Saratoga Business Journal

Jenny Jo’s Smoothie Bar Mobile Unit Can Travel To Provide Product At Local Events

September 12, 2022September 20, 2022

Haley Gerarde and husband Michael Gerarde operate Jenny Jo’s Smoothie Bar.
Andrea Harwood

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.

Local Company Provides Service To Help IT Companies Fill Jobs Quickly And Efficiently

September 12, 2022

Tim and Kathleen Montgomery are the owners of TIMIT Solutions.

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.”

Part Of Union Avenue Near Race Course Renamed ‘Whitney Way’ For Iconic Marylou

September 12, 2022

Gov. Kathy Hochul and John Hendrickson, husband of Marylou Whitney, unveil the sign in August renaming a city street in honor of the iconic philanthropist.
Courtesy NYS

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.”

Diamond Brady Plaza in Downtown Saratoga Springs Purchased In July By Tom Roohan

September 12, 2022

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.

Capital Area Physical Therapy And Wellness Adds Saratoga Springs Office, Its Third

September 12, 2022

Robert Rehberger, a physical therapist with Capital Area Physical Therapy and Wellness, works with a patient at the company’s new office in Saratoga Springs.
©2022 Saratoga Photographer.com

By Jill Nagy

With the acquisition of Goodemote Physical Therapy in Saratoga Springs, Capital Area Physical Therapy and Wellness, headquartered in Malta, has grown to three offices (the third, in Queensbury).

Within a month, it will have 13 physical therapists on staff and eight administrators.

The practice began in 2013, with only two therapists, Dr. Andrew Gaetano and Dr. Evan Marsh, who had been college classmates.

“We did everything, at first,” Marsh said, from greeting patients to cleaning the restrooms. “But, slowly and surely, it been to grow.”

Currently, the practice sees approximately 1,400 patient visits a month in Malta; about 500 (but “growing steadily”) in Queensbury; and 750 a month in Saratoga Springs, said Marsh.

The practice is “growing back” after cutbacks that became necessary during the COVID pandemic.

Bellatas Medical Aesthetics Moves Offices From Clifton Park To Saratoga Springs

September 12, 2022

Laura Newey, a nurse practitioner with training in medical aesthetics, operates Bellatas Medical Aesthetics in Saratoga Springs, providing skin care services, including botox treatments.
©2022 Saratoga Photographer.com

By Jill nagy

Laura Newey, a nurse practitioner with additional training in medical aesthetics, recently moved her practice to the Blackmer Building at 28 Clinton St. in Saratoga Springs.

The business, called Bellatas Medical Aesthetics, provides skin care, including botox treatments, microneedling, and treatment of skin pigmentation issues.

Bellatas is a made-up word meaning the state of being beautiful (bella), according to the owner’s husband and marketing person, David Newey. Her practice is a level beyond that of a non-RN aesthetician, but not at the level of a dermatologist or plastic surgeon, he said. But dermatologists and plastic surgeons incorporate aspects of medical aesthetics in their medical practices.

The most popular treatment at the Bellatas spa is botox, injections of low doses of the botulism toxin, used to smooth wrinkles and tighten skin. Newey recently added microneedling treatments, which uses a machine called Morpheus 8, that lightly pierces the skin with multiple needles, resurfacing the skin, promoting collagen growth, and reducing wrinkles.

‘MindBody Fusion’ Owner Works To Help Athletes Reach Their Full Potential

September 12, 2022

Heather Lofink opened her MindBody Fusion business in Saratoga Springs.

By Christine Graf

Heather Lofink, a local Licensed Mental Health Counselor, is on a mission to help athletes reach their maximum potential.

A Saratoga Springs native, Lofink worked at St. Peter’s Addiction Recovery Center before opening her own private practice in the One Roof health care building at 58 Henry St. in Saratoga Springs in February 2021.

“I put my calendar out three weeks before I opened, and I was full before I officially opened my door,” said Lofink. “I’ve been full since the day I opened, and I probably turn away three to five people a week who are reaching out for help. That’s really hard.”

Lofink is trained in eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR), a psychotherapy treatment endorsed by the American Psychological Association and Word Health Organization. EMDR is designed to alleviate the distress associated with traumatic memories.

