By Todd Shimkus
As we head into 2025, Saratoga County is extremely well-positioned for the future.
Let’s take a look at what we already have marked on the calendar for the new year.
Major employers Regeneron and GlobalFoundries are expanding in our county. These investments indicate growth for our local economy, and we hope it will attract talented employees to our one-of-a-kind region where its truly possible to “Live Like You’re On Vacation.”
With one year of experience under our belts, the area is set to host the 2025 Belmont Stakes Racing Festival in early June. The event will feature five days of racing at Saratoga Race Course (one more than in 2024) – and we are thrilled to present another Belmont on Broadway concert to kick off the festivities in Saratoga Springs.
Plus, a special July 4th Racing Festival will serve as a prelude to the traditional summer meet. These extra four days of racing are sure to bring some added vibrancy to Saratoga for Independence Day, and we hope that folks from near and far will join us for Saratoga’s All-American Celebration, an annual tradition organized by our Chamber that features live music and a spectacular fireworks display in the City’s downtown business district.
The 2025 Saratoga Performing Arts Center entertainment schedule, which will run from May to September, is also shaping up to be an extraordinary season. Appearances by Avril Lavigne, Thomas Rhett, Rod Stewart, Weird Al Yankovic, Goo Goo Dolls, Styx and Shania Twain have already been announced by our friends at Live Nation, along with the return of the Saratoga Jazz Festival as well as the New York City Ballet and the Philadelphia Orchestra for their 2025 seasons in their summer home at SPAC.
Tree House Brewing Company’s highly anticipated new Saratoga Springs location, which recently started offering beer-to-go, is slated to open its taproom to the public in 2025. This will be the brewery’s seventh location and its first in New York state, and it will certainly be a popular destination for beer-lovers.
The new Bass Pro Shops store, currently under construction in Clifton Park, will also serve as a destination for shoppers who enjoy outdoor recreation.
To help welcome all of the new employees and residents, racing fans, concertgoers, beer enthusiasts and outdoorsy types, Saratoga’s hospitality offerings are increasing. The new Brookmere Saratoga, an 88-room luxury hotel on the former site of Longfellows, is now accepting guests and the Marriott AC Hotel, with 120 rooms, is being constructed on South Broadway.
While all of these factors are promising, Saratoga County has three issues where action is needed for economic success. Our community leaders must focus on building more workforce housing, expanding public transportation, and, given our labor shortage, implementing immigration reform that allows people already working here to remain and to move more quickly toward becoming U.S. citizens.
If we work together to address these areas of concern, Saratoga will be more than ready to succeed, grow and thrive in 2025!
At the Saratoga County Chamber of Commerce, one of the numerous ways we aim to enhance our region in 2025 is through helping the City of Mechanicville to organize an application for a Downtown Revitalization Initiative/New York Forward grant to support local projects that would transform the City’s downtown. This follows our efforts in 2023 to secure a $4.5 million grant for Schuylerville and, in 2024, serving on the Schuylerville Local Planning Council, which helped the residents, businesses, and leaders of Schuylerville to recommend 15 transformational projects approved to start as soon as 2025.
If you’d like to stay in the know about these initiatives and more, every month the Chamber publishes what we call the “Insider’s Report,” a collection of current statistics and trends that tell us how Saratoga’s economy is performing. This report is now among our most popular emails with thousands of opens every month and an ever-increasing subscriber base. While the name suggests one thing, the reality is that anyone who is interested in this exclusive information can subscribe to receive the report at www.saratoga.org/insider.