Category Archives: Business News

New York state will provide an additional $9.4 million in grants to the Village of Lake George to repair and upgrade its wastewater collection infrastructure to help preserve the water quality and natural beauty of Lake George.
The $9.4 million will be provided by the state in addition to a $3 million Water Infrastructure Improvement Act grant and a DEC-funded $2.5 million Water Quality Improvement Project grant, filling a budget gap in the project and bringing total state investment to $14.9 million.
The remaining cost of the project will be covered by a zero-interest loan from the Environmental Facilities Co., officials said. The investment will result in a total savings to village taxpayers of nearly $25 million.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the state “is leading the way in protecting water quality, which is why the state is investing a historic $3 billion dollars to help municipalities address these challenges head-on.”
EDC Warren County President/CEO Ed Bartholomew said, “Lake George is a crown jewel of New York’s many beautiful lakes and waterways.

Some 29 projects in Warren and Washington counties received a total of nearly $4.6 million from New York state as part of this year’s Regional Economic Development Council grant program.
More than $761 million in economic and community development funding was awarded through Round IX of the REDC initiative statewide.
Since its inception in 2011, over $6.9 billion has been awarded to more than 8,300 projects that are projected to create and retain more than 240,000 jobs statewide through the REDC process, state officials said.

By Christine Graf
Fort Edward’s Chamber of Commerce recently rebranded itself as Promote Fort Edward.
Promote Fort Edward is a membership organization that exists to increase business in the village’s historic downtown, officials said. The goal is to build a thriving business district that will be attractive to both new business owners and consumers.
According to Tammy Mullen, owner of Crafted on the Park, the idea to establish Promote Fort Edward evolved organically.
She said Tom Roche, Fort Edward School Board of Education president and owner of Barb and Tom’s Pop-Up Grill, was instrumental in its formation.

By Jill Nagy
“We’ve always wanted to be in the Wilton-Saratoga area,” said Bob Kellogg, president of Warren Tire Service Center Inc.
That will happen in August, when he expects to open a 16th outlet at 573 Route 9 in Wilton.
Kellogg said the company has received all the necessary government approvals and recently began clearing ground and putting in foundations and the parking lot.
More extensive construction, by CGM Contracting of Waterford, is scheduled to begin in the spring.
The new facility will be a 6,300-square-foot building with eight service bays, as well as retail and wholesale space. It will be constructed on 5.83 acres across the Northway from the Wilton Mall, in the most southern part of Wilton.

By Christine Graf
The owners of the WestWind Ag are seeking approval to open Z-Farm Brewery, a craft brewery and taproom, on their 308-acre farm on Old West Road in Moreau.
The brewery would be located in an existing building on the property that would undergo extensive renovation.
According to WestWind Ag’s Rachel McDermott, “The plan is to take some areas of the farm that we can’t put into crops and make some income on that area of the farm so that we can preserve it.”
In 2016, McDermott left her career as an investment banker in New York City to join the family business. She graduated from Cornell University in 2008 with a degree in applied economics and management.
“I was raised on the farm,” she said. “I always had a desire to be closer to my roots.”
McDermott’s father, James Czub, and uncle, Robert Czub, established WestWind Ag in 1983. The business has grown steadily over the years, and the brothers now farm more than 1,500 acres of land and have six employees. The majority of their 1,500-plus acres of farmland is leased. The Moreau property, a former dairy farm, was purchased in 2016.

The Hyde Collection has announced its exhibition lineup for 2020 that includes a diverse schedule celebrating tradition and innovation in equal measure.
The schedule includes the world’s first modern artist and a trend-setting African American printmaker, as well as paintings that capture a historic period in a nation’s evolution.
“Francisco Goya: The Caprichos Etchings and Aquatints” runs through Sunday, April 26.
Goya (1746–1828) used the privilege provided him as portraitist of the monarchy and aristocracy to create a series of etchings critiquing Spanish life at the end of the eighteenth century. Using allegory, he introduced a world of witches, monsters, and fantastical creatures that symbolize what he believed to be a society of disillusion and deceit.

By Andrea Harwood Palmer
Molly Malone’s Irish Gifts at 295 Canada St. in Lake George is under new ownership.
Owner Robin McDonough has owned an Irish gift store in Troy, The Counties of Ireland, for almost 20 years.
“My family is Irish and I’d travelled back and forth to Ireland to vacation and to purchase different gift lines to bring home,” said McDonough. “Most are small cottage, craft industry vendors who may not have a retailer in the United States. I told myself I was going to open an Irish store, and six months later, in Troy, I did. Twenty years later, I’m still here.”
Previous owner Bill Manion reached out to McDonough when he began planning his retirement. Manion and McDonough knew of each other through networking, trade shows and a sharing of mutual customers.

By Christine Graf
Construction is underway on Regan Development Corp.’s Broad Street Commons, a four-story mixed-use complex located on a four-acre site on Broad Street in Glens Falls.
The $19.2 million complex will contain 73 affordable housing apartments and 6,300 square feet of retail space. U.W. Marx of Troy is the general contractor for the project and their crews will work through the winter.
Albany-based Regan Development Corp. has developed more than $384 million worth of real estate in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. The company’s area of expertise includes market rate housing, affordable rental apartments, and special needs and active adult development.