SARATOGA SPRINGS — Details are emerging about the project that will replace Longfellows Hotel, Restaurant & Conference Center, which closed in January after being sold.
Further, the Longfellows owner said Tuesday that the 500 Union Ave. property has been sold to Sonny Bonacio, one of the region’s largest developers and builders.
According to extensive documents on file with the city’s Office of Planning and Economic Development and an announcement from the company contracted to manage the property, the 8.6-acre site will be home to the new 88-room Brookmere Hotel, Clover Restaurant & Bar, a spa and event facility. The existing restaurant space would be razed, and the existing hotel rooms would be retained and attached to a new building with Clover Restaurant, an event space and more hotel rooms. Documents show the new restaurant and event space will be smaller than at Longfellows.
With a 16-month construction window projected, an opening could happen in time for the 2024 track season.
Although Bonacio Construction has not confirmed its purchase of the hotel, many other signs point to the company and its affiliates as the new owners.
The sponsor of the project is listed as Spring City Development, a wing of Bonacio Construction. Contact people on city forms include Larry Novik, director of operations for Bonacio, and the company’s general counsel, Libby Moreno.
In an indication of the duration of Longfellows sales negotiations, an August 2021 letter to the city building department from Moreo, on the letterhead for her own law practice, says she represents a company called 513 Broadway LLC, which has “an option to purchase 500 Union Ave.” Records show 513 Broadway LLC shares a mailing address with Bonacio’s offices at 18 Division St., Suite 401, in Saratoga, and a photo on the website of West Side Management, another Bonacio wing, shows a…
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