Category Archives: Business News

By Jennifer Farnsworth

An early October opening of The Bunker, a golf simulator business, will bring new life to space that was once Bellini’s restaurant in Clifton Park.

The Bunker co-owner Troy Miller said after Clifton Park, they will be focusing on a third location in Saratoga Springs.

He said the Clifton Park location is something they have been highly anticipating, given it’s prime location.

“Renovations are complete and we are ready to be in this new space. I sparked up a conversation with Bellini’s about keeping the staff and from there we were able to work something out,” said Miller.

The Bunker is a Guilderland-based business that brings golf simulator technology in an indoor, country club-like setting to golf enthusiasts. Miller is the owner and broker at CM Fox Real Estate and also owns Troy Miller Construction. He said he loves to golf when not working and a conversation in the car with his business partner led to the concept of the now growing business.

“We were literally just driving down the road one day and started talking about it, and it just grew from there,” said Miller.

The Center for Advanced Ambulatory Surgery at Saratoga Medical Park at Malta is now open for orthopedic surgeries, including hip, knee and shoulder replacements and spine procedures.

The $19.1 million facility is a partnership of The Bone & Joint Center, Albany Med and Saratoga Hospital, who joined forces to meet the growing demand for outpatient orthopedic and spine surgeries. The result is a surgical destination for outpatient bone, joint and muscle procedures for patients from the Mid-Hudson River Valley to Canada.

“We have created a blueprint for the future—an environment where patients benefit from the exceptional expertise of a leading orthopedic practice and two highly respected hospitals,” said Dr. Jared Roberts, a fellowship-trained joint surgeon and medical director of the new center.

Dr. Steven Frisch, Albany Med senior executive vice president for the integrated delivery system, hailed the Center for Advanced Ambulatory Surgery as an example of why partnership is good medicine in Malta and at other specialty-care locations across the Albany Med Health System.

Hudson Valley Community College and GlobalFoundries are expanding their partnership by creating a new training and apprenticeship center at the college’s HVCC North extension center in Malta. 

The center is part of the college’s $12.5 million expansion project aimed at boosting workforce training efforts in high-demand areas.

The GlobalFoundries Workforce Training and Apprenticeship Center at HVCC North, announced on Aug. 5, will be created through a philanthropic gift of $500,000, which includes specialized equipment for workforce training.

Officials said that once completed, the center will allow the college to prepare more students though credit and non-credit workforce training programs and apprenticeships as well as through associate degree programs such as electrical engineering technology, semiconductor manufacturing, mechatronics and clean energy management to fill key positions at GlobalFoundries and in other companies and industries throughout the region. 

GlobalFoundries’s gift will also help the college to create a new advanced radio frequency/vacuum technology laboratory and a new innovative mechatronics laboratory, as well as allow for the conversion of the mock clean room laboratory currently located at TEC-SMART to a Class 10,000 ISO clean room.

For the first time in its history, the 40-day summer meet at historic Saratoga Race Course generated all-sources wagering handle of more than $800 million, the New York Racing Association (NYRA) announced.

Having established the new record on Sept. 1, with five racing days remaining in the season, the 2021 summer meet ended with all-sources handle of $815,508,063, a 15.6 percent increase over the prior record of $705,343,949 set in 2019, officials said.

With paid attendance totaling 1,046,478, and excluding 2020 when fans were not permitted due to the COVID-19 pandemic, 2021 marked the sixth consecutive season of more than 1 million in paid attendance at Saratoga Race Course. Average daily attendance during the 40-day meet was 26,162.

“Thanks to the energy, enthusiasm and support of the best fans in horse racing, the 2021 summer meet at Saratoga Race Course has been a tremendous success,” said NYRA President and CEO Dave O’Rourke. “This has been a summer reunion like never before, and we’re especially pleased that the return of fans has translated into strong business for downtown Saratoga Springs and the entire Capital Region community. The summer meet at Saratoga is as strong as at any point in its storied history.”

