Category Archives: Business News

Despite severe challenges caused by the COVID-19 Pandemic, Saratoga Performing Arts Center (SPAC) closed the year without a budget shortfall, officials said at the organization’s board of directors meeting in December.
Also, given the uncertainties of what 2021 may bring with regard to the pandemic, SPAC is planning for a number of potential scenarios to present a season that will be ready to meet whatever the prevailing conditions are this spring and summer.
“What we know is this,” said Sobol. “One way or another, there will be a SPAC season. And one way or the other, we are committed to ensuring a Saratoga presence by our beloved resident companies.”
Like so many cultural institutions, SPAC’s 2020 was markedly different than what President and CEO Elizabeth Sobol imagined when programming for season was first announced in January of 2020, before the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
“Just over seven months ago, SPAC took the unprecedented measure of cancelling its whole summer season in the face of the worsening coronavirus pandemic,” said Sobol. “Taking that step felt literally like walking off a cliff.”

Skip Carlson, Vice President Of External Affairs of the Saratoga Casino Hotel, is the 2021 chair of the board of directors of the Saratoga County Chamber of Commerce.
He assumed this volunteer leadership role, on Jan. 1, as Kevin Hedley of Hedley & Co. PLLC completed his one-year term as board chair. Hedley now becomes the immediate past chair.
“In what was truly an unprecedented time in our Chamber’s history, Kevin Hedley as chair of the chamber’s board did an amazing job leading our organization,” said Carlson. “He worked closely with the Chamber’s professional staff to ensure that we did everything we could to collaborate with our community partners in the private, public and nonprofit sectors to reopen our economy and to save our local businesses.
“As we enter 2021, the Chamber continues to lead the way as a visible and vocal advocate for local vaccination sites and support for local small businesses. Kevin’s leadership put us in a position to take on these important challenges. We cannot thank him enough for this commitment to our Chamber and our local community.”
Other board officers for the year include Tara Anne Pleat of Wilcenski & Pleat PLLC, chair elect; Amy Smith of Saratoga Arms Hotel, vice chair; and Chad Kiesow of Stewart’s Shops, treasurer and secretary.
New members elected by the membership to three-year terms on the board include Vincent Laurenzo of Quick Response Restoration, Dennis Kiingati of Hamlet & Ghost, David Rosenberg of Brix Wine & Liquor, and Andrew Wise of Saratoga National Bank & Trust Co.

By Jill Nagy
Moby Rick’s Seafood has moved its Saratoga Springs business to 26 Congress St., in Congress Plaza.
The new shop opened just after Christmas.
The old location, a blue and white clapboard building at 173 Lake Ave. in Saratoga Springs, was demolished. It is owned by Richard Lofstad.
The business had been at the Lake Avenue location for eight years, the last of a series of tenants dating back to 1891.
Moby Rick’s sells fresh fish and seafood sourced on Long Island and in Boston, along with prepared entrees available for takeout.
Earlier in 2020, Lofstad opened a location at 22 Clifton Country Road in Clifton Park.

By Christine Graf
Free Form Fibers, a Saratoga Spring high-tech company in the Grande Industrial Park, completed raising a $2.5 million in November that will be used to further its development.
Free Form Fibers utilizes advanced technology to create high-performance ceramic fibers that are used to make durable parts for the aviation and nuclear industries. The fibers are approximately 1/4 the diameter of a human hair.
The majority of the $2.5 million that was raised will be used to build the three production tools necessary to produce ceramic fibers. The tools should be up and running by the end of March. Without them, the company can only provide lab-sized samples to potential customers for evaluation.
The company anticipates that their fibers will be used in the LEAP commercial aircraft engine, an engine developed through a partnership between GE Aviation and Safran Aircraft Engines. LEAP engines operate with a 15 percent improvement in fuel consumption and CO2 when compared to other engines.
“The LEAP engine has about 5 or 6 percent by weight of ceramic matrix composite (CMC). CMCs allow engines to run at higher temp and thus at higher efficiency. They are also lighter weight than the metals they are replacing,” said CEO Dr. Shay Harrison, who joined the company in 2012. “CMCs require fibers as part of the product. What we are offering as commercial products are materials that go into these types of composites that will replace metals in very high temperature applications or very chemically aggressive applications.”

