By Christine Graf

The residential real estate boom that is occurring throughout the country has Capital Region real estate agents scrambling to find homes for their clients. Much of the demand is being fueled by millennials who are in their prime home-buying years and make up the county’s largest demographic.

The decline in interest rates that took place during the past year has made purchasing a home especially attractive. Mortgage rates dropped in 2020 and reached a record low of 2.65 percent in January. Those in the industry say demand far exceeded supply of homes, and low supply has been the primary driver for the rapid increase in home prices.

“It’s nuts,” said Howard Denison of DeMarsh Real Estate in Glens Falls. “People are offering up to 10 percent more than asking. There was a two-family ranch that sold within four hours. Potential buyers are getting upset and disgusted.”

According to Susan Kassal of Hunt Real Estate, during her 19 years in real estate she has never witnessed such high demand for residential properties. Many of her customers make offers on three to four houses before securing a winning bid, and a surprising number are making all cash offers. Although the majority of the cash buyers are relocating from cities, she said some are local.

Ground was broken Oct. 7 on the Adirondack Winery project that will result in a $2.6 million, 14,100-square-foot winemaking facility and tasting room at the site of its current Queensbury headquarters.

Company officials said the new building will provide the family run winery with the space it needs to triple its wine production over the next 10 years.

The new building will house an all-new tasting room, where the winery plans to offer new services customers have long desired, such as wine by the glass, outdoor seating, and light dining.

The winery will introduce classes and launch tours of the new facility. There are also plans to rent event space for private events and conferences.

The goal is to complete the construction by April, in time for the winery’s 14th anniversary celebration.

“This groundbreaking is the start of a new chapter for Adirondack Winery,” said Adirondack Winery president and co-owner Sasha Pardy. “This company started as a small family business, making wine in the back room of our Lake George tasting room almost 14 years ago. Now we’ve grown to the point where this new building is the only way we are going to keep up with demand.

The Lake George Chamber of Commerce says the winter of 2021-22 promises to be unlike no other in the area as a new venture—Ice Castles—brings its display of sculptures, caverns, ice slides, lighting and more to Charles Wood Park’s Festival Space.

The new winter event that has drawn hundreds of thousands of visitors to numerous communities around the country, officials said,  with ice displays that feature LED lights that change color.

Lake George will be its sixth location in the United States, joining sites in New Hampshire, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Utah and Colorado.

The event was formally introduced at a news conference on Oct. 5.

“We are excited to bring the magic of Ice Castles to Lake George this winter,” said Ice Castles CEO Kyle Standifird. “Our mission is to create a fun and safe outdoor experience where people can escape from the hustle of daily life for a moment and step into a frozen fairy-tale world.”

By Jennifer Farnsworth

An early October opening of The Bunker, a golf simulator business, will bring new life to space that was once Bellini’s restaurant in Clifton Park.

The Bunker co-owner Troy Miller said after Clifton Park, they will be focusing on a third location in Saratoga Springs.

He said the Clifton Park location is something they have been highly anticipating, given it’s prime location.

“Renovations are complete and we are ready to be in this new space. I sparked up a conversation with Bellini’s about keeping the staff and from there we were able to work something out,” said Miller.

The Bunker is a Guilderland-based business that brings golf simulator technology in an indoor, country club-like setting to golf enthusiasts. Miller is the owner and broker at CM Fox Real Estate and also owns Troy Miller Construction. He said he loves to golf when not working and a conversation in the car with his business partner led to the concept of the now growing business.

“We were literally just driving down the road one day and started talking about it, and it just grew from there,” said Miller.

The Center for Advanced Ambulatory Surgery at Saratoga Medical Park at Malta is now open for orthopedic surgeries, including hip, knee and shoulder replacements and spine procedures.

The $19.1 million facility is a partnership of The Bone & Joint Center, Albany Med and Saratoga Hospital, who joined forces to meet the growing demand for outpatient orthopedic and spine surgeries. The result is a surgical destination for outpatient bone, joint and muscle procedures for patients from the Mid-Hudson River Valley to Canada.

