(Credit: Gordon Woodworth, 2023)
The Cool Beans building at the corner of Saratoga Road and Williams Street in South Glens Falls has been empty for about a year.
Mickey Hayes, who closed his South Glens Falls Cool Beans coffee shop and cafe in the last year, is considering all of his options for the high-traffic corner of Saratoga Avenue and William Street.
“It’s a great spot,” Hayes told FoothillsBusinessDaily.com when contacted. “We’d be open to other restaurants, other businesses. We will listen to all ideas and would be glad to help with those ideas.”
Hayes said he closed the Cool Beans location because “of the demise of quality of the workforce. Restaurants are very management dependent. We moved all of our employees to our other spots but there has been a cultural shift in work ethic after COVID.”
Restaurants especially have been hit in the “great resignation” post-pandemic. Many restaurateurs have told FoothillsBusinessDaily.com that they have had trouble getting work and retaining workers.
Hayes said he’s keeping busy with his other two Cool Beans locations, on Quaker Road and on South Western Avenue, both in Queensbury, along with construction and real estate projects.
“I can’t be everywhere at once,” he said.
The corporate offices for his company, Hayes and Hayes LLC, will remain on that site, he said. The South Glens Falls location has been a Cool Beans since at least 2012.
“We’d like to lease the Cool Beans part of it, which is about 1,400 square feet. And now that we’ve had time, I’ve thought about possibly expanding the building. The location is excellent.”
According to the New York State Department of Transportation-run traffic data website, the Annual Average Daily Traffic for Saratoga Avenue, or U.S. Route 9, at that intersection is nearly 12,000 cars, with morning peak traffic — the number of cars and trucks measured at 15-minute intervals during the morning hours — is at 743 vehicles. The data comes from 2019.
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Hayes cites the fact that South Glens Falls is still growing.
The sewer line being installed along Route 9 near I-87 Northway Exit 17 has been driving development along the Saratoga Avenue/Route 9 corridor south of this intersection.
Still it may take work to encourage a buyer or renter.
He said, “One of the things we are definitely considering is sprucing up the current building and maybe doing a major upgrade.”