Saratoga Business Journal

Queensbury Hotel Expansion, Designed By Phinney Design Group, Opens For Business

August 8, 2022

The Queensbury Hotel’s new Adirondack Ballroom and renovated event space was officially opened in late July. It more than doubles the capacity for hosting conferences and special events.

By Paul Post

Downtown Glens Falls’ slow, steady resurgence just got a boost with the July 21 grand opening of Queensbury Hotel’s $3.8 million new Adirondack Ballroom.

The 5,200-square-foot facility more than doubles the historic hotel’s capacity for hosting conferences and special events, which can further fuel the local economy.

“We’re already sold out now on Friday and Saturday nights, almost year round, hosting 300 people that need things to do. They want to go shopping, go to restaurants, events at Wood Theater or Cool Insuring Arena,” said Tyler Herrick, hotel general manager. “Before the expansion we were hosting 750 events a year. This is just going to help accelerate that by bringing midweek conventions to Glens Falls, which means more business for our property and all of downtown.”

The ballroom is the latest project in an ongoing makeover of the landmark, 96-year-old hotel, which has helped make it a business incubator by encouraging other small businesses to locate downtown.

Sapphire Boutique On Broadway In Saratoga Springs Is Culmination Of Woman’s Dream

August 8, 2022

Sapphire Boutique at 219 Broadway in Saratoga Springs offers skin care, oxygen facials, hydrofacials, and other services including body waxing.
©2022 Saratoga Photographer.com

By Jill Nagy

“My dream was always to have a business of my own and to do skin care,” said Jhoanna Cantera, who saw that dream come true with the opening of Cantera’s Sapphire Boutique at 219 Broadway in Saratoga Springs.

The new business is the result of several years of hard work and some good luck at the end. Cantera began to study at an aesthetics school seven years ago but had to drop out to help with some family issues at home in Peru, South America. When she returned a month later, she had to get back online for a spot in the school’s aesthetics program.

In the meantime, she was able to obtain a license for body waxing and get a job at a Saratoga salon doing waxing.

She saved money and eventually was able to return to school and work toward obtaining her skin care license.

During that time, as she drove to work each day, she passed a coin shop that also sold jewelry. One day, she stopped in, largely to see the jewelry. The store was small but she really liked it.

“Almost by chance,” she recalled, the store became available for rent. Cantera was still four months short of completing school. She was slowly accumulating tools and equipment for a future shop. Then she had another look at the then-vacant store.

NBT Bank Partners With Company To Start A Real Estate Equity Investment Fund

August 8, 2022

NBT Bank and CEI-Boulos Capital Management have launched the NBT CEI-Boulos Impact Fund, a $10 million real estate equity investment fund with NBT Bank as the sole investor.

The fund is designed to support individuals and communities with low and moderate income through investments in high-impact, community supported, commercial real estate projects located within the bank’s Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) assessment areas in New York.

The project investment area includes Warren and Washington counties.

“As a community bank, NBT is committed to the communities we serve,” said, NBT Bank President and CEO John H. Watt, Jr. “This includes doing our part to create stronger, healthier neighborhoods. We believe that investments in projects that deliver critical affordable housing can also have a ripple effect in supporting job creation and strengthening our communities.”

The NBT CEI-Boulos Impact Fund is managed by CEI-Boulos Capital Management, a fund management company focused on delivering competitive financial returns and social impact. CEI-Boulos helps banks achieve their CRA objectives by organizing and managing funds that invest in financially attractive, high-impact commercial real estate projects that benefit the communities in which they are located.

CEI-Boulos prioritizes projects that represent collaborations between various entities—including non-profits, local and state government, philanthropic institutions, banks, community development finance institutions, community-based organizations, private investors, and local developers—that share a vision for their community.

SUNY Empire State Program Combines B.S. In Accounting With MBA In Management

August 8, 2022

SUNY Empire State College will debut a new program this fall that combines the B.S. in accounting with the MBA in business management.

The combined B.S. in accounting and MBA in business management is a CPA-150 Licensure Qualifying Program that is registered with the state Department of Education. It satisfies the educational requirements for the certified public accountant license.

