Alpin Haus has big plans in city

PHOTOGRAPHER: Tatiana Zarnowski

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Alpin Haus hopes to open a ski, pool and hot tub store in the Saratoga Springs vicinity by this spring.

The outdoor recreation company sells those items at its Amsterdam store on Route 30, but is more known in Saratoga County for selling recreational vehicles.

The Alpin Haus at 103 Sitterly Road in Clifton Park will close, sending RV buyers to the Wilton store at 30 Gordon Lane.

The new Saratoga store will sell ski equipment and pools but not RVs.

Alpin Haus President Andy Heck said the company does not yet have a site for its Saratoga Springs store, but hopes to lease space in or near the city.

“We think if we can find something pretty soon, we’ll be able to get it up and running,” Heck said.

In addition to the new Saratoga store, Alpin Haus wants to open a new RV store in the Interstate 90 corridor east or south of Albany, he said.

The company announced the intended expansions Monday, saying consumer demand for winter sports equipment and pools has grown.

“We are optimistic about future business opportunities based on the current trends in two of our major revenue generating areas,” Heck said.

Heck said he expects the housing market to rebound, and consumers will want pools and spas when it does, especially in Saratoga.

In business since 1964, Alpin Haus has four stores — the fourth is on Route 5S near Amsterdam.

Both the Clifton Park and Wilton stores are visible to motorists on the Adirondack Northway to attract RV customers.

“It definitely helps with the type of business that we’re in,” Heck said.

But the stores were too close together to maximize business.

“We just find right now we have a lot of overlap,” Heck said. “We anticipate that [the Wilton] store will be a lot busier when the Clifton Park store closes down.”

Heck said the company had considered opening the pool and ski store at the visible Clifton Park location, but decided it wasn’t the best spot for the type of retail store the company envisioned.

“We’d prefer to be up a little bit closer to Saratoga itself,” Heck added.

Alpin Haus also installs the in-ground and above-ground pools and hot tubs it sells. It will carry a full stock of ski equipment at the Saratoga store when it opens in the spring.

The company plans to relocate employees from Clifton Park store to the new and existing stores and hire more employees as needed.