A real Main Street revitalization

by Annie Stoltie

If it takes a village to raise a child, what does it take to revitalize just a quarter-mile stretch of downtown? For a formerly fading Adirondack hamlet, an optimistic group of North Creekers has made all the difference.

No matter the size, most business districts in the park rely on sales from through-traffic—you’ve probably seen caravans of vehicles snake along main drags in Old Forge, Lake Placid and Lake George. Not that main-street traffic is enough to sustain a community: think blackened storefronts in Port Henry and Au Sable Forks. But ever since the early 1960s, when North Creek’s merchants encouraged a Route 28 bypass so local garnet mines’ rigs would circumvent their quaint downtown, the hamlet’s Main Street has been an aside, a place you wouldn’t notice unless you were looking for it. Add to that the 1964 opening of Gore Mountain Ski Area, a grander alternative to North Creek’s Ski Bowl, once a tame hill where visitors could unbuckle bindings and tramp downtown for a meal or postcard. Gore was built on the other side of the bowl, with an entrance miles away from Main Street, which meant skiers could ride the slopes, then, oblivious to the hamlet’s offerings, drive home or to the next town for repast and rest.

That was then. In the last three years 15 businesses have opened and are thriving along Main Street. If, early on a Thursday morning, you were to peek inside newcomer barVino, a slick small-plate eatery and wine bar, you’d catch the North Creek Business Alliance’s weekly meeting. This group of 25 or so merchants gathers around Michael Bowers’s bar, discusses their challenges and brainstorms solutions, such as launching a popular shuttle that, this winter, delivered skiers from Gore to downtown. (About 99 percent of the alliance’s projects are funded with private money.)

Bowers, a 61-year-old with a white beard and sawdusty voice, seems to lead the business-community cause with his “a rising tide floats all boats” message. His aim is to band together for a greater good. “When you create positive energy it works,” he says. (He’s a charismatic guy. Spend just a moment with him and you’re ready to move to North Creek and open shop.)

Sarah Hayden Williams, proprietor of Café Sarah, says the alliance has helped: Instead of waiting for government or other entities to fix things, “we’re finally asking ourselves, ‘Why can’t we do this?’ ” She explains, “The difference is that people are working together and talking about [North Creek’s] problems.” And she should know—even at 38, Williams is a Main Street old-timer. Her café has stayed afloat for almost a decade.

According to Bowers, if ever there’s a place in the Adirondack Park that has it all, it’s North Creek: just hours from New York City and Boston; right beside the Hudson River, with its wild white-water rafting; nearby hiking and biking; the historic Hudson River Railroad; a formidable ski area. Still, he says, “People have to want to come here to stay and come here to eat. That’s the goal—to make this a four-season destination.”

Town of Johnsburg supervisor and North Creek native Sterling Goodspeed agrees: “The key to becoming a destination is establishing a place where there’s enough to keep you here.” He cites an Olympic Regional Development Authority (the state agency that runs Gore) project, called the “interconnect,” as a reason for the hamlet’s growth. By December new runs and a triple chair lift will link Gore to the Ski Bowl, reviving a once-beloved spot, and pushing skiers within a couple hundred yards of Main Street. The plan appears to inspire economic confidence among locals, but if the park’s financial woes are any indicator, now is still a shaky time to take business risks.

But that’s not stopping Bowers, who owns the wine bar, a pizza place and vintage clothing and interior-design boutique, among a handful of other ventures. When he arrived from Delaware and launched his first North Creek business, in 2008, he invested everything he had in the hamlet’s downtown, including his family (his wife, son and daughters work alongside him). And others are doing the same: Laurie Prescott Arnheiter, of Hudson River Trading Company, is expanding her upscale store. Greg and Sharon Taylor refurbished a motel once described as a derelict drug den into the spiffy Alpine Lodge. The classy Copperfield Inn has reopened. Then there’s the Barking Spider bar and a bunch of happening restaurants, including Common Roots, Laura’s, Andie’s and Marsha’s.

Hurdles remain, such as shrinking the town’s shoulder season, though in the first weekend in May the venerable Hudson River Whitewater Derby and the first-ever Adirondack Adventure Festival, which features outdoor activities, will help. Other issues, says Williams, involve infrastructure: underground power lines, a new sewage system and fresh sidewalks, “which will set this place apart.”

Bowers believes North Creek can be “a model for the Adirondack Park and a catalyst for change.” He adds, “Our egos are on hold. We’ve got a lot more to do to build this town.”