Glens Falls has seen a major revival of its downtown in the last fifteen years. Where there used to be boarded up storefronts and empty sidewalks there are now busy streets and new shops, restaurants and cafes.

Glens Falls has managed to do what a lot of North Country towns and cities strive for; it has breathed life back into its city center.

Emily RussellHow downtown Glens Falls came back to life

After graduating from college, Cara Greenslade moved home to Glens Falls. That was back in 2013. Greenslade says she did not move here by choice.

“I came back because I had no job,” says Greenslade. For her and all her friends, the goal was to get out of Glens Falls, move to a bigger city where there was more to do.

“I remember when I moved here, when I was 10 years old, we were like, ‘Oh, wow, this downtown is dead, there are no restaurants.' We were like, ‘Where do we go to eat?’”

“I remember my wife and I complaining constantly, ‘Can’t we at least have one coffee shop? Can’t we at least walk into downtown, because we lived right there, and get a cup of coffee?’ But no, you couldn’t,” says Doolittle.

Eventually he gave up. Doolittle and his family moved away from downtown, but then things started to change, really slowly at first.

"Little by little," says Doolittle, "downtown started coming back.”

First came a bakery, then a theatre, followed by a downtown taco shop with margaritas served in hip mason jars. Over about a five-year span, the city started looking and feeling more alive.

“Glens Falls has been somewhat of a miracle turnaround,” says Michael N'dolo.

N’dolo is an economic development advisor for local governments and private developers in the region and says Glens Falls struggled for a long time.

“They’d lost population and employment from the 1960s to 2000 and it’s only been in the last 15 years that they’ve turned it around."

That last one, N’dolo says, is key. There's been a real push in the city to rehab old buildings and invest in new ones. Glens Falls now has a lot of nice, affordable housing options.

“So the mere fact that the city of Glens Falls has relatively inexpensive housing means you can have more people earning moderate incomes who are able to afford the housing and therefore the companies want to be there," N'dolo explains. "So you get both - you get the housing development and you get the commercial and industrial development.”

Another thing Glens Falls has going for it? Location, location, location.

Glens Falls is 45 minutes from Albany and 20 from Saratoga Springs. Both places are booming right now, with plenty of jobs and a lot to do. That, N’dolo says, is what makes Glens Falls stand out against other cities in the North Country.

“You get everything you could possibly want in Glens Falls and Saratoga, and in Plattsburgh you don’t have quite as much and it’s just more remote.”

Watertown struggles with the same problem. One thing all three North Country cities do have in common is that they each received $10 million grants from the state to revitalize their downtowns. Glens Falls is building a year-round farmers market and culinary arts center.

“This community has very civic minded, wealthy people, who really will step forward and invest in the community," says Doolittle. "That actually happened in downtown.”

A coalition of investors revived the local theatre and nearby sports arena, bringing more people downtown. Sales tax revenue is up by more than 30% over the last 15 years.

Finally, says Doolittle, certain industries did survive the downturn.

“There’s a manufacturing tradition that hasn’t died and is being taken up by a younger generation," says Doolittle. "That’s incredibly encouraging.”

Will Fowler was born and raised in Glens Falls and made his way back after college. Fowler is a graphic designer at Sidekick Collective. One of his business partners is Cara Greenslade, who also moved back to Glens Falls after college. Greenslade says the revival of downtown Glens Falls is what hooked her and their other business partner, Kelli Germain.

“We all really liked the area and wanted to take the next step in our careers and kind of liked the idea of doing that together in Glens Falls rather than branching off and maybe trying to find jobs in Saratoga or Albany,” says Greenslade.

Along with owning a local business, Greenslade and Fowler also own their own homes in Glens Falls. Fowler and his wife just had a baby this summer.

The Sidekick Collective office is on the second floor of the Shirt Factory, a refurbished commercial building just a few blocks from downtown. Sitting in their office, Fowler says the city has come a long way since his childhood here.

“I think about this building as a kind of a metaphor for Glens Falls. It used to be a factory that made a very specific thing. Time went on and it went out of business and it found a new life as a home for artists and artisans.”

While there are still factory jobs here, more and more people are drawn to Glens Falls for the quality of life, its walkable, affordable neighborhoods and a downtown that’s come alive again.