The Children’s Museum at Saratoga celebrated the grand opening of its new home in July.

The museum underwent a $3.1 million renovation project to relocate the museum to the historic Lincoln Bathhouse on Broadway in Saratoga Spa State Park. 

The fully accessible 16,000-square-foot facility is the first major public facing operation in the Lincoln Bathhouse since the 1990s, state officials said. 

The project, supported by a $600,000 Empire State Development grant, as well as other public grants and private donations, joins a growing list of public-private partnerships in the park that make up the Park of the Arts initiative.

“The opening of the Children’s Museum adds another major attraction to our growing list of partners in the beautiful, natural setting of Saratoga Spa State Park,” Gov. Kathy Hochul said. “The Park of the Arts initiative will continue to define Saratoga Springs as a year-round destination for world class arts programming, and this project marks a major milestone in our efforts to restore and reactivate the National Historic Landmark structures throughout the park.”

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.

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.