SARATOGA SPRINGS — Bob Israel made a name for himself revitalizing the city’s West Side and developing Federal Square, and now he’s moved on to another tourist city in a much warmer climate.

In November, the real estate developer who owns the Inn at Saratoga and 12 other buildings in Saratoga Springs bought a historic hotel in St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands, and he is overseeing some renovation work on it this summer.

Mafolie Hotel and Restaurant is a 22-room boutique hotel with a 100-seat restaurant overlooking downtown Charlotte Amalie and the St. Thomas Harbor.

The changes he’s making to Mafolie, which was built in the 1940s, are not as drastic as his most well-known redevelopment project in Saratoga Springs, where in the 1970s he tore down several old structures on Franklin and Division streets and built Franklin Square.

Israel is credited as one of several people who helped bring the city’s West Side back to life. When he moved to Saratoga Springs in 1977, half the storefronts on Broadway were vacant, and the city had not yet become the popular residential and recreational attraction it is now.

“I always thought it had great potential,” he said. Israel grew up in Newburgh but had lived in Denver, Colo., just before moving to Saratoga.

“I had a different perspective than a lot of locals did.”

Israel began buying old buildings and fixing them up for mixed-use buildings with first-floor storefronts and upper-level apartments.

“That was known as one of the worst neighborhoods in Saratoga,” he said of Franklin Square.

Later, his stucco building on Railroad Place became the city’s first high-rise condominium development in 2000, giving rise to a trend echoed throughout the city since then. Israel no longer owns that building.

He decided to buy property in St. Thomas because he has sailed in the British Virgin Islands and liked the Caribbean. “I was just looking for an adventure.”

Israel initially hoped to buy land and build a hotel, but then decided it would be faster to buy an existing business. “The bureaucracy is very difficult to work with down here, and it takes years to get approvals,” said the former Saratoga Springs Planning Board member.

Then the Mafolie went up for sale. Its former owner decided to return to the United States after having the hotel for six or seven years, he said.

Israel, 60, has no plans to retire soon, and although he doesn’t plan on buying any more St. Thomas properties right away, it’s probable that he will eventually, he said.

“You know, I always say ‘no’ and then the next property comes along and I find it irresistible and have to buy it.”

In the meantime, he plans to renovate the outdoor pool and open-air restaurant, making it more hurricane-proof and bringing architectural details back to a more period look.

“It’s one of the older hotels on the island.”

The hotel caters to about 60 percent American tourists, 20 percent locals and 20 percent tourists from other countries, Israel said.

“We kind of nurture people who are here, and they tend to have a good time because of that,” Israel said by phone from St. Thomas on Tuesday.

With a standard room at $156 a night in the busy season between December and April, the Mafolie is more economical than large resorts, and has more of a local flavor than international chain hotels, with English plantation-style furniture in the rooms and bright tropical colors decorating the hotel, Israel said.

“Most of our employees are local West Indian people,” he added.

While Israel works in St. Thomas for six to eight months a year and returns to Saratoga Springs in the summers, his family members will take care of business in Saratoga Springs.

Son Charlie Israel and daughter Elizabeth Israel are currently working at the hotel and at Franklin Square Associates, his real estate holding company. Son Adam Israel goes back and forth between Saratoga and St. Thomas like his father.