“We have created a blueprint for the future—an environment where patients benefit from the exceptional expertise of a leading orthopedic practice and two highly respected hospitals,” said Dr. Jared Roberts, a fellowship-trained joint surgeon and medical director of the new center.

Dr. Steven Frisch, Albany Med senior executive vice president for the integrated delivery system, hailed the Center for Advanced Ambulatory Surgery as an example of why partnership is good medicine in Malta and at other specialty-care locations across the Albany Med Health System.

Hudson Valley Community College and GlobalFoundries are expanding their partnership by creating a new training and apprenticeship center at the college’s HVCC North extension center in Malta. 

The center is part of the college’s $12.5 million expansion project aimed at boosting workforce training efforts in high-demand areas.

The GlobalFoundries Workforce Training and Apprenticeship Center at HVCC North, announced on Aug. 5, will be created through a philanthropic gift of $500,000, which includes specialized equipment for workforce training.

Officials said that once completed, the center will allow the college to prepare more students though credit and non-credit workforce training programs and apprenticeships as well as through associate degree programs such as electrical engineering technology, semiconductor manufacturing, mechatronics and clean energy management to fill key positions at GlobalFoundries and in other companies and industries throughout the region. 

GlobalFoundries’s gift will also help the college to create a new advanced radio frequency/vacuum technology laboratory and a new innovative mechatronics laboratory, as well as allow for the conversion of the mock clean room laboratory currently located at TEC-SMART to a Class 10,000 ISO clean room.

For the first time in its history, the 40-day summer meet at historic Saratoga Race Course generated all-sources wagering handle of more than $800 million, the New York Racing Association (NYRA) announced.

Having established the new record on Sept. 1, with five racing days remaining in the season, the 2021 summer meet ended with all-sources handle of $815,508,063, a 15.6 percent increase over the prior record of $705,343,949 set in 2019, officials said.

With paid attendance totaling 1,046,478, and excluding 2020 when fans were not permitted due to the COVID-19 pandemic, 2021 marked the sixth consecutive season of more than 1 million in paid attendance at Saratoga Race Course. Average daily attendance during the 40-day meet was 26,162.

“Thanks to the energy, enthusiasm and support of the best fans in horse racing, the 2021 summer meet at Saratoga Race Course has been a tremendous success,” said NYRA President and CEO Dave O’Rourke. “This has been a summer reunion like never before, and we’re especially pleased that the return of fans has translated into strong business for downtown Saratoga Springs and the entire Capital Region community. The summer meet at Saratoga is as strong as at any point in its storied history.”

By Susan Elise Campbell

Saratoga Economic Development Corp. has relocated to 56 Duplainville Road, the Saratoga Springs headquarters of Quad Graphics.

Dennis A. Brobston, SEDC president since 2008, said having upscale office spaces and conveniences will help the consulting firm “track companies looking to expand business into the area, especially foreign interests.”

“A company coming from overseas needs a desk area and amenities,” Brobston said. “Quad Graphics is the largest printer with 700 people, $50 million invested in equipment, and a beautiful facility.”

SEDC is renting space at Building 4 on Quad’s campus.

Brobston said the nonprofit has access to professional offices, conference and event rooms, and an auditorium at Quad, plus the latest in audio-visual and teleconferencing technology. There is also a cafeteria, a health gym, and locker rooms that SEDC and their guests can use, and a medical center on site.

The organization had leased 28 Clinton Street Suite 6 in downtown Saratoga month-to-month for 24 years, Brobston said, and was not actively seeking to relocate.

By Susan Elise Campbell

Precision Valve & Automation, a maker of dispensing, coating, and custom automation equipment, has “come full circle” by returning to Saratoga County at a new location at 6 Corporate Drive in Halfmoon, according to CEO and founder Tony Hynes.

About 200 employees relocated from the 135,000-square-foot facility at One Mustang Drive in Cohoes that the company occupied since 2010.

“We moved $15 million in production in one day,” Hynes said. The new headquarters opened officially on Aug. 23.

Hynes started the company in the basement of his home in 1992 and was soon accepted into the RPI Incubation Center for manufacturing start-ups. 

“We had to petition to go there, do interviews, and present the business plan so they could appraise our potential for success,” he said.