After receiving her initial training in EMDR, she completed a sports performance EMDR course. At the time, her teenaged son was in the midst of a baseball batting slump, she said. Despite attending clinics and working with batting coaches, he was still struggling at the plate. It wasn’t until Lofink started to work with him, applying what she had learned in her trainings, that things finally improved.

Dake Family Makes $3 Million Donation To Fund Wellness Center At New Senior Center

September 12, 2022

This is a rendering of the new Saratoga Senior Center to be built adjacent to the Saratoga YMCA. Stewart’s Shops/Dake Family donated $3 million to the project.
Courtesy YMCA

Stewart’s Shops/Dake Family recently donated $3 million to support the Saratoga YMCA and Saratoga Senior Center’s joint project.

The undertaking will create a new wellness environment for residents from children to seniors living in the greater Saratoga region. The relocation of the Senior Center to the West Avenue campus will free up the current center space for other civic organizations to operate, which will benefit the entire community.

The YMCA has been dedicated to improving the health and wellness of the greater Saratoga community for over 150 years. This expansion project will provide much-needed additional space for the Y when post-COVID operations are currently requiring more space in exercise areas to better support public health, officials said.

The new building will supply additional space and will come fully equipped with new fitness spaces and wellness centers devoted to public health – something the Dake Foundation and Stewart’s Shops have been consistent with in their giving for decades. An indoor “adventure center” which will include a play space, a new gymnasium, as and a shared lobby area between the Y and the Senior Center, are also parts of the plan.

Home Work Stations Can Lead To Back Woes; Experts Have Advice To Help Prevent That

September 12, 2022

Denise Didio Buher, PT, owner of Orthopedic and Spine Physical Therapy.
Courtesy Orthopedic and Spine Physical Therapy.

by Christine Graf

A large-scale study conducted in Japan showed that increased work from home has led to an increase in lower back pain, and Google searches for the words “back pain” reached an all-time high in January 2022. Poor ergonomics in the home office are thought to be partially to blame for the worldwide surge in back pain.

Since the start of the pandemic, chiropractor Dr. Brad Elliott, owner of Elliott Chiropractic in Clifton Park, has seen an uptick in the number of patients seeking care for back, neck, and shoulder pain.

“Home workstations have kept providers like me busy,” he said. “There’s been a lot of overuse injury from working from home without a doubt. I’ve seen a lot of neck, shoulder, and upper back issues and a lot of nerve and muscle-based issues from forward head carriage.”

Denise Didio Buher, PT, owner of Orthopedic and Spine Physical Therapy in Queensbury, said her practice has also seen an increase in the number of patients seeking treatment for back and neck pain.

“I have certainly seen an increase in all of this because people have been more sedentary since COVID, and they are all working from home. During COVID, I did tele-rehab, and I had a ton of people from New York City who were really trapped in their apartments. I worked with them to correct their seating, correct their posture, and give them exercises to counteract everything that they were doing.”

Developer Of Electric Airplanes Moves Its Headquarters To STEP Tech Park in Malta

September 12, 2022

By Christine Graf

Aviation company Wright Electric has moved its headquarters to the 280-acre Saratoga Technology + Energy Park (STEP) in Malta.

Founded in Boston in 2017, the company is developing zero-emissions electric airplanes for short regional flights. Their electric motors and motor controllers are versatile and will be able to serve other industries including the maritime industry, according to the company.

Co-founder Jeff Engler, a Hudson Valley native with a B.A. from Columbia University and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School, is an entrepreneur who has also worked in the private sector. He previously co-founded Podimetrics, a company that designed the SmartMat, a medical device used for the early detection of foot ulcers in diabetics.

“These foot problems lead to early amputations and early death, and it often tends to be in veterans,” he said. “It costs the medical system billions and billions of dollars. It’s a large social problem and a large economic opportunity, and that’s really the same as with electric airplanes.”

Engler’s interest in electric airplanes was piqued ten years after he visited a web site that allowed him to calculate his personal carbon footprint.

“What I found was that it turned out that each time I ate vegetarian, it had a relatively small impact on my carbon footprint. But a single flight had a huge impact,” he said. “Subsequently, there has been a lot of research on this, and it turns out you would have to eat vegetarian for over a year to offset the carbon from even a single New York to Chicago flight.”