By Paul Post

Three new firms are coming to Queensbury Plaza on Upper Glen Street, triggering interest from other retailers that could fill the site’s remaining vacancies.

Construction is underway for a 7 Brew drive-through-only coffee kiosk, a Burlington clothing store will occupy the former Joann Fabrics and Crafts space, and a Mexican restaurant, Mi Rancho Alegre, is taking over the former Red Lobster site.

“The business climate in Queensbury is quite strong right now,” said Michael Palumbo, chief operating officer of Rochester-based Flaum Management Co., the plaza’s owner. “Tourism in that area seems to be growing, driving traffic up there. That’s what is prompting these tenants to be looking for new locations. I think our shopping center is probably the most well-positioned in Queensbury.”

“We’ve got some other nationals looking at the plaza now, so we’re working on a couple deals for the last few vacancies,” he said. “Having the right mix of tenants, visibility and positioning — all of these things go into site selection by nationals and even the regionals.”

By Staff Writer

For 50 years, consistent management and operations have made The Log Jam Restaurant a landmark destination restaurant and steady economic contributor in one of New York’s most seasonal tourism markets.

“My biggest thing is consistency,” said Tony Grecco, who has spent nearly four decades with the business and more than 30 years in a management role. “I want people to know when they come, what they’re going to get, and it’s going to be the same every time.”

That consistency has translated into scale. The restaurant seats approximately 250 guests and, during peak August demand, turns tables three times per night while averaging about 600 dinners. Lunch service adds another 300 to 400 customers daily, bringing total volume to between 800 and 1,000 patrons on a typical summer day.

The menu remains rooted in steakhouse tradition, with custom-cut steaks prepared in-house alongside seafood and fish offerings. That consistent approach to quality, combined with the restaurant’s signature salad bar, has helped define its identity for generations of customers.

In a tourism-driven market like Lake George, where seasonal fluctuations can challenge staffing, pricing and operations, that level of sustained volume carries broader economic implications.

By Carol Ann Conover

Tim Ortiz spent four years, a small fortune in rent and a detour through the state Legislature before he finally made his first sale at Glens Falls Liquor, the downtown storefront he had long envisioned filling a conspicuous gap in the city’s retail landscape.

Ortiz, a musician and longtime resident of downtown Glens Falls, opened the shop on Glen Street in early March 2026 after signing a lease in July 2024 and paying full rent every month through a protracted licensing process. The store occupies a small, carefully curated space, where Ortiz said he deliberately chose not to expand into a larger adjacent unit.

“I wanted to open a business in Glens Falls since I live downtown, and I started thinking about what the area didn’t have yet,” Ortiz said. “What it didn’t have was a place to buy a bottle of wine or liquor downtown.”

The idea came to him after late nights playing gigs. The nearest option, he said, was a drive to another local store just outside town.

Adirondack Experience, The Museum on Blue Mountain Lake (ADKX) will hold its annual Benefit Gala and Harold K. Hochschild Award ceremony Saturday, July 25, from 5 to 9 p.m. at the museum in Blue Mountain Lake, New York. The fundraiser highlights the museum’s service to Adirondack communities and honors its annual Hochschild Award recipient.

The 2026 recipients are Dick Beamish and Adirondack Explorer Magazine. The award honors the museum’s founder, Harold K. Hochschild, whose interest in the Adirondacks and its people and environment helped inspire the museum and the creation of the Adirondack Park Agency.

For more than five decades, Beamish has advocated for the Adirondack Park. A longtime summer visitor to the region, he became the first communications director of the Adirondack Park Agency in 1972 and traveled the state to explain the need for planning and protection. His accounts of the agency’s early years are preserved in the ADKX archives as part of an oral history collection donated by author Brad Edmondson.

Beamish launched Adirondack Explorer in 1998 as a nonprofit news magazine covering the park’s natural and human communities. Its mission: “to inform and influence, to identify problems and solutions, to help shape public opinion and policy.”

ADKX Trustee Nancy Keet said, “Dick Beamish’s vision and unwavering commitment have strengthened understanding of the Adirondacks for generations, and Adirondack Explorer continues that vital work every day. Their dedication to thoughtful dialogue, environmental stewardship, and community storytelling reflects the very ideals Harold Hochschild championed. We are honored to recognize Dick and the Explorer with this year’s award, and we look forward to celebrating their extraordinary impact at the 2026 Gala.”