Saratoga Business Journal

Love Of Baking Leads To The Creation Of ‘The Village Tart’ Cafe In Schuylerville

March 14, 2022April 11, 2022

A ribbon cutting was held recently at the Village Tart in Schuylerville, a new cafe that features old-fashioned pastries and desserts.
Courtesy Saratoga County Chamber of Commerce

4/8/2022 Updated with corrections

By Jill Nagy

The Village Tart, a new cafe in Schuylerville, features old-fashioned pastries and desserts.

Cynthia DeYoung, owner, chef, and baker, opened her eatery at 63 Broad St. in early February.

“I just wanted my own little corner, to make the world how I think it should be, and share that with people,” she said.

She always loved to bake and, over the years, she began to bake for shops in Saratoga. She also worked at several Saratoga Springs restaurants.

As a baker, she is largely self-taught, she said, and gravitates toward older recipes.

Almost everything served at the Village Tart is prepared in-house, including jams and salad dressings. The cafe is open for breakfast and lunch. People can also satisfy the late-afternoon munchies with sweet treats and locally roasted coffee.

Arnoff Global Logistics In Malta Begins The Construction Of 120,000-SF Warehouse

March 14, 2022

Arnoff Global Logistics has started building a 120,000-square-foot warehouse at its 40-acre Malta headquarters. The timeline for completion is highly dependent on the availability of materials.
©2022 Saratoga Photographer.com

By Christine Graf

Arnoff Global Logistics has broken ground on a new 120,000-square-foot warehouse at its 40-acre Malta headquarters, the former home of Racemark International.

The company said the new warehouse will occupy a portion of the 18 acres of vacant land on the company’s sprawling campus. It will sit adjacent to Arnoff’s existing warehouse which is currently operating at full capacity. The need for additional space has been fueled by demand for the company’s warehousing and order fulfillment services which account for one-third of its revenue.

Arnoff Global Logistics also offers residential moving and storage services as well as logistical services for the transport of items that require special handling.

“We’re starting to order materials now. Right now, the primary steel that we ordered for the building is scheduled for July. As of last week, we were on schedule. We would like to move in during the late fall. Maybe for Christmas,” said president Mike Arnoff. “We plan to employ an additional 50 people once that operation is up and running.”

He said the construction timeline is highly dependent on the availability of materials. Supply chain shortages continue to plague the construction industry, making it difficult to predict product availability.

The company’s plan for expansion also includes the construction of a 50,000-square-foot building that would likely include a combination of office and warehouse space, said Arnoff. The original price tag for both warehouses was estimated at $18.7 million, but that number has already increased by 12 percent due to due to skyrocketing material costs.

Couple Experienced In Hospitality Industry Will Open A Champagne Bar On Phila Street

March 14, 2022

This is an interior look at Bocage Champagne Bar, a new establishment that will open in refurbished space at 10 Phila St. in downtown Saratoga Springs.
©2022 Saratoga Photographer.com

By Christine Graf

Two weeks after celebrating their October 2021 wedding at the Adelphi, Clark Gale and Zac Denham signed the lease for a 500-square-foot space at 10 Phila St. The New York City couple, both veterans in the hospitality industry, will be opening Bocage Champagne Bar in the former home of the Falafel Den.

Clark, a native of Massena, has family in the Saratoga area. Denham is from Baton Rouge and fell in love with Saratoga after Clark introduced him to the city.

“Saratoga to some degree has a bit of a southern flair like Baton Rouge, and for Zac it felt a little like home,” said Clark.

The couple share a passion for champagne and followed through on their dream of opening a champagne bar after they stumbled across the space on Phila Street. Although new to Saratoga, both men have extensive hospitality industry experience.

Denham is the general manager at Manhattan’s Casa Dani, a restaurant owned by celebrated Spanish Michelin-star chef Dani Garcia. Gale recently left his position as director of operations for Barcade, a company with restaurants in six different states. In addition to working as project manager for Bocage, he works as a hospitality industry consultant.

“We’ve always wanted to do our own projects. Bocage has been a brainchild of ours, and it’s been a long time coming,” said Denham.

ANCA’s Adirondack Buyer Days B2B Trade Show Set For March 29-30 In Saratoga

March 14, 2022

The Adirondack North Country Association (ANCA) will hold its Adirondack Buyer Days, an annual business-to-business trade show that features the work of artisan makers from across the Northeast, in an in-person format later this month in Saratoga Springs.

As the COVID pandemic loosens its hold on New York state, businesses and communities, regional retailers are invited to connect directly with local makers and purchase handcrafted gift products for their shops, organizers said.

