By Paul Post

A Spa City builder hopes to break ground late this summer on the first of 31 custom homes, priced at $1 million and up, on the east side of Saratoga Lake.

Witt Construction owner John Witt says Phyllian’s Bluff, a 111-acre conservation subdivision with a unique agriculture component, will “be the nicest project in the county by keeping the rural character of the town of Saratoga’s farmland.”

He said more than 61 acres will be kept as green space in perpetuity, with no new buildings allowed. Nearby Old Tavern Farm will use most of this to expand its thoroughbred breeding operation in addition to planting a new vineyard to go along with its existing cut flower business.

“We have 2,000 vines on order that will be planted in May and will grow our winery operations to meet the capacity of the additional vines,” said Nicole Borisenok, Old Tavern Farm Winery owner. “This site is also home to our 24,000 cut flowers that we plant each season to supply local farmers markets and businesses in our community. By the time we are done, it will be a beautiful farm and agricultural site.”

The property was previously home to a farm and been vacant for about 80 years, Witt said. There is an old farmhouse and historic barn on site, surrounded by fields of rye and flowers. So Witt and Old Tavern together are in effect bringing an old farm back to life.

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.

By Christine Graf

It was while working to construct the interior of a third Saratoga CoWorks Space at 92 Congress St. in Saratoga Springs that owners Dorothy Rogers-Bullis and Dan Bullis first discovered Falkbuilt, an interior digital component construction company. 

They were so impressed with the company that they now operate Falkbuilt’s Northern New York branch as part of their own commercial design and furniture company, drb Business Interiors.

“Falkbuilt was the solution that we were looking for,” said Rogers-Bullis. “We wanted better acoustics, better design, and faster lead times.”

Had they not used Falkbuilt for the interior buildout at 92 Congress St., she estimated that the work would have taken four times as long.

Founded in 2019, Calgary-based Falkbuilt has 450 employees and more than 90 branches in North America, the Middle East and India. The interior construction manufacturing company uses next-generation technology to manufacture components efficiently and precisely in their factory. Falkbuilt systems are being utilized in hospitals, offices, and even a research station in Antarctica.