Category Archives: Business News

Saratoga Performing Arts Center (SPAC) has announced its 2024 New York City Ballet (NYCB) season featuring four unique programs from July 9-13 as part of NYCB’s historic 75th anniversary and its 58th season in Saratoga. Called “the foremost creative ballet troupe in the world” by The New York Times, New York City Ballet will bring its roster of more than 90 dancers under the direction of Artistic Director Jonathan Stafford and Associate Artistic Director Wendy Whelan, accompanied by the New York City Ballet Orchestra, led by Music Director Andrew Litton.

“This season marks the occasion of our beloved New York City Ballet’s historic 75th anniversary. We look forward to an incredible week celebrating our shared history over the past nearly six decades, while also pointing toward our exciting future together,” said Elizabeth Sobol, president and CEO of Saratoga Performing Arts Center.

Opening the season on July 9 is “NYCB On and Off Stage,” hosted by NYCB principal dancers for a unique “behind the curtain” experience featuring excerpts from the week’s ballets and culminating with a celebratory after party. Highlighting the residency is George Balanchine’s three-act work Jewels, returning for the first time since 2016 and featuring Fauré’s elegant Emeralds, Stravinsky’s jazz-inflected Rubies, and Tschaikovsky’s symphonic Diamonds.

The 47th Annual Freihofer’s Saratoga Jazz Festival will return for a full two-day and two-stage exhilarating festival experience on Saturday, June 29 and Sunday, June 30 at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center. Featuring a roster of 22 musical groups and 10 festival debuts, the line-up is co-headlined by four premier contemporary artists: Lake Street Dive, Norah Jones, Laufey, and Samara Joy; alongside jazz and blues legends Stanley Clarke with his band N*4Ever, Terence Blanchard Sextet and Coco Montoya. Also highlighting the line-up is the next generation of jazz stars Yussef Dayes, Joey Alexander, Miguel Zenon, Tia Fuller, Theo Crocker, Helen Sung and Sara Caswell, and today’s most electrifying Afro-Cuban and funk bands Cory Henry, Cimafunk, The New Orleans Groove Masters and Pedrito Martinez Group. From jazz to roots, funk, blues, pop, indie and beyond, the festival will bring its signature blend of world-class artists and ensembles, solidifying its place as an international destination and a ‘must-stop’ on the 2024 festival trail. 

“Our 2024 festival has a record number of female headliners, all among the most exciting musicians in the industry today. From young, new sensations like Laufey and Samara Joy, who are bringing jazz to the next generation, to beloved superstars like Norah Jones and Rachael Price, dynamo lead singer of Lake Street Dive, this year’s line-up is over the top with powerful female presence,” says Elizabeth Sobol, President and CEO of Saratoga Performing Arts Center. “As always, we are so grateful to Freihofer’s for making this great festival possible.” 

“The 2023 festival was a smash success, and we are building off of that with high expectations for 2024,” says Danny Melnick, the festival producer and President of Absolutely Live Entertainment. “We have delivered another incredible lineup of new stars, celebrated legends and rhythms from around the world.”

Governor Kathy Hochul has announced Hoosick Falls and Schuylerville as this year’s Capital Region NY Forward winners, receiving $4.5 million each in funding. Building on the momentum of the state’s successful Downtown Revitalization Initiative, the $100 million NY Forward program adopts the same “Plan-then-Act” strategy as the Downtown Revitalization Initiative, which couples strategic planning with immediate project implementation to support a more equitable downtown resurgence for New York’s smaller and rural communities. Applicants submit a vision for their downtown and a slate of transformative projects to achieve that vision. With the Governor’s commitment this year of $100 million each for the Downtown Revitalization Initiative and NY Forward, the State has now invested a combined total of $1 billion in both programs since their inception.

“Investing in our New York communities means investing in their heartbeat – our downtowns,” Governor Hochul said. “Hoosick Falls and Schuylerville put forth plans to reinvigorate their downtowns, which contribute to making the Capital Region a world-class destination for businesses, families and tourists.”

By Paul Post

 How important is Stewart’s Shops to the upstate economy?

The Saratoga County-based firm spends $50 million per year on remodeling projects, replacing old stores with new ones, and entering new markets in 32 counties from the Canadian border to Newburgh, and southern Vermont to Oswego on Lake Ontario.

“Our territory swells from the outer edges,” Chief Operating Officer Chad Kiesow said. “We’re very successful when we’re in areas where people understand what we provide. We’re not your typical convenient store selling snacks, beverage and cigarettes. In some communities we’re a local grocery store. In others, we provide a dining area and a place for people to enjoy our own fresh-made products.”

“Fifty percent of our opportunities come via phone calls from people asking us to locate there,” he said. “The other half, we’re out pounding the pavement looking for communities that need the services we can provide.”

Kiesow joined Stewart’s in 1994 and is chairman of Saratoga Chamber of Commerce in 2024.

