Category Archives: Business News

By Andrea Harwood

Haley Gerarde has opened up a new business, Jenny Jo’s Smoothie Bar. The Lake George native operates the mobile smoothie truck in the greater Saratoga and Glens Falls region.

Gerarde purchased the business in early 2021. The smoothie truck was previously known as The Smoothie Shoppe. Gerarde renamed the business and the truck to Jenny Jo’s Smoothie Bar upon acquisition. She operated the business briefly as The Smoothie Shoppe as she waited for her signage to be completed.

Gerarde has two daughters, Genevieve (Jenny) and Josephine (Jo), the namesakes of her business.

Years ago when the business was owned by previous operators and known as The Smoothie Shoppe, Gerarde would take her daughter Jo down to the Spa City Farmer’s Market to get smoothies. She began following The Smoothie Shoppe on social media, and eventually connected with the owners.

Around a year ago, one of the previous owners showed interest in selling the business. Gerarde already had interest in starting a business, perhaps a brick-and-mortar breakfast place. When she heard the smoothie shop business was for sale, she inquired right away.

By Paul Post

A Queensbury firm and its Singapore-based partner are helping companies worldwide with a new high-tech hiring service that purports to finds key employees quickly and efficiently while saving valuable time and money.

“Our first customer in New York City went from an average of two to three months per hire to just three days using our tool,” said Tim Montgomery, owner and president of TIMIT Solutions LLC. “Our primary target is businesses that hire a lot of people. We’ve initially engaged with some very large IT (information technology) companies in India.”

ConvInt.ai (Conversational Intelligence), founded and owned by Virender Aggarwal, of Singapore, uses artificial intelligence to locate top candidates not only for IT companies, but those in other industries such as insurance, healthcare and the rapidly expanding field of cannabis production.

“Many human resources people aren’t technically savvy and don’t know much about who you need to hire for the cannabis industry, the types of people and skills they need,” Montgomery said. “This tool makes them an expert in all of those areas because we’re asking expert questions on their behalf.”

A portion of the state highway system in Saratoga Springs was dedicated in August to Marylou Whitney, an iconic figure in the community and the horse racing industry at Saratoga Race Course.

Gov. Kathy Hochul designated a portion of Union Avenue as Marylou Whitney Way. It covers Route 9-P, between the Northway and East Avenue in Saratoga Springs that leads to, and is adjacent to, the historic race course.

A ceremony was held at the race track that included the governor, local and state dignitaries, racing industry officials and John Hendrickson, Whitney’s husband.

“Marylou Whitney’s years of dedication to Saratoga will live on forever, reflected in the work she did throughout her life,” Hochul said. “She was larger than life, a trailblazer of her time, and her memory will be a lasting legacy here and today I am honored to dedicate to her a piece of the city she so loved. I thank the Whitney family for their continued work here and I am grateful to be able to remember Marylou as the legend and friend she is to so many.”

By Jill Nagy

Roohan Realty recently purchased the Diamond Brady Plaza on Putnam Street in Saratoga Springs from real estate developer Bruce Levinsky and his company 63 Putnam Street LLC. 

The purchase price for the 31,500-square-foot plaza was $3.95 million, said Tom Roohan, president and owner of Roohan Realty. 

Adirondack Trust financed the purchase. The deal closed in July.

A big attraction in obtaining the building was the fact that Roohan and his family own nearby property on Broadway and Phila streets, he said.  

The plaza has tenants including the Wasabi Saratoga, a restaurant and bar; DZ Restaurants, Putnam Place bar and music venue, and KBC Design Studio, a kitchen designer. 

“They are all nice people and I hope they will stay,” Roohan said. 

One of them, Wasabi, recently expanded its patio and added a roof. But there are vacancies the new owners hope to fill, according to Roohan.

The Beekman Street Arts District is home to a new art gallery, The Cottage of Art & Design, at 73 Beekman St., a collective that showcases the work of six local creatives and features jewelry, fiber art, pottery, art quilts, tiles, mosaics, and paintings.  

A wide array of working artists and restaurateurs call the three-block stretch on the west side of Saratoga Springs home.

 Financed by grants secured by preservation minded proponents  the Arts District went from vision to reality over 20 years ago.   

 The Cottage artists are Amejo Amyot, creator of spiritually motivated clay work and paintings; Meg Dalton, maker of detailed art quilts and wearables; Meryl Davis of Black Bird designs, designer and crafter of enamel jewelry and mosaics; Nancy Niefeld of Two Spruce Pottery, creator of finely crafted sculpture and pottery; Susan Rivers of Greentree Fiber Arts, practitioner of Quilted Alchemy, blending technology and tradition; and Don Shore of Lesperance Tiles, maker of artisanal tilework for installations and stand-alone art pieces.