The annual show, which was canceled in 2020 and held virtually in 2021 due to the pandemic, will return to its longtime home at the Saratoga Springs City Center on March 29 and 30.

Adirondack Buyer Days is a nonprofit, juried trade show featuring makers of handmade gifts from northern New York and northern New England. Product categories include housewares, personal care, value-added foods, garden and outdoors, apparel, jewelry, stationery and more.

The show is for wholesale sales only and is not open to the public.

Registration is open for buyers online at bit.ly/adkbd.

SUNY Empire State Begins Bachelor Of Business Administration Program This Fall

March 14, 2022

SUNY Empire State College’s School of Business was approved by the State Education Department to offer a Bachelor of Business Administration degree, which can optionally be completed online.
Courtesy SUNY Empire State

SUNY Empire State College’s School of Business has been approved by the State Education Department to offer a new Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) degree.

The program will launch in the fall term, with the option for students to be enrolled fully online.

Officials said the Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) is a comprehensive business degree designed to serve adult learners working in business-related fields who want to advance their career by pursuing a bachelor’s degree in business or prepare for a MBA.

The BBA program will require fewer liberal arts credits, making the new degree program an attractive option for students who want a strong knowledge base in all facets of business and community college graduates with an Associate of Applied Science (A.A.S.) degree, officials said.

SUNY Empire State College Officer-in-Charge Nathan Gonyea, Ph.D., said the launch of the new BBA degree program “reflects SUNY Empire’s ongoing commitment to helping students fulfill their academic dreams and professional ambitions, while also addressing the employment needs of the economy. The BBA will fit around the busy lives of adult learners and enable them to shift their careers in exciting new directions.”

“The time is perfect for SUNY Empire’s School of Business to offer a business degree program that contains all the subject areas that equip learners for successful business careers, with a design that is transfer friendly,” SUNY Empire State College Dean of the School of Business Julie Gedro, MBA, Ed.D., said. “Whether a student has an associate of applied science, an associate of science, or a trove of college-equivalent knowledge that we can help translate and acknowledge as credit applied toward the degree, our BBA provides an excellent degree for them to succeed in business.”

State Parks, Campgrounds, Historic Sites Saw Strong Visitation Numbers In 2021

March 14, 2022

Saratoga Spa State Park is part of the state park system and a National Historic Landmark.
Courtesy NYS Parks and Recreation

New York’s State parks, historic sites, campgrounds, and trails welcomed a record-setting 78.4 million visits in 2021, continuing the robust level of visitation seen since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“From Niagara Falls to Montauk Point, our State Parks and Historic Sites are a treasure that every New Yorker should be able to enjoy,” Gov. Kathy Hochul said. “During the pandemic, parks and public spaces have become more important than ever, providing New Yorkers with safe and enjoyable outdoor spaces for gatherings and recreation. New York was proud to welcome a record-setting number of visitors to our State Parks last year, and we look forward to modernizing our parks system as we approach its historic 100th anniversary in 2024.”

Total visits statewide increased in 2021 by more than 427,000, driven by a dramatic rebound of more than three million visitors at Niagara Falls State Park compared to 2020, when international border tourism was curtailed due to COVID-19 protocols. More than nine million visitors went to Niagara Falls State Park last year.

Officials said state park attendance has been steadily climbing, rising 41 percent since 2008. In addition to the total attendance, parks also set a new record for 2021 overnight visitation at campgrounds, with campsite, cabins and cottages booked for more than 787,000 nights.

“I am grateful that even more people decided they wanted to go to our State Parks and Historic Sites in 2021, even as other recreation options were becoming more available to them. New York has invested significantly in recent years to make its facilities world-class and even more improvements are coming,” State Parks Commissioner Erik Kulleseid said.

Hochul’s proposed 2023 budget includes $200 million in capital funding for parks, an 80 percent increase from the current level, to enhance the NY Parks 100 capital initiative.

Business Briefs: March 2022

March 14, 2022

The 2022 Ballston Spa Farmers’ Market, sponsored by the Ballston Spa Business and Professional Association (BSBPA), will run from June 11 through Sept.. 29.

The markets will be held on Thursdays 3-6 p.m. and Saturdays 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. in Wiswall Park on Front Street in the heart of downtown Ballston Spa.

The markets have been serving the local community since 2003. The mission is to bring together local farms and food/craft producers with consumers and to promote locally created products.

The market is accepting vendors for the 2022 season. New and returning vendors can apply online at www.ballston.org/category/farmers-market.