With 359 shops and 5,000 full- and part-time employees, Convenience Store News says Stewart’s Shops is the nation’s 18th largest chain, and generated $1.7 billion in revenue in 2022 (zippia.com). Industry leader 7-Eleven is the largest convenience store company with more than 12,700 sites.

By Christine Graf

Glens Falls native Eliza DeRocker has relocated Saratoga Closet, an upscale consignment shop and bridal boutique, to the Wilton Mall. Prior to opening in the mall in mid-December, Saratoga Closet was located at 38 Van Dam Street in Saratoga.

A graduate of the Fashion Institute of Technology, DeRocker has extensive experience in the fashion industry.  In addition to working as a handbag designer for Chanel, she had her own line of handbags and worked as a stylist for Lily Pulitzer. 

Around 2013, she returned to the Capital Region where she opened Glens Falls Bride and Gown at 56 Glen Street. Six months later, she opened Saratoga Closet on Van Dam Street. Albany Bride and Gown was followed by a bridal shop in Charleston, South Carolina. 

All four stores were closed during the early days of the pandemic and after COVID restrictions were lifted, DeRocker found it almost impossible to staff her New York stores. 

“No one wanted to come back to work,” she said. “I lost everybody. I held on as long as I could.”

By Sara Mannix

To best predict the leading stories of 2024, we must first look at and understand what happened in 2023.

Mannix Marketing has relationships with many other digital marketing agencies. In 2023, for the first time in a decade, we saw agencies that have been in business for years simply close their doors. Web development agencies were hit especially hard. Although a number of factors contributed to this, chief among them were that the easy money policies from 2020-2022 went away. Businesses these agencies served started to demand marketing that returned results. Under the increased spotlight some agencies struggled with showing returns.

We see the need for marketing agencies to provide demonstrated proof of their value as a trend that continues into 2024. For a web design and development company, this means they need to know that their clients will no longer be satisfied with just a pretty website. Websites will have to play a vital part in generating new leads and achieving company goals.

And we have seen this firsthand. At the same time some web development agencies have been closing their doors, the demand for search engine optimization (SEO) and paid search services has increased. Why? Because SEO and paid search marketing allow a business to be found by the customer who is searching for the exact product or service they offer. As businesses tighten up their marketing budgets, they will be more focused on results-oriented marketing that is both predictable and reliable. SEO and paid search are easy to justify in a marketing budget as both are trackable to the return on ad spend.

By Christine Graf

Twenty-four-year old Queensbury native Chad Phinney was just 19 years old when he opened Trading Card Hub in the Shirt Factory in Glens Falls. At that time, he was selling sports trading cards on eBay.

“I was buying cards and reselling them, and I started making a lot of money doing it out of my parents’ basement. It just grew and grew until it got to the point where I had so many cards,” he said. 

“My store originally sold just sports cards, but everyone wanted Pokémon, so I started getting into that.”

After about one year in business, Phinney found himself in need of a bigger space. He relocated his store to the Aviation Mall, and the following year, he considered relocating for a second time to the Wilton Mall.

 “When I was renegotiating my rent for Aviation, I was in talks with Wilton. I ended up getting a good deal at Aviation and Wilton, so I decided to keep Aviation and open a second store at Wilton,” he said.

“A lot of the people who come to our Pokémon card trading events live in Saratoga, and they had been asking for a store there.”

By Christine Graf

In what has been his largest endeavor to date, local entrepreneur Michael Blaauboer has completed the restoration of The Brill Manor. Located at 683 Saratoga Road in Wilton, the property is one of the area’s newest wedding and event venues. 

Originally known as the Brill House, the home was built in 1850 by John Brill. The 31-acre property has changed hands many times over the years, and many locals remember it as the Pepper Turkey Farm. Famed LPGA golfer Dottie Pepper grew up there, and her father, former Major League Baseball Player Don Pepper, ran the farm after his father died. 

“Dottie’s parents have been extremely generous in sharing details of the property with me,” said Blaauboer.

In late 2020, Blaauboer acquired the historic property, one that had been neglected for years. The house was in a state of disrepair, obscured by overgrown foliage that rendered it invisible from the road.

By Paul Post 

The area’s oldest, most well-known car wash company is suddenly facing stiff competition from a Georgia-based firm that’s entered the market as part of a campaign to double in size, with 500 locations in nearly two dozen states by the end of 2025.

Family-owned Hoffman Car Wash, founded in 1965, currently has 30 centers including a new one on Route 9 near Exit 17 in Moreau and plans to add more sites in Glens Falls, Halfmoon and Bennington, Vermont, this year.

Each new site costs about $7 million to develop including property purchase.

But Tidal Wave Auto Spa recently opened a new facility on Quaker Road, Queensbury, a short distance from a Hoffman Car Wash. And in July 2022 it launched a South Glens Falls site and plans to add another one on Route 9 in Queensbury, where Uno Pizzeria & Grill is currently located.

Founded in 1999 in Thomaston, Ga., Tidal Wave plans to add 19 new sites in New York state including five now under construction at Colonie Center, Poughkeepsie, New Hartford near Utica, Auburn and Niagara Falls.