Growing development group wants to convert Glens Falls warehouse into apartments

Green Springs Capital Group LLC is looking to turn a vacant warehouse in Glens Falls into new apartments.

Brothers Brian and Gregory Green are asking the city for approval to convert 178-180 Maple St. in Glens Falls into 19 apartments and convert a former garage into a commercial space. The property, a three-story brick warehouse, is on the same block as The Shirt Factory and Rock Hill Bakehouse & Cafe.

It would be Green Springs Capital’s first development in Glens Falls and Warren County. The property management and development business has previously focused on Saratoga County.

Brian Green previously told the Business Review that they had looked for the right property to buy in Glens Falls for a while before putting 178-180 Maple St. under contract. The property is listed with Michelle Cardinale of Hunt Real Estate ERA for $569,000.

“We’ve been trying to get there for the last five years. Nothing has hit,” Green said. “It’s a different market than we’re used to. Rents and property values are lower for the most part, which makes it harder to do ground-up construction. … We’re being selective up there and like the market for a good expansion market for us.”

Renovations to the roughly 21,215-square-foot building would include the 19 apartments, 2,357 square feet of commercial space, a courtyard and bike rack, according to plans filed with the Glens Falls planning board. The apartments would include four studios, 11 one-bedroom units, three one-bedroom units with a den and one two-bedroom unit.

The estimated cost for the project is $3.55 million, according to documents filed with the planning board.

Green Springs is working with Lansing Engineering and Thaler Reilly Wilson Architecture & Preservation on the plans. The project will be before the Glens Falls Planning Board on July 2.

Green Springs Capital began to look into warehouse-to-apartment conversions last year after starting a new construction firm with Matt Crudo called CG Construction Group. Crudo is the former senior vice president of construction at Redburn and has worked on dozens of historic rehabs and apartment conversions throughout the region.

“With Crudo’s background, we’re focusing a lot on conversion and renovation projects. He’s got a lot of experience doing those types of projects, and we’ve done some of that work on a limited scale with mostly multifamily that we’re renovating, but we’ve never really stepped into, OK, let’s renovate this office or warehouse into apartments,” Brian Green told the Business Review in May. “That’s where [Crudo’s] expertise is going to be tremendous. A lot of what we’re leaning into now are those type of opportunities.”

Brian Green started the business eight years ago with a single apartment building. Over time, Gregory joined Green Springs Capital Group, and the brothers purchased and renovated apartment buildings throughout Saratoga County.

The group is finishing their first ground-up development project, an $18 million development in Saratoga Springs that includes a historic condo renovation. And it recently started renovations on Annandale Mansion, a 16-unit apartment building in Saratoga Springs near the Skidmore College campus.

The goal is to get Green Springs Capital to $200 million in assets under management. They’re at $50 million now.

“We’re not going to walk in and buy some apartments that were built in 2010, that’s not our model,” Green said last month. “We need to buy something that we can massively increase the value on.”

The Maple Street apartment conversion is the latest plan for new apartments in the city of Glens Falls, which is expected to see dozens of new apartments come to market in the next few years. One of the major pieces of development in the city is the revitalization of South Street, which is expected to bring 150 new apartments to Glens Falls.

A few blocks south of the proposed Green Springs development, Foothill Builders is looking to construct a new four-story building on Warren Street in Glens Falls that would include commercial space and another 60 apartments.