Students who are accepted to the combined program will take three graduate courses (nine credits) during their bachelor’s degree studies at the undergraduate tuition rate. These credits will count toward both the bachelor’s and master’s degrees, for a combined program total of 152 credits to help students save on program costs and reduce the time needed to finish both degrees.

The B.S. in accounting can be offered in person or online. The MBA in business management is a fully online program.

SUNY Empire also introduced a Bachelor in Business Administration (BBA) that will be accepting applications for the fall.

Business Report: Looking At Asset Allocation

August 8, 2022

Matthew Burnell, financial paraplanner, HK Wealth Management Group.

By Matthew Burnell

A key term often heard in investing is “asset allocation”. In simple terms this refers to the percentage of holdings in an investment portfolio to stocks, bonds, and cash.

Using these broad categories, asset allocation reflects the amount of market risk an investor is comfortable with and is not static over time. Stocks have historically had the greatest risk and highest returns among the three major asset categories.

Bonds are generally less volatile than stocks but typically offer more modest returns. Cash and cash equivalents such as savings deposits, certificates of deposit, treasury bills, money market deposit accounts, and money market funds are the safest investments, but offer the lowest return of the three major asset categories.

A major factor in the market risk one can tolerate is the investors time horizon. If an investor is young and plans to work for many more years, then typically they are willing to take on more market risk in hopes of better returns. In this case, stocks would be a larger percentage of their portfolio.

Alternatively, if an investor is closer to retirement, then typically they will have less tolerance for market risk (i.e. more risk averse) since they will be using their retirement assets to fund living expenses in the near future. The more risk-averse an investor is, the more they will want to be invested in “safer” assets, like high-quality bonds and cash. Recommendations vary, but often it is strategic to have a year or two of expenses in cash to begin retirement.

Tying this to today’s economy, if someone retired at the end of 2021 and needed to take funds from their investment portfolio to live off, they would likely be selling assets at a loss due to the down market. If they had cash to cover this year’s expenses, this would allow them to stay invested in hopes for a market rebound before raising cash from these assets. In this scenario it would not be prudent to be 100 percent in stocks at the end of 2021 if you were planning to retire at years end and use these funds to supplement retirement income.

Wesley Community Director Says ‘People Are Looking To Age’ In A Set Space

August 8, 2022

Brian Nealon, CEO of the Wesley Community in Saratoga Springs, says staffing shortages because of COVID forced closing of two of its nursing home units for the forseeable future.
©2022 Saratoga Photographer.com

By Christine Graf

Of the more than one million Americans who have died from COVID-19, a staggering 23 percent were residents of long-term care facilities. According to Brian Nealon, CEO of the Wesley Community, these sobering statistics have impacted the way Americans view nursing homes.

“People are looking to age in place even more so than they did prior to the beginning of the pandemic. It’s about ‘How do I stay at home longer?’ It could be the family home that they have been in for 50 years or it could be at one of our apartments at Woodlawn Commons or Embury.”

Located on Lawrence Street in Saratoga Springs, Woodlawn Commons offers 60 market-rate independent senior living apartments as well as 40 assisted living units. The neighboring Embury Apartments provides the local community with 192 subsidized senior apartments. Both complexes are currently at full capacity.

The Wesley Community also has a skilled nursing facility that provides both long-term care as well as short-term rehabilitation. They also offer home care through Wesley Senior Solutions and outpatient physical/occupational/speech therapy through Wesley Outpatient Therapy.

Public Pension Benefit Dollars Have Strong Impact On Small Towns And Communities

August 8, 2022

As many small towns and rural communities across America face shrinking populations and growing economic challenges, a new report released by the National Institute on Retirement Security finds that a positive economic contributor to these communities is the flow of benefit dollars from public pension plans.

In 2018, public pension benefit dollars represented between one and three percent of GDP on average in the 2,922 counties in the 43 states studied.

