Glens Falls, New York

A Small City with a Big Sense of Place

Surrounded by beauty views with an eye to focused on growth

Situated at the foothills of the Adirondack Mountains, Glens Falls is a captivating destination in Upstate New York, rich in history, natural beauty, and community spirit. As the gateway to the expansive Adirondack Park, the city showcases stunning scenery, from the clear waters of the Hudson River to the serene green spaces of Crandall Park. Glens Falls not only offers a charming atmosphere for visitors but is also gaining a reputation as an ideal place to call home.

A Downtown Renaissance

The past 15 years have been a time of renewal for the city, beginning with the addition of a roundabout in the heart of the community.

“It was transformative in the sense that it created this sense of flow and activity in what’s a pretty small downtown area,” describes Glens Falls Economic Development Director, Jeff Flagg.

He shares that this project spurred over $48 million in public and private investments, including a New York State Downtown Revitalization Initiative grant of $10 million, resulting in streetscape beautification efforts, and the revitalization of historic buildings. Ongoing plans include the creation of affordable and market-rate housing, the development of new commercial spaces, and the introduction of a Market Square, featuring a 4500-square foot makers market.

Infrastructure and Walkability

Mayor Bill Collins notes that recent years have also seen major investment in infrastructure, including a $15 million project to separate outdated combined sewer and stormwater systems, reducing yearly overflows from 44 to around 14. “During that same period, the heavy rain in the environment has increased tenfold. So, it’s quite an accomplishment, and we’re very proud of it,” he says.

The city spends an average of $2 million annually on paving and sidewalks and has created a Complete Streets advisory committee to ensure the community is pedestrian and bike-friendly. “We know that the young people want to live where they can walk to restaurants and bars, and to the parks,” Collins explains. “We’ve also invested about $1.5 million into revitalizing our parks. We used ARPA money for that, and we were able to redo all of our basketball courts, and create pickleball courts, which is a huge craze in this part of the country.”

A Sense of Place

Glens Falls has always been a center point for commerce and innovation in the region. Jim Siplon, President and CEO of Warren County’s Economic Development Corporation, describes, “It is a small city, 15,000 people, but it serves a much wider area. Northern Saratoga County, Washington County, and all of Warren County view it as a municipal hub.”

The city is home to Glens Falls Hospital, a 400-bed facility, employing 2,400 people. Additionally, Hudson Headwaters Health Network provides rural healthcare services throughout Northern New York and across the Adirondack Park region.

“Healthcare is a fundamental part of our economy,” he reports. “A lot of that has to do with our demographics. We are an aging area, and that’s going to provide a pretty constant base for our ability to provide healthcare.”

Emphasizing the spirit of innovation in Glens Falls, Siplon claims that the real differentiator is not only the incentives it offers to businesses, but the exceptional lifestyle, and the ideal location near the Adirondacks and Saratoga County. “This is a place where people with great ideas have always come to develop them, and they come because of the sense of place,” he maintains.

“The quality of life here is really unmatched.”

Siplon highlights the abundant natural resources, including water from the Southern Adirondacks, which are contributing to the city’s growth in the area of sustainable enterprises. One notable example is JUST Water, a company that bottles the city’s water in eco-friendly packaging. This partnership is advantageous for Glens Falls, with JUST Water paying five times the municipal rate for every gallon.

Economic and Community Development

Constrained by the town of Queensbury on three sides and the Hudson River on the fourth, Glens Falls covers just four square miles, bringing some unique growth challenges. This has led to a focus on redevelopment, with many new projects involving repurposing existing properties, including brownfields. State funding is available for Brownfield Opportunity Areas, aiding in identifying potential environmental issues that could hinder development, as well as providing tax credits and helping to source additional grants to cover remediation costs.

“We don’t really have any major post-industrial contaminations, but we do have some areas that are looking for redevelopment, and because of that, there’s an opportunity for funding to help identify and remediate some of these costs,” says Flagg. As for new development, the city has annexed a property known as Tech Meadows. “It is essentially a greenfield part of the city, about 30 acres, that we’re looking at redeveloping,” he conveys. “We are in the process of trying to solicit some creative redevelopment strategies that we can look at as a real avenue of growth in the city itself.”

Glens Falls has a diverse economic landscape, anchored by long-standing businesses such as Glens Falls National Bank and Trust Company, Finch Paper, and Miller Mechanical. The city’s strategy for growth promotes adaptive reuse, encouraging businesses to breathe new life into older industrial and commercial spaces. This initiative has seen successes like Fronhofer Design, which now designs craft brewery equipment in the former Glens Falls Post-Star newspaper building which is then fabricated in a nearby facility.

Similarly, ERBESSD Instruments, makers of vibration monitoring systems, have repurposed a former restaurant space, while Praxis Technologies, specializing in titanium components for medical and aerospace industries, has moved into a former medical device facility. Weather Routing, providing forecasting services to the shipping and cruise industries, operates out of a restored carriage house.

Tourism and Green Spaces

Once overlooked as an economic driver in the city, tourism has become a key part of its identity. “People come and visit Glens Falls, and they realize this place is like Mayberry,” the mayor boasts.

“We have been voted the safest city in the country, two years running. We are in a great region where there are plenty of resources left. More than ever people are hiking and biking, and we just happen to be perfectly positioned to do that. We have all these things falling into place for us, and we’re trying to take advantage of it and be a place where people want to grow, work, and play.”

The city’s green spaces are a draw for visitors, including the sprawling Crandall Park, which features lighted cross-country trails, frisbee golf, and even a pond for skating and fishing. In addition, the Hudson River, once tainted by industry, now boasts some of the cleanest waters along its entire course, making it ideal for outdoor activities like kayaking and fishing.

In addition to these natural assets, community events such as Take a Bite, the Balloon Festival, and Fourth of July celebrations add to Glens Falls’s reputation as a vibrant destination. “During the Fourth of July, it looks like something out of a Norman Rockwell painting,” portrays Siplon.

“We are the smallest city in America that has a full-time symphony, and that symphony plays music in the band shell while the fireworks explode through the Adirondack trees that overhang the entire thing. You almost can’t believe it’s real while you’re watching it. These assets, we sometimes forget that they’re not everywhere. But when people see them and they’ve never been here, they fall in love right away.”

Future Plans

As for what lies ahead, Flagg says some of the emphasis will be on finding creative housing options. “When you become a place that people want to move to, the challenge is to try and find developers to help us with some of these solutions to get people to put their roots down here,” he maintains.

Mayor Collins mentions a $4 million plan to revitalize a waterfront area known as Haviland Cove Park.

“The beach is nice, but the rest of it is overgrown. We are in a position where we can have fishing piers and kayak rentals and we’ve gotten a couple of grants from the state to help us with that development,” he elaborates.

“Our biggest goal is to be flexible and take advantage of the situation we find ourselves in. Young people are wanting to move into cities as never before, and we need to make sure that we’re protecting this green, walkable community space.”

As a final thought, Siplon adds, “Economic development will follow where the people want to be. We are not starting at zero. We’re starting at a place that has remarkable assets and leadership and vision.”

“It’s simply a matter of laying out the plan and staying on the plan. If we can do that, we will find ourselves 50 years from now in a place that is dramatically better, and I think we will have served the next generation really well.”

AT A GLANCE

Glens Falls, NY

What: A small but thriving city in upstate New York

Where: Warren County, New York

Website: www.cityofglensfalls.com