Saratoga Chamber of Commerce to open Clifton Park office

PHOTOGRAPHER: Kassie Parisi

One of the office buildings at 4 Emma Lane in Clifton Park.

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The Saratoga County Chamber of Commerce will be opening a second office, to be located in Clifton Park.

The addition has been a long time coming, chamber President Todd Shimkus said on Wednesday.

The new office, set to open next week, is located at 4 Emma Lane.

The move into a second office comes close on the heels of the Chamber of Southern Saratoga County, also based in Clifton Park, announcing that it was looking into forming an affiliation with the Capital Region Chamber.

The Capital Region Chamber, the largest chamber in the area, was formed as an umbrella organization in spring 2015 by the memberships of the Albany-Colonie Regional Chamber and the Chamber of Schenectady County to be a unifying force for regional business interests and to provide broad-based member services across a four-county area.

The Albany-Colonie and Schenectady chambers affiliated and continue to provide local advocacy and locally focused programs.

The Clifton Park-based CSSC works with businesses spanning the southern portion of the county, including Clifton Park and Halfmoon.

Details about the possible affiliation are minimal. When it was announced in April, Matt Grattan, board chairman of CSSC, said representatives from the two organizations would meet over the course of a few months to determine which path the two groups will take in terms of an affiliation.

Under an affiliation, CSSC would still retain autonomy and be able to host locally based events, as it does now. However, an affiliation would also let CSSC participate in and host larger regional programs.

Liz Roggenbuck, longtime vice president of the Chamber of Southern Saratoga County, recently left that post to work with the Saratoga County Chamber of Commerce. She will be heading the new office in Clifton Park, Shimkus said.

Denise Romeo, who currently serves as executive vice president of the county chamber, will also work in the Clifton Park office. The two of them, he said, live in town and are deeply involved in the community.

“They know everybody, everybody knows them,” he said.

But Shimkus added that the decision to move into Clifton Park was unrelated to the possible affiliation, though he added that he has expressed his best wishes to the CSSC.

“We’re not privy to whatever it is they’re doing,” he said. “Were doing our own thing.”

When he came on board in 2010, he said, one of the first things he did was reach out to businesses located outside of Saratoga Springs to see how they could be incorporated into the county-wide chamber.

“We stopped being the Saratoga Springs