Saranac Lake Community Store Closer to Funding Goal
by Mary Thill
Last week we received word from the people behind the Saranac Lake Community Store project that a recent fundraising surge has brought investment capital to $395,000. They need to sell $500,000 worth of shares to launch the store.
If organizers don’t reach half a million by the initial offering deadline of December 17, board vice-president Gail Brill said they will apply for an extension on the offering. “We are so close,” she said in an e-mail, “and light years ahead of Greenfield, MA, which started well before we did.”
Shares cost $100 each and may be purchased by residents of New York State only. Individuals may buy up to $10,000 worth of shares. Organizers had hoped to have the store open by this summer but the economy appears to have rescheduled those expectations. When $500,000 is reached, backers will choose a location, hire staff and purchase inventory.
The business is expected to be about 5,000-square-feet, located downtown and carry department-store-type retail items not currently available in Saranac Lake. Organizers say they will ask local people what they want the store to sell. The village has been without a department store since Ames closed in 2002 but citizen groups have thwarted efforts by Wal-Mart to open a big box. Hardware and drug stores have been filling some of the retail gap.
2 Comments:
You don't have to live in Saranac Lake to consider investing in the Community Store. You don't even need to think about whether or not you would shop at it. You need to think about doing the right thing! Think about the future of the Adirondacks and how a small town like this can manage their own future in a sustainable way - through the creation of a community-owned department store. Help Saranac Lake set an example for the world.
As of today the store is at $398,700. Who will be the one to push us over $400,000? I will personally deliver a bag of 24 coconut macaroons and 3 loaves of homemade bread to the one that buys the 13 shares needed to get us to $400,000. Come on people!! This offer expires on Monday at 5pm.
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