The Saratoga Springs City Planning Board has gotten its first look at plans to carve up Cady Hill, the storied estate once home to Mary Lou Whitney, into 39 residential lots — a proposal that would leave her 1851 mansion standing but reshape much of the land around it. The board reviewed a preliminary sketch plan for residential development on the 120-acre property, with developer DBT Ventures seeking to build single-family homes on the southeast portion while preserving dozens of acres elsewhere on the estate.
According to The Daily Gazette, DBT Ventures plans to subdivide Cady Hill into 39 residential lots, developing only the southeast side of the property at 40 Geyser Road. The Whitney property is split by the Canadian Pacific Railway into east and west sides, with the mansion standing on the east side and the proposed development located directly south of it, also on the east side of the tracks.
Under the plan, the mansion itself would remain intact on a separate 26.7-acre subdivision, the Gazette reports. About 63 acres on the property's west side would remain under a conservation easement, according to the same report, preserving a significant chunk of the historic grounds even as new homes rise elsewhere on the estate.
A Push to Protect the Mansion
The planning board has also suggested designating Whitney's mansion as a historic landmark, per the Gazette's reporting. Under the city's zoning ordinance, the Saratoga Springs City Council designates individual properties as historic landmarks when they meet specified criteria, and a proposed landmark or historic-district designation is subject to a public hearing, according to the City of Saratoga Springs zoning ordinance. If the mansion were designated, future alterations to the property would be subject to review by the city's design review board, the ordinance states.
Resident Mark Pingel said the proposal is generally positive and that the property should be preserved, and he argued the community should consider landmark designation right away, the Gazette reported. Bill McTygue, meanwhile, described the main house as the heart of the property, underscoring why its fate has drawn particular attention even as the broader subdivision plan moves through city review.
The Mansion's History and Amenities
Built in 1851, the Cady Hill mansion spans 6,200 square feet and includes seven bedrooms, seven full bathrooms and two half-baths, per the seed reporting. The grounds also include three covered porches, a pool house with a heated pool and gym, a chapel, tennis courts, rose gardens, a gatehouse, a root cellar, an office building, a maintenance building and two ranch homes. The rose garden itself contains a fountain topped by a statue of Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney's Daphne.
Mary Lou Whitney died at age 93 at her Cady Hill home in 2019, leaving the bulk of her estate to her husband, John Hendrickson. Hendrickson and Kerrie Steuer are listed as owners of the property; Steuer is a long-term employee who was given a home at Cady Hill. The pair put the estate up for sale in 2024.
An Uncertain Price and a Prior Deal That Fell Through
Cady Hill first went on the market in March 2024, according to Saratoga TODAY, which reported in May 2025 that the sale appeared pending but that no additional information about the buyer or final price was immediately available at that time. The seed reporting now says the sale is pending at $9.2 million, attributed to Zillow, though that figure has not been independently verified here.
A previous contract to purchase Cady Hill, held by Todd Interests, was abandoned; according to the Adirondack Explorer, Todd withdrew from the deal while beginning due diligence on a separate Whitney Park transaction. After that contract fell apart, the estate was relisted and may have been offered for less than the $12.9 million price at which it had previously been marketed, the outlet reported.
Developer's Absence Draws Notice
DBT Ventures president Daniel McGreevy, who is based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and is not a full-time resident of Saratoga Springs, was absent from the first planning board meeting to discuss the project this past Thursday. A representative for McGreevy said he was attending his daughter's wedding rehearsal dinner in Delaware that day. McGreevy said he intends to attend future public meetings about the proposed Cady Hill plans; he and his wife work in the horse racing business.
The zoning ordinance governing the project requires site-plan review for certain construction, modification or demolition of structures, per the city's code. During that review, the Planning Board evaluates factors including traffic access, stormwater drainage, water supply, sewerage and landscaping, and it may require usable parkland or a fee in lieu of land when it finds a proper case for recreation facilities. Those provisions will likely shape how the 39-lot subdivision proceeds as it continues through city review.