The market bylaws are posted on the application page. The BSBPA is also looking for community volunteers to help on market days. Volunteer help assures that the Ballston Spa Farmers’ Market will continue to be a presence in the village. Contact farmers’ market chairperson Nora Osuchowski at nora@ballston.org to find out more.

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Empowering Women Helps To Improve Lives Of Those Making, Selling, Buying Products

March 14, 2022

Tammy J. Arquette, Esq., owner, The Arquette Law Firm, PLLC, in Clifton Park.

By Tammy J. Arquette, Esq.

We know that investing in women makes good business sense, whether that be in promoting women within a company, supporting women owned businesses, or supporting local programs that benefit women. Women play an important role in every aspect of business locally and globally.

Women are business owners, executives, employees, producers and consumers. As such, empowering women presents an incredible opportunity for business to improve the lives of people making, selling, and buying products.

As a woman owned business, there is a struggle not only to be successful in business, but to manage time and resources in a way that allows us to also support our own, our family and our community needs.

We think of work-life balance as a balancing of our work time with our family time, but it is also a balancing of our community investment time. How can we do it all? How can we make the best of our current resources and commitments in order to make the biggest impact on those community needs that are most important to us?

Volunteerism and community activity can be done in a way that maximizes our personal, business and volunteer goals. Joining with existing local programs and organizations can make this possible. Involvement with local programs and organizations, whether that be by joining a board, becoming a member, volunteering with programming, making financial contributions to their programs, advertising during their events, participating in their external events, and sharing their messages on our social media, are all ways to combine our investment in our business, our self and community.

Laura Brown Offers Pain Therapy Process That Avoids The Need For Medication Or Drugs

March 14, 2022

Laura Brown uses an FDA-approved pain therapy device called a Calmare.

By Christine Graf

Clifton Park physical therapist and massage therapist Laura Brown is on a mission to help chronic pain sufferers eliminate their need for opioids. According to the National Institute of Health, 25 million Americans suffer from daily chronic pain and lack effective non-opioid treatments to manage that pain.

“I want to get people off the opioids and the narcotics. You can’t live on that stuff and you shouldn’t have to,” said Brown. “My mission is to give people a little bit of their life back.”

In order to help patients suffering from chronic neuropathic and oncologic pain, Brown purchased an $80,000 FDA-approved pain therapy device called a Calmare. The device delivers gentle electrical stimulation, and clinical studies have shown that its technology successfully reduces pain in more than 80 percent of treated patients without the adverse side effects commonly associated with drugs. It is not effective in treating pain caused by inflammation.

Brown first learned about Calmare from one of her massage clients, a physician whose daughter found relief from chronic pain after receiving Calmare pain treatment therapy. Intrigued, she set out to learn more.

“I saw that it didn’t just have a bunch of advertisements,” she said. “It had clinical studies and publications. Johns Hopkins uses it, the Mayo Clinic uses it, VA centers across the country use it.”

Because she is a physical therapist, Brown met the medical standard requirements necessary to become a Calmare practitioner and was able purchased the device in December 2019. Just as she completing the necessary training, the COVID shutdown forced her to close her office for three months. Since reopening, she is working to spread the word about the revolutionary pain treatment therapy she offers.

Chen Has Saratoga-Based Writing Center On A Trajectory To Offer Instruction Globally

March 14, 2022

Jane Chen launched her business Eyre Writing Center in January 2020.

By Susan Elise Campbell

Jane Chen left Wall Street to start a writing center for youth in a career leap that surprised her peers in the world of investment banking. But helping children read and write is something Chen has been devoted to since she was 16 years old.

Her business, Eyre Writing Center, was launched January 2020 from Saratoga CoWorks and Chen has already helped 900 middle school children “take the mystery out of writing well,” she said.

“At the end of my time in asset management on Wall Street I was writing a curriculum for a new writing center for the new age,” said Chen, whose parents named her after The literary character, Jane Eyre. “My task was to break down the foundations of writing and make it a science.”

The center would focus on middle school students because “we have great elementary schools and, depending on the district, great high schools,” she said. “But middle schools are underperforming so it is difficult for students to jump from eighth to ninth grade. When I saw what books were on the recommended summer reading list for seventy or eighth grade, I realized I had these titles on my reading list in fifth grade.”

She said she doesn’t know exactly what is behind the drop in basic skills, it was “aggravated by COVID,” she said. “I don’t look at data to see where the problems may lie, but I know anecdotally that there has been a deterioration in the quality of writing.”

As Chen edited college essays on the side she was “learning what the students weren’t learning. Switching tenses, poor sentence structure and punctuation are fundamentals that should have been addressed 10 years earlier,” she said.