Broker extends deadline for Saratoga Polo club auction

Broker Giacomo Sinisgalli has extended the deadline for prospective buyers to bid on the 43-acre Saratoga Polo club just outside Saratoga Springs.

A three-day online auction of the 122-year-old club property was scheduled to end at 3 p.m., March 4. The owners and an attorney involved with the property agreed to move the deadline until March 10 at 3 p.m.

“We want to give more time for [prospective buyers] to do their due diligence,” Sinisgalli said Wednesday afternoon. “And we want to give everyone enough time to close.”

Club owners Jim Rossi and Mike Bucci hired Sinisgalli, chief executive of RealEstateAuction.com, to advertise and manage the auction. Sinisgalli received more than 500 inquiries about the property and roughly 9% of those inquiries have translated into prospective buyers.

The minimum bid for the property was supposed to start at $4.3 million. Sinisgalli declined to say if any bids had been placed as of 1 p.m. on March 4, fearing it could deter action from other parties.

The auction is the latest strategy by the club owners to repay at least $3.4 million in debts on a property that ranks among the oldest operating polo clubs in North America.

The owners are working against a tight time frame to sell the property before Port of Coeymans owner Carver Laraway takes control of the polo grounds. Laraway took over the club’s mortgage from Pioneer Bank in December, and gave Bucci and Rossi until sometime in April to repay their debt.

The Saratoga Polo club is located on Bloomfield Road in the town of Greenfield, just west of Saratoga Springs. Rossi and Bucci wanted to construct up to 284,000 square feet of space that would include condominiums, apartments, a spa and other amenities.

Rossi said in January that he and his staff are continuing to plan and prepare for a 2020 polo season. Besides scheduling each summer’s matches, Saratoga Polo also generates money by hosting up to 30 corporate parties, fundraisers and weddings each year.

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