Morning Read: Fears of a bust in North Creek
Jon Alexander has a heartbreaking profile of North Creek in the Glens Falls Post Star this week.
He found that hopes of new economic vitality — which grew over the last two years as sixteen new businesses started up — have run up against some deep anxiety about the future.
Local business owners and entrepreneurs are remarkably candid about their concerns and doubts.
“I get scared,” said Laurie Prescott Arnheiter, owner of the Hudson River Trading Co., on Monday. “I wake up in the morning hoping for something good to happen.”
One major concern is that the Front Street Development resort still hasn’t launched. Despite holdings its APA permits for several years, the company has only built two model homes — and hasn’t sold any.
North Creek’s small Main Street business district now touts six vacant properties and more are on the way. Within the last few months, a wave of businesses, cafes, restaurants and bars have closed or announced they are going out of business.
“We always seem to get this big build-up and then can’t seem to sustain it,” said Mark Bergman, a longtime local real estate broker. “I’m not sure if you’d call it a mass exodus yet, but you may be able to in a few months.”
The North Creek business community was dealt another blow last month when Adirondack Woodworking shuttered its doors after 22 years when April floods irreparably damaged its equipment. Six manufacturing jobs were lost.
There are some big systemic concerns in North Creek. Despite the closeness of the Hudson and river rafting and other attractions, locals say the community hasn’t developed a summer resort culture comparable to Lake Placid’s or Lake George’s.
So what do you think? North Creek is one of the gems of the Adirondacks. How do communities like this find a steadier, more hopeful path forward?
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People in Tupper Lake should read this story.
They should just re-route 28 through North Creek. I’ve driven past North Creek probably thousands of times in my lifetime and have never, ever gone through. Why bother when you can blow past it in about two minutes?
In all seriousness, I think this is something the town should consider lobbying for. You have to idle through every other town in the Adirondacks, so why not North Creek?
Solidago: Good point! While we are at it, perhaps we could explain the effects of bypassing villages to the proponents of the, “Roof-Top Highway”. If they get their way, ( several billion dollars in funding), they will bypass every community from Watertown to Plattsburgh – the entire Rt. 11 corridor. We have seen this, ‘bypassing effect’ in many other places where through highways are constructed to avoid commerce centers.
Solidago, I can recall when Rt 28 DID go through the Crick. The bypass was put in because you couldn’t get through town. It would only be worse today.
“Despite holdings its APA permits for several years…”
Strange, I keep hearing stories about the APA is entirely to blame for all the economic problems in the Adirondacks. Is it possible that this might be slightly overstated?
anybody who believes economic viability follows the realestate market is a fool.
craft brewing
“How do communities like this find a steadier, more hopeful path forward?”
Good question. Been asked before, many times and, will probably be asked again, and again, and again. Prior to last summer’s Common Ground Alliance conference @ Long Lake there were a number of ‘good questions’ posed to encourage thoughtful participation:
The ‘good’ questions posed by > Brian L. Houseal, executive director of the Adirondack Council, the Park’s largest environmental organization in the 10 July ADK piece announcing the 14 July meeting
http://j.mp/ask_an_expert_get_excellent_questions
THESE are the ‘good’ questions, look/sound ‘familiar’?
“How to take economic advantage of the natural wonders outside that exist just a few blocks from Main Street?”
“How do our communities reap the economic benefits for having constitutionally protected Forest Preserve in them?”
“What businesses would thrive near the entrance to a huge wilderness?”
“How do we use our clean air and abundant clean water to our best advantage?”
The answer was, and, still ‘is’ — craft beer.
The the only thing separating us here in the ADKs from Oregon’s BOOMING craft brewing industry http://j.mp/Billions-and-Jobs ($2.3 BILLION in revenue & 4,700 clean, blue-green, sustainable, family wage [avg $44K inc benes] jobs) is ‘focus’.
I didn’t get much traction at the CGA conference last year, just one guy with an idea/observation &12y of living in ‘Beervana’ (Portland, OR) but, things are ‘changing’, folks/pols are FINALLY starting to ‘get’ our concept.
Our ( ADKBREWCO http://adkbrewco.info ) intent is to develop a 16-18 county USCIS EB-5 Regional Center dedicated to craft brewing/local farming to execute a focused effort to:
> ‘grow’ homebrewing in the Dacks (how do you think Ken Grossman of Sierra Nevada Brewing, Jim Koch of Sam Adams?Boston Beer Co, and Gary Fish of Deschutes Brewing all got started?)
> ‘encourage’ existing bars, hotels, pubs, resorts & restaurants in/around the ADKs to ‘add’ brewing / ‘go local’ and brew TRUE domestic beers. (You do know both Bud & Miller are owned by foreign corporations now, right? And, that all money is going to Belgium/Brazil and South Africa…?)
> ‘recruit’, aggressively, existing US** and International brewers to consider second siting around the periphery of the ‘Blue Line’ of the ADKs and put some of the 9 TRILLION gal/yr of ‘Blue Gold’ that flows out of the 5 major watersheds of the Dacks.
With: a concerted effort, tens of millions of dollars of ‘Green Cards for Cash’ (USCIS EB-5 $$), TRILLIONS of gals/yr of PURE ADK water, 90 million consumers within a day’s drive and the Port of Montreal just a couple of hours up the road for EU / worldwide shipping — the Adirondacks can/WILL replicate the 30 y success story of craft beer in Oregon in just 15y ($3B & 5000 jobs), watch us: BeerHere2010.info / ADKBREWCO.info
** FYI > Sierra Nevada is in final stage consideration of siting an East Coast brewery/entertainment complex ($200M) and, the ADKs coulda/shoulda been on the ‘short list’ [instead of Alcoa, TN & Roanoke, VA]. We are efforting as I write to ‘elbow’ our way back onto that ‘short list’ with 3 sites: in Ticonderoga, Lake Placid and Plattsburgh).