By Christine Graf
Commercial electrical contractor T&J Electrical Associates has moved to a newly-constructed, 15,000-square-foot headquarters in Clifton Park.
The $2.2 million building is located at 419 Route 146. T&J Electrical was started by brothers Tony and Joe Sestito, out of Tony’s home, in 1977.
During the early years of the business, T&J Electrical performed residential and small-scale commercial work. Over time, the company focus shifted toward large commercial jobs. The company has grown to 80 employees and no longer performs residential work. Tony retired from the business several years ago.
“The scale of jobs they were taking on became larger and larger and they became a union contractor,” said Nick Sestito, son of Joe Sestito, who joined the family business in 2009. He worked his way up to partner and now manages the company along with his father, who is semi-retired.
“They performed a lot of retail work for companies like CVS, Price Chopper, and Shop Rite. Forty years later, we still have a lot of those customers,” he said.
Sestito has spent the last several years growing the company’s electrical lighting and maintenance division which represents approximately 25 percent of its revenue. The remaining 75 percent is generated by the new construction and remodeling division.
“When I came into the office in 2015 with the intent to grow that, we had one service van on the road,” he said. “We now have a fleet of over 20 and we cover the entire northeast. We repair anything electrical or lighting related.”

By Christine Graf
Albany-based Noble Gas Solutions is planning to open a third location at 15 Third St. in South Glens Falls.
The wholesale distributor of gasses and welding supplies also has a location in Kingston. Noble Gas was founded in 1940 as Albany Welding Supply Co. and owner J. David Mahoney worked there for 10 years before purchasing the business in 1986.
Approximately 60 percent of the company’s sales are generated from the gas arm of the business, he said. Noble Gas sells medical, specialty, industrial, and consumer gasses as well as gas and cryogenic packaging. Their packaging product line includes cylinders, tanks, manifolds, and liquid cryogenic dewars.
“We started by getting into selling specialty gasses for universities and for laboratories, and it just evolved. We sell so many different gasses. We sell helium to florists, gasses to veterinary clinics and pharmaceuticals. It’s very diverse,” said Mahoney.
Noble Gas also carries a full line of welding, metalworking, soldering, brazing, and fume elimination supplies.
The company sells, rents and repairs welding machines.

Chowderfest is not going away, it is just going to look a little different this year, organizers announced.
For the safety of everyone, Discover Saratoga has altered the highly anticipated annual event for 2021, introducing Saratoga Chowder Tour.
The group has developed a week-long event, running from Saturday, Jan. 30, through Saturday, Feb. 6, where patrons can get a cup or bowl of chowder at participating Saratoga County restaurants and vote for their favorite online.
Participants businesses will also have pints and quarts of chowder to-go.
“Due to COVID-19, we had to reimagine Chowderfest this year,” said Discover Saratoga President Darryl Leggieri. “To ensure the safety of everyone, Saratoga Chowder Tour will be a social distance-friendly event spanning over a week. There will be no crowds, no vendors serving samples outside, no shuttle service this year, and no blocked off streets, but there will still be lots of delicious chowder to enjoy inside our local restaurants or to-go.”
Saratoga Chowder Tour will allow customers to sample chowder at multiple restaurants throughout the week, avoiding overcrowding of restricted space. They can safely vote online in the comfort of their homes.

By Christine Graf
Queensbury-based electrical contractor Gross Electric reported record breaking sales of $65 million in 2020.
The company was founded in 1994 by Joseph Gross. He started the business out of his garage and had 40 employees by the end of his first year. Today, Gross Electric has 300 employees and satellite offices in Virginia and Florida. The company performs work along the entire East Coast and as far north as the Canadian border.
“I cut my teeth in the paper industry,” said Gross, noting that Finch Pruyn was his first major customer. “The paper industry was very good to us, but unfortunately, that industry has faded.”
Gross Electric was able to find new opportunities in the cement industry and has performed work at Glens Falls Cement and Lafarge Ravena Cement Plant. The company also works in the food processing industry, and customers have included Beech-Nut Nutrition Company in Amsterdam. Their biggest break came about five years ago when they were hired to do the electrical work for the Global Foundries administrative offices in Malta.
“After that, we earned their trust and picked up quite a lot of work at Global Foundries,” said Gross. “With them giving us the opportunity, that opened up other opportunities in the industry.”