financing for Brookmere through Rhinebeck Bank.