SOLD: Prominent Broadway Building Purchased for $11 Million

SARATOGA SPRINGS —The red-brick building located on the southwest corner of Broadway and Division Street that housed Fingerpaint Marketing has been sold for $11 million to Prime Group Holdings – a private equity company owned by Robert Moser with offices on Railroad Place. The future status of the building is not known at this time.

Ed Mitzen founded Fingerpaint in 2008 and in 2018 purchased the building at 395 Broadway for $9 million.  The building was originally developed in 2000 to house Borders Books & Music. Previously,  the spot had sited the Red Barn restaurant, Pope’s Pizza,  and the E-Z Laundromat earlier in the 20th century.  

More recently, Mitzen and his wife, Lisa, formed Business for Good, a nonprofit that aims to achieve social change through business. They plan to use the profit from the sale of the building for Business for Good, according to published reports. The sale closing on June 30 was first reported by the Times-Union.

Fingerpaint employs 800 people across the globe with a good number based locally, but with an increasing number having begun to work remotely in recent years, the two-story brick-and-mortar venue on Broadway was underutilized, and the marketing company plans on maintaining a smaller office nearby. 

“Admittedly I was a huge anti-proponent of working from home. I always felt if someone said they wanted to work from home they would be mowing their yard and watching ESPN, that they’re not committed, but now I’ve done a complete 180,” Mitzen told Saratoga TODAY in late 2020, when the effects of the pandemic, and people working remotely were in full effect.

“Our folks have been unbelievably productive – probably more productive than they’ve been in the office,” Mitzen said. “We’ve all learned different ways of doing things through all this.”