By Susan Elise Campbell

Saratoga Economic Development Corp. has relocated to 56 Duplainville Road, the Saratoga Springs headquarters of Quad Graphics.

Dennis A. Brobston, SEDC president since 2008, said having upscale office spaces and conveniences will help the consulting firm “track companies looking to expand business into the area, especially foreign interests.”

“A company coming from overseas needs a desk area and amenities,” Brobston said. “Quad Graphics is the largest printer with 700 people, $50 million invested in equipment, and a beautiful facility.”

SEDC is renting space at Building 4 on Quad’s campus.

Brobston said the nonprofit has access to professional offices, conference and event rooms, and an auditorium at Quad, plus the latest in audio-visual and teleconferencing technology. There is also a cafeteria, a health gym, and locker rooms that SEDC and their guests can use, and a medical center on site.

The organization had leased 28 Clinton Street Suite 6 in downtown Saratoga month-to-month for 24 years, Brobston said, and was not actively seeking to relocate.

By Susan Elise Campbell

Precision Valve & Automation, a maker of dispensing, coating, and custom automation equipment, has “come full circle” by returning to Saratoga County at a new location at 6 Corporate Drive in Halfmoon, according to CEO and founder Tony Hynes.

About 200 employees relocated from the 135,000-square-foot facility at One Mustang Drive in Cohoes that the company occupied since 2010.

“We moved $15 million in production in one day,” Hynes said. The new headquarters opened officially on Aug. 23.

Hynes started the company in the basement of his home in 1992 and was soon accepted into the RPI Incubation Center for manufacturing start-ups. 

“We had to petition to go there, do interviews, and present the business plan so they could appraise our potential for success,” he said.

By Susan Elise Campbell

Some people say that if you follow your passion, everything else in your business will fall into place. Thomas Stock, a Saratoga-based commercial photographer for 30 years, believes the adage works better when you flip it upside down. “First, get really good at something, then you’ll get passionate about it,“ he said. 

And that’s what he did a few years after graduation from Syracuse University where he studied graphic arts and majored in photography. 

“Syracuse had an art photo studies program but they also had a ski team,“  Stock said about another of his passions. He had skied in Germany for the U.S. Army and later received a veterans administration scholarship to help cover the cost of tuition and supplies at art school.

After graduation, he worked in Wilmington,  Del., as a staff photographer and lab manager for several years before starting his own business in Saratoga as the sole proprietor of Stock Studios Photography. 

As live music venues continue to feel the impact of COVID-19, Saratoga Springs’ Caffe Lena is moving its live streams off Facebook and YouTube to a new donate-to-watch platform called CaffeLena.TV. 

“Streaming is here to stay. It has become an essential tool in keeping artists and venues afloat and audiences engaged. We need to make it a great experience for the viewer, and economically viable for the producers,” said Executive Director Sarah Craig.

Heading into a fall when the music industry was hoping to return to normal, the COVID delta variant is once again causing tour cancellations and venue restrictions, Craig said. 

“While our first choice is to have everyone here in person, it’s exciting to be connecting this legendary venue with a worldwide audience,” said Craig. “It feels like the right moment to move our streams off the free platforms. If streaming is going to be a core part of the performing arts, we can’t treat it like a give-away.”

The service launched Sept. 1 with the opening of the Caffe Lena vault containing past shows. The first live show was Sept. 7 with the Chuck Lamb jazz trio performing with special guest saxophonist Luca Pino.

Jane Mastaitis will become the new chief executive officer of Saratoga Bridges effective Oct. 1. 

Mastaitis will replace longtime CEO Valerie Muratori, who is retiring after 38 years of service to the agency. 

Since 1991, Mastaitis has been the agency’s chief financial officer. 

“Valerie Muratori has been not just the face of Saratoga Bridges, but the backbone of the agency. For 38 years, she guided us through tremendous growth as well as recent challenges,” said Dr. Lawrence Fein, the agency’s board of directors president, in a press release. 

He said the group’s succession team conducted an extensive search process and chose Mastaitis.