These findings are detailed in a new study released July 11 by the National Institute titled Retirement Security, Fortifying Main Street: The Economic Benefit of Public Pension Dollars in Small Towns and Rural America.

NIRS said the research illustrates the impact of benefit dollars from public pension plans according to several different measures: as a percentage of GDP by county; as a percentage of total personal income by county; and by categorizing counties as metropolitan, small town (micropolitan), or rural.

“National economic trends coupled with population declines have had a devasting impact on many small towns and rural areas across America. Often, the largest employer in these smaller towns is a public entity like a school system or municipality that employs teachers, nurses, firefighters, and public safety officials. These public employees spend their career serving their communities at a time when a growing number of young workers are leaving their hometowns for job opportunities in urban areas,” said Dan Doonan, NIRS executive director.

Report: Increasing Minimum Staffing At Long Term Care Facilities Will Cost Billions

August 8, 2022

The American Health Care Association (AHCA), representing more than 14,000 nursing homes and other long term care facilities across the country, released a new report from accounting and consulting firm CLA (CliftonLarsonAllen LLP), which found that increasing staffing minimums at the federal level will require billions of dollars each year to hire tens of thousands of more caregivers.

CLA estimated the impact of implementing a staffing minimum of 4.1 hours per resident day (HPRD) and concluded:

• 94 percent of nursing homes that care for more than 900,000 residents would need to increase staffing levels in order to be in compliance with such a requirement.

• It would cost $10 billion a year and require hiring more than 187,000 nurses and nurse aides to meet the standard.

• 18 percent of residents, or more than 205,000 residents, may be at risk of displacement as facilities are forced to potentially reduce their census in order to meet the higher staffing standard.

“This report makes it crystal clear that increasing staffing standards in nursing homes requires substantial and consistent government resources. Even then, nursing homes would have the impossible task of finding another 187,000 nurses at a time when vacant positions sit open without applicants for months on end. The unintended consequences of this sort of unfunded mandate would be devastating to hundreds of thousands of vulnerable residents who could be forced out of their nursing home,” said Mark Parkinson, president and CEO of AHCA.

RASP Inc., Designer And Servicer Of Control Panels, Has Plans To Expand In Moreau

August 8, 2022

This is part of RASP Inc.’s 30-acre campus in Moreau. The company designs and builds control panels and is planning to add more warehouse and office space.
Courtesy RASP Inc.

By Jill nagy

RASP Inc., a company that designs and builds control panels, plans to add more warehouse and office space adjacent to its current buildings on a 30-acre campus in Moreau.

CEO Ron Richards said he sees the new construction as a plan for the future that will allow the company to hire additional people and seek more business.

RASP currently has 34 employees, including engineers and panel builders. Most of them are panel builders, who are often hard to find. Richards said they prefer to hire people with some experience in electronics but, when necessary, they will train new people. Engineers, on the other hand, seem readily available.

“We have been hiring throughout this year,” Richards said, but they are running out of space to put the new employees.

The company builds control systems for other companies. Richards said the names of their customers are confidential, but include chemical companies, packaging companies, and a stone quarry.

State Funds Will Help Construct A 60-Unit Affordable Housing Project In Corinth

August 8, 2022

By Paul Post

The state is providing $7.3 million to help fund a proposed $21 million, 60-unit affordable housing complex, called Riverview Apartments, in the village of Corinth.

A spring 2023 groundbreaking by Saratoga Springs-based Bonacio Construction Co. is planned.

The project is a joint venture between Corinth-based Hudson River Community Credit Union and RISE Housing and Support Services, a Saratoga Springs nonprofit organization founded in 1978, whose mission is helping people with mental health, substance use and other life challenges stay safe and healthy in the community.

Officials said 30 apartments will be reserved for homeless individuals with mental health illnesses who will have access to rental subsidies and on-site supportive services. The project will create eight jobs, including two case workers and a registered nurse to support residents.

Another 15 apartments will be strictly for seniors and there will be 15 more for community residents.

Three years ago, the credit union’s board of directors identified quality, affordable housing as the biggest challenge faced by many of its members living in Corinth.