Prestwick Chase seeks to expand

PHOTOGRAPHER: Lee Coleman

Prestwick Chase of Saratoga, an independent living community for people 55 and older, is planning a 300-unit expansion over the next two years, officials said Monday.

The facility currently has 168 units in a variety of buildings on 120 acres on Saratoga Boulevard, a private road that runs off Denton Road in the town of Greenfield.

The community is near the Greenfield-Saratoga Springs border and is only a few minutes’ drive from downtown Saratoga Springs.

Fred McNeary Jr., chief executive officer and property manager, said he has asked the Greenfield Town Board to amend the project’s planned unit development documents that were approved by the town 15 years ago.

Town Supervisor Richard Rowland said the amended PUD application has been forwarded to the Greenfield Planning Board for its review and recommendations.

Rowland said the Planning Board will report back to the Town Board on the amendment, and a public hearing will be held prior to the Town Board considering the zoning change.

Part of the expansion, McNeary said, is a proposed ambulance squad building on the Prestwick Chase grounds. “We will donate the property and build a building for an ambulance squad,” he said.

Greenfield does not currently have its own ambulance squad and contracts with Empire Ambulance for service.

However, many members of the four fire companies in the Greenfield Fire Protection District are trained emergency medical technicians and first responders.

“We are hoping to see other businesses in the town get behind this, help start an emergency squad,” McNeary said.

He said the building would also be available to Empire Ambulance if that private ambulance service wanted to keep one of its ambulances there.

Many calls

Rowland said that about a third of the ambulance calls each year in Greenfield are to Prestwick Chase. “It’s a good concept,” he said about locating an ambulance building on Denton Road, as it would provide faster ambulance service to the town.

McNeary said he is not certain how many buildings will house the proposed 300 units. He said he and his father, Fred McNeary Sr., have considered everything from four to eight buildings for the expansion.

“We do have some demand,” he said about the independent living community.

When Prestwick Chase was first proposed back in the late 1990s, it was going to have a golf course and a 120-bed nursing home. Neither one of those plans became a reality.

Prestwick Chase is an independent living complex for ambulatory adults ages 55 and older. The facility is based on the “concept of congregate living,” according to www.prestwickchase.com.

“Community living affords many physical, mental and financial benefits,” says the Prestwick statement. “Studies indicate that residents of this lifestyle live 2.5 to five years longer, and, more importantly, healthier than those who choose to remain in their own homes or in their current environment.”

McNeary said that Prestwick Chase is a for-profit corporation and one of the town of Greenfield’s largest taxpayers. “The roads [in the complex] are all private; there is no burden to the community,” he said.

“We are ready to go. We would like to get through the [review] process quickly,” he said. “We would like to be in the ground this fall, at least the infrastructure.”