NISKAYUNA — The new Ingersoll Place on Consaul Road showed off its $12 million assisted living facility Tuesday morning with a grand opening.

Officials hailed the new building as a “wonderful place for seniors to reside,” but they also acknowledged the years of debate and even rancor in the fight to move the home from its historic location to the brand new facility.

Ingersoll board President Robert Armbrust went down a long list of those who helped make the facility a reality. He also noted: “It’s been somewhat of a bumpy road along the way.”

A group of preservationists had fought hard to keep the old structure at Balltown Road and State Street standing and its grounds free from development. In the end, however, they were successful only in keeping the building standing and in its historic location, something developers had long since agreed to do.

“I am proud to say that Ingersoll and the organization held its head high and fought the good fight and we are where we are today,” Armbrust said to a crowd of public officials and people associated with the home.

“There’s more to history than brick and mortar of old buildings,” he said. “Ingersoll has a history and tradition of providing a safe, warm and comfortable place for seniors to live and that tradition will continue in this nice new facility.”

What they got was a building with 55 assisted living apartments, plus 17 apartments designed for residents with memory issues associated with illnesses such as Alzheimer’s disease.

The “memory care” apartments weren’t available at the old location.

The home opened its doors the first week in June and has since become 98 percent occupied, Ingersoll officials said. Moving from the old location were 29 residents, with rental rates for them frozen at what they were.

Ingersoll officials had studied staying at the old site and building onto it, but ultimately decided that wasn’t feasible.

The move and sale of the old site set off a battle that lasted years.

Highbridge Development purchased the site and plans a strip mall on the land surrounding the old building, which itself could be reused as a restaurant.

Friends of the Stanford Home, the group dedicated to saving the old Ingersoll site from commercial development, finally took their case to court and won an initial ruling last year that stopped the project. That ruling was reversed in April and the project has been awaiting final meetings before going forward.

A last-ditch effort advocating a building moratorium never materialized.

Among those attending Tuesday’s grand opening was former town supervisor Luke Smith, who took the brunt of the criticism. Schenectady Mayor Brian U. Stratton and state Sen. Hugh Farley also were present.

Ingersoll board Vice President James Erceg acknowledged Smith’s support and that of the town, saying they were “incredibly helpful.”

However, speaking on behalf of the town was town board member Liz Orzel Kasper, one of those who vocally opposed the project.

Supervisor Joe Landry planned on attending but ran late.

Kasper acknowledged she opposed the project at the start. The site was too small and she wanted the old building saved, she said.

“In the end, it’s a beautiful site,” Kasper said. “You made it work.”