As someone who drives a car and knows where I am driving to, I do appreciate bypasses. Just ask anyone who has the misfortune of coming upon a parade in a small town and the road through is blocked until the parade is over.
Safety is an issue. If there is only one way through a town, what happens when the bridge is out?
I live close to North Creek and frequently go there to shop and sometimes to eat. The Copperfield is great!
North Creek is a pretty town. It’s a shame their town beach is closed. Gore should and could do more.
Ken,
I would add micro-distilleries to the craft brewing. As is already occurring in Lake Placid and others parts of the country. Much like the success of the newly developed wineries along northern Jeff/St. Lawrence and mid Lewis county, we have the potential to distil fine spirits with locally grown ingredients and water. And soon, we’ll be able to use our own locally grown wheat, barley, hops, etc. in all these products.
“locals say the community hasn’t developed a summer resort culture comparable to Lake Placid’s or Lake George’s.”
It seems like this is the key. Why is that?
Sounds like they had the development plans, the small businesses, people taking chances, et al. Were they the wrong plans? The wrong people, the wrong businesses?
Was it a marketing and PR failure?
Or are things like this less tangible, harder to identify? I’ve always wondered if these situations can really be forced the way we seem to try. Build it and they will come doesn’t appear to have a good track record. Maybe we can’t just sit back and say “Area X should be a tourist hub” and pour money into it and poof it happens.
I don’t know, but this is the fear I have for the people in Tupper Lake.
dave, why no resort culture in North Creek? Okay quick, how many towns can you name in the Adirondacks that don’t have a lake?
Let’s start with, hey — North Creek!
Knuck hits it on the head, the Crick has North Creek and River and that’s it. People have brought this up before in various venues, I brought it up at a Town Board meeting back in the early 80’s and was thoroughly castigated by the then Highway Superintendent for suggesting some use be made of the riverside near the Rail Station. I was further trounced by other local politicians (now deceased) when I suggested looking into rebuilding the dam on North Creek which previously existed behind the big art center down there, used to be Alexanders Garage, I forget the name of it. Anyway, there used to be a dam there that backed water up for near a mile. Would have been a nice pond. Even attempts to rebuild the dam at the swimming hole (I was a Life Guard there at one time believe it or not!) were shot down. Used to be some really good trout fishing in that pond. Of course the town dump was located uphill form “The Beach” and goodness knows what drained into it, plus that was the coldest water you ever saw. That little dam there now is nothing like the larger one that washed out….hey!, can we blame that on global warming too?
(Interestingly, the landfill that existed before the one above “The Beach” was located where the Senior Citizens center is now, or whatever it’s called these days. I recall going there in the evening with my dad and watching him and a bunch of the “boys” that wandered over from the American Hotel shooting rats. Ah! The good old days!)
So anyways, without a decent waterfront summer tourism is going to be limited in North Crick, no doubt.
The Adirondack Park is huge. It is unrealistic to think every “North Creek” can be like Lake Placid. I live in the park and I’m not sure I would want every town like Lake Placid. The answer to creating long term sustainable jobs is not an easy one. First the state and county needs to change some policies and encouage more small businesses. We have a gentleman who has been waiting for permit approvals for over ten months to open a general store. He has had to jump through more hoops. Just listening to him would discourage me. When my wife was town clerk people would call and ask if we were in the park. When she answered yes they would say, “Thanks, I don’t want to deal with the APA”.
News flash!
In today’s Post Star there is a report that Price Chopper plans to build a store in or at the edge of Warrensburg. Location to be announced next month.
This will exert tremendous pressure upon the Grand Unions in North Creek, Chestertown and Warrensburg, and be the final nail in the coffin of there being any hope of a supermarket ever opening again in Indian Lake.
For the sake of full disclosure: Since it was mentioned in this thread, I’ll point out that Alexander Bros. Garage was the business of my great grandfather, Guy.
-Jon Alexander, Post Star
I agree gary. Take a look at what it takes to open a small business in New York state without even worrying about being in the park or not it is very burdensome. Then again the stores in North Creek are not in trouble due to regulations I think they are in trouble for a very basic reason, not enough customers.
Also we are in the middle of what is teetering on becoming a national depression it is already the longest period of high level of unemployment since the great depression.
What exactly does it take to open a small business in NY?
My wife and I have looked into it and found nothing out of the unusual or overly burdensome. We also have several close acquaintances who own small business in the Park – from restaurants to coffee shops to furniture stores – and none of them, I mean not one single one of them, have ever mentioned having any troubles starting their business.
Where are these other people trying to build their businesses? On top of protected peaks?
To open my small business I had to go to the county building and get a DBA (its been some time but I think that cost about $25). Then I had to open a bank account which cost me nothing but I put $100 in to open it. Then I had to file for a sales tax number with the State. Again free but it cost me postage. Since I was in a hamlet I called the town and they said I didn’t have any obligation to them since I didn’t plan to put out a sign.
I had to file sales tax forms quarterly for about a year until the state tax department told me it wasn’t worth the effort and why didn’t I try filing yearly instead.
So how hard is it to open a small business in NY and in the Park? Can’t be done.