The Friends of the Saratoga Springs Public Library has hired Jennifer Allen as its first executive director.

Allen oversees all Friends activities, including its successful used book shop, and will work to expand community engagement and support for the library’s facilities, programs and collection. 

Jeff Budge will continue his decade-long tenure managing book shop operations.

“The Friends saw an opportunity over the past two years to reflect and rebuild,” said Klare Ingram, president of the board of directors. “Hiring a full-time executive director was long overdue and aligns with how much the organization has grown during its nearly 50-year history.” 

Allen joined full-time in July, after working with the Friends part-time since the start of the year. She brings two decades of experience from leadership roles in fundraising, marketing, community engagement and education.

The Friends has long benefited from a generous community of members, donors, and book shop patrons as well as a committed corps of nearly 60 volunteers, Ingram said. The realities of COVID, however, forced the group to close its book shop for months and the organization was forced to rethink how it achieves its mission.

There’s good news for residents of downtown Saratoga Springs who were upset when Price Chopper closed its doors 55 Railroad Place. 

Adam Foti, founder and owner of PDT catering, plans to open PDT Market in the 19,000-square-foot space which is located on the ground floor of a luxury apartment building. 

“A lot of the residents above the market and in the neighborhood were sad to see Price Chopper go because you could just walk in and grab a few groceries,” said Jennifer Hull, marketing director for PDT Market. “We won’t be the size of a Price Chopper with aisles and aisles of groceries, but we will have groceries.”

Product offerings will be in line with what Hull refers to as the store’s “Good, better, best, model.”

“If you want to spend $30 on olive oil, we will have that for you. If you want to spend $10, we will have that as well. We will have affordable options, and there will be gluten-free and vegan. There will be something for everyone.”

GlobalFoundries received the final last local approval needed to go ahead with the construction of a second major building on its Malta property.

Officials said the billion computer chip factory will cost $6 billion to $8 billion. It comes as the computer chip industry worldwide has expressed the need to increase capacity to overcome a semiconductor shortage.

In another boost to the project, on July 28, the U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation to increase U.S. semiconductor manufacturing known as “CHIPS and Science Act” and the day before the U.S. Senate has passed his historic federal semiconductor incentive, scientific research, and technological competitiveness bill to bring manufacturing back from overseas to places like Upstate New York.

The CHIPS legislation now moves to the White House and awaits President Biden’s signature. The Biden Administration has been a strong supporter of increasing semiconductor manufacturing and the many jobs it creates in the U.S..

“With the votes taken in the House of Representatives and yesterday in the U.S. Senate, Congress has expressed broad, bipartisan and national support for leveling the playing field for competitive semiconductor manufacturing in the U.S.,” said Dr. Thomas Caulfield, GlobalFoundries  president and CEO. “Congress took action to protect U.S. economic, supply chain and national security by accelerating semiconductor manufacturing on American soil.”

Jill Johnson VanKuren of MedStar Health System in Maryland will be the new president and CEO of Saratoga Hospital.

She starts Sept. 19.

Michael J. Toohey, Saratoga Hospital board of trustees chairperson, announced VanKuren’s appointment in July, citing her 17 years of experience with the largest integrated healthcare system in the Baltimore-Washington metropolitan area. 

 VanKuren succeeds Angelo Calbone, who will retire in August after 16 years of significant investment in programs, facilities and talent. He is credited with leading the transformation of the hospital and healthcare in the Saratoga region.

Most recently, VanKuren served as senior vice president of operations and chief operating officer at MedStar Franklin Square Medical Center, one of 10 MedStar hospitals.

 “From her first interview, Jill impressed us with her understanding of the vital role of a community hospital in a larger health system,” Toohey said. “She shares our commitment to maintaining Saratoga Hospital’s reputation for exceptional quality and personal attention while bringing the benefits of the Albany Med Health System to our patients and community.”

 “I have a deep respect for the community and the culture that the people of Saratoga Hospital have built over the years,” VanKuren said. “I look forward to building on that strong foundation as we evolve to support the future needs of the community. I am honored to have been selected to lead this team.”

 At MedStar, VanKuren held leadership positions at both the corporate and hospital levels for a system with more than 300 care locations and 31,000 employees. As an assistant vice president with MedStar corporate strategic planning, she developed system service lines and business models.