Month: January 2025

By Susan Elise Campbell

The Saratoga County Airport expansion project that began with a competitive solicitation in September 2022 is nearing completion “on time and on budget,” according to Phil Barrett, chairman of the Saratoga County Board of Supervisors. 

Barrett is Supervisor for the Town of Clifton Park and has served as chairman of Saratoga’s board for the years 2007, 2024 and 2025. He said the Board “is very involved with the airport project from start to finish,” which began with an application for funds from Governor Kathy Hochuls’s Upstate Airport Economic Development and Revitalization Competition. 

The competition encouraged such projects as state-of-the-art boarding concourse and concession areas, terminal expansion or rehabilitation, improved security screening, opportunities to move passengers more safely, and increased focus on cleanliness and disinfection.

According to Barrett, $230 million of federal dollars were split among nine winning airports that worked directly with the Department of Transportation and state officials.

By Rod Bacon

The initial phases of Saratoga Springs’ newest resort have been completed and it has started to accommodate guests.

Brookmere, the reimagining of the former Longfellows Hotel and Restaurant, has been under construction since 2023 and the final phase will be finished early next month.

According to Amber Mathias, director of project development for the Bonacio organization, the Regent Restaurant & Bar is open as well as 28 guest rooms in the renovated annex building. Of those guest rooms, four are spa-specific. The building also houses the Arbor Spa.

The final phase is a three-story new building that is connected to the old barn by the new ballroom and courtyard. The first floor is currently open to the public. Next month the guest rooms on the second and third floors will be available to the public.

General Manager Julian Miller said that to introduce the resort to the community some rooms are being offered for $179 a night for the next several months. 

The Saratoga County Chamber of Commerce’s award-winning Love Our Locals Campaign had another record-breaking year in 2024, with more than $315,243 spent supporting the local economy.

As part of the end-of-year program, shoppers and donors were encouraged to submit their receipts of $20.24 or more spent at a Saratoga County business or donated to a local nonprofit to be entered in a gift card giveaway.

Nearly 3,500 receipts were submitted over the eight-week campaign, and dozens of lucky participants were rewarded for supporting local as gift card winners. 

In the initiative’s past four-years, more than 10,000 receipts have been submitted totaling $843,616. 

Love Our Locals $20.24 was generously sponsored by SaratogaWine.com and more than 50 area businesses that donated gift cards. 

This campaign started as Save Our Locals $20.21, which resulted in more than 2,000 entries from locals whose purchases directly aided in the county’s economic rebound from COVID-19 restrictions. 

In 2022, the Save Our Locals program was recognized with a New York State Tourism Excellence Award from the New York State Tourism Industry Association. 

The campaign was renamed Love Our Locals in 2022, and it remains a popular and purposeful initiative for the Chamber, the business community and the impact sector in Saratoga County.  

The $315,243 total reached in 2024 is more than $100,000 more than the previous year’s Love Our Locals total of $206,384. About 1,000 more receipts were submitted to help reach this goal.

By Paul Post

Area non-profits have until January 31 to apply for a portion of the $1.76 million raised by Stewart’s Shops’ annual Holiday Match program.

Customers of the company’s more than 350 stores donated over $883,500 between Thanksgiving and Christmas Day.

The company has doubled those donations, penny for penny with no administrative fees, meaning hundreds of non-profit children’s organizations will benefit as money is distributed in coming months.  

“We’re really thankful to all of our customers and thankful to all of our shop partners for doing a really great job collecting donations,” said Jennifer Frame, Stewart’s director of corporate philanthropy.

This year’s Holiday Match total was down from the more than $2 million raised last year because there were five fewer collection days, as Thanksgiving came later than normal.

“But collections per day were really strong considering how tough the economy is,” said Robin Cooper, company spokesman. “It was tough for a lot of people financially, but they still gave.”

By Susan Elise Campbell

For anyone north of the Capital District dreaming of learning to fly, the opportunity is now closer than ever. Husband-and-wife team Maura and Christopher Hewison have announced a third location for Hewison Aviation: the Saratoga County Airport, now under expansion and on track for a spring 2025 completion date.

“We were looking to get into Saratoga for the last two years,” said Maura, who is operations manager for the flight academy Christopher founded in 2014 upon receiving his CFII. “Two of our instructors live in Saratoga and have been training clients at the South Albany Airport in Selkirk.”

Operating out of Saratoga not only makes the commute easier for these instructors, but also opens up a clearer path for prospective pilots residing or working within a large radius around the county.

Hewison Aviation also has a presence at Griffiss International Airport in Rome, NY.

“There is no civilian flight training in Saratoga now, but there is a helicopter flight school,” said Hewison. “They send us flight students and we send them helicopter students.”

By Rod Bacon

A mixed-use project is well on its way to completion in downtown Saratoga Springs.

A topping off ceremony marking the placement of the final steel beam was held recently at 78 Church Street Condominiums. The beam was signed by many of those involved in the project, including the company’s real estate arm Julie & Co. Realty LLC, the development group, Bonacio Construction, and Bonacio Steel.

The project, being built by Bonacio Construction, received approval September 6, 2024, and ground was broken immediately. A completion date of September of this year is targeted.

The building is replacing a single-story structure that housed storefronts, most notably Carpetland.

According to Director of Project Development Amber Mathias, the approximately 72,000-square-foot building will house 23 residential condominiums as well as two commercial units on the ground level. She noted that the commercial units are appropriate for retail or office space.