Category Archives: Business News

The Saratoga Performing Arts Center (SPAC) has partnered with the Saratoga Springs Downtown Business Association in celebration of SPAC’s 2016 50th anniversary season, offering SPAC patrons a 10 percent discount at participating DBA member businesses.

Participating DBA businesses show a SPAC 50 logo in their window.

In addition, SPAC and the DBA co-present a chance to win SPAC amphitheater tickets to all 2016 performances of the Freihofer’s Saratoga Jazz Festival, New York City Ballet, and the Philadelphia Orchestra. The sweepstakes package is valued at more than $2,000.

Officials said anyone can enter to win by completing an entry form at participating DBA member businesses before June 19. The winning entry will be drawn on June 21. Participants must be 18 or older to enter.

“We are delighted to announce our exciting 2016 50th Anniversary partnership with the Saratoga Springs Downtown Business Association,” said Marcia J. White, president and executive director of SPAC. “For five decades, community collaborations such as our continued partnership with Saratoga’s DBA member businesses have facilitated SPAC’s growth into an internationally renowned summer home for world-class music and dance. As we celebrate SPAC’s 50th Anniversary, we celebrate this community that has enhanced, enriched, and expanded SPAC for fifty years.”

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo announced in May that he is advancing legislation to close what he called “the LLC loophole” in New York state.

The governor has introduced eight bills – one for all political offices and one for each of the state’s elected offices, requiring that limited liability corporations be treated as traditional corporations, capping contributions at $5,000. The bills would prevent LLCs from circumventing disclosure requirements and ensure that businesses do not wield an outsized influence in politics and elections across the state, Cuomo said.

“The people of New York are demanding change and it’s time we took action to restore the public trust by closing the LLC loophole and bringing fairness to our campaign finance system,” Cuomo said. “For years, I have proposed closing the LLC loophole–one of the most egregious flaws in our campaign finance system–and every year the bill has stalled. This year, I am introducing eight different bills to close the LLC loophole – one for each elected office in the state. Pass all of them, or as many as you’d like, but at a minimum, pass the one impacting anyone running for the office of the governor.”

He said the LLC loophole is widely open to abuse – with companies regularly taking advantage of the gap in state law to set up numerous LLCs to donate millions of dollars to political campaigns, candidates for public office and elected officials in New York.

These eight bills are designed to close the LLC loophole, all of which apply to candidates for governor:

1. Everyone (all candidates for state political office).

Fireball Run, a television and internet streaming series, will be crossing New York state in late September, passing through southern Saratoga County in September.

The Fireball Run is a live action trivia pursuit, adventure travel competition that has “missions” or tasks framed as trivia. Each 26-episode season is filmed in a section of the country, edited, then streamed over the internet in the U.S. and shown on television stations.

Welcome events are planned in Ballston Spa and Clifton Park, according to the Chamber of Southern Saratoga County, as 40 competing teams vie for top honors in solving clues and engaging with historic artifacts. Contestants also aid in the search for America’s missing children, and to date 48 children have been found in part by their efforts, according to program officials.

The contestants will be in the area on Sept. 29 and 30.

The event is not a race, organizers said. Teams earn points for completing tasks after having driven to spots of interest, many times historical, based on clues. Points also can be deducted for things like speeding.

The 2016 rally will be going up and down the Hudson Valley as well as the surrounding states from Sept. 23 to Oct. 1. Estimates put the financial impact of the presence in a community at $250,000 per day, according to the production company.

The rally will arrive in Ballston Spa Sept. 29 and Clifton Park on Sept. 30.

By Maureen Werther

J.W. Danforth Co. plans to take occupancy of its newest location at 5 Liebich Lane in Halfmoon by late fall or early winter of this year.

One of the largest mechanical contracting firms in the Northeast, Danforth has its origins in the Buffalo area, where it began over 130 years ago. Its main office is now located in Tonawanda, a few miles outside of Buffalo. The company received site plan approval from the Town of Halfmoon in early May.

Danforth came to the Capital Region in the fall of 2015 to help support the expansion at GlobalFoundries. The company initially rented space in Clifton Park until about six months ago. The company is now occupying space at 107 Hermes Road in Malta until construction on the new office is completed.

This new building will be the third location for Danforth. They also have an office in Victor, N.Y.

According to Steve DiRaimo, vice president of business development and acquisitions, “With the addition of the new office, Danforth will be better positioned to expand in the Capital Region and offer a full array of services, including custom sheet metal and pipe fabrication; full mechanical contracting services; design-build capabilities; energy performance contracting, and other specialty offerings.”

National Grid’s prices for delivering electricity and natural gas to upstate New York customers will be extended at today’s levels into 2018, following regulatory approval of a plan that also will allow the company to continue investment in its networks.

Current energy delivery prices will be maintained through March 2018, extending a period of delivery rate stability for consumers that began more than a decade ago, company officials said.

The company also will be increasing its capital investment in its electricity and natural gas networks over the next two years to approximately $1.3 billion, bringing total investment since 2013 to more than $3 billion. These investments are improving the safety and reliability of the networks, encouraging growth and enhancing storm resiliency, said Daly, National Grid president-New York.

Saratoga Performing Arts Center is embarking on a $5 million capital campaign its board of directors announced in May.

The board also elected two new members, Sonny Bonacio and Richard Higgins, both residents of Saratoga Springs. Leaders in their professions and in the Capital Region community, Bonacio and Higgins will fill vacancies created by outgoing directors Ed Mitzen and Nancy Toohey. Both served SPAC for nine seasons.

SPAC President and Executive Director Marcia J. White said the arts center is launching the public phase of its inaugural 50th anniversary capital campaign to raise funds needed to support SPAC’s future.

Noting that the “next 50 years are as important as SPAC’s founding 50 years,” White said over $4 million of the $5 million target has already been raised during the campaign’s silent phase. The goal during this next public phase will be to meet or exceed the fundraising target of $1 million in order to reach at least $5 million.

“In this milestone 50th anniversary season, we pay tribute to SPAC’s founders who achieved a goal of monumental proportions when they created SPAC,” said White. “Their vision was extraordinary and powerful. It motivated them to push past innumerable obstacles and financial hurdles to create a magnificent, open-air venue in the heart of the Saratoga Spa State Park. Without them, we wouldn’t be here today.”

“However, SPAC’s story and its financial needs are ongoing. Keeping SPAC strong and growing over the next five decades depends on a new generation of founders–our founders of the future,” White said.

She noted that funding for nonprofit performing arts centers is increasingly competitive and that ticket sales from classical programs cover only 40 percent of expenses. Each performance of the New York City Ballet and The Philadelphia Orchestra costs approximately $180,000 to present.

A total of 57 donors, including 100 percent board participation, had contributed over $4 million to the campaign at varying levels by mid-May, including a $1 million gift from an anonymous donor, she said. Donors have the option of directing a gift to one of three categories: programming, capital improvements or SPAC’s endowment fund. Donors can also choose not to restrict their gift to one area, and instead allow SPAC to direct their gift to the area of greatest need.