Condos Planned Near Congress Park and Saratoga Race Course

SARATOGA SPRINGS — A vacant lot at the intersection of Park Place and Cottage Street is poised to become the future site of a six-unit, three-story condominium building after the city’s planning board approved the project with a unanimous 7-0 vote on Jan. 22. 

The property is a couple blocks away from the southern tip of Congress Park and a little more than half a mile from the Saratoga Race Course.

Vincent and Katherine LaTerra, the project’s developers, said they hoped to acquire a building permit by this summer and to finish construction by the summer of 2027.

The building’s design was inspired by the Spa City’s Gilded Age glory years.

“We didn’t want to just put up another multifamily building,” Katherine told Saratoga TODAY. “We wanted to create something lasting, something that predates trends.”

“We wanted to create a unique condo building that had that residential feel. [It’s] historic but new construction—no shared walls, private access kind of feel, which was also unique to this project,” Vincent said.

The LaTerras said that the two-year design process was a challenge because they wanted the U-shaped building to have windows facing every direction while still preserving its Gilded Age look.

“It was really important to us to have it feel unique and special and have the continuity of the architecture from the city’s history,” added Katherine.

Prior to the planning board’s approval, some city residents expressed opposition to the project primarily due to its size (18,500 square feet) and impact on a neighborhood filled with smaller structures.

“I think it’s a very attractive building in some other place,” said Susan Bokan during a public comment period. “It’s too big. The scale is wrong. Our neighborhood is all two stories (at most) of modest, wooden homes, and this is just so out of place, it’s outrageous. I’d love to see it someplace else, it’s very pretty, but not here.”

In regard to the size of the building relative to nearby homes, the project’s application pointed out that there are numerous examples of a juxtaposition of larger buildings with smaller ones throughout the city.

The planning board reviewed the project for about nine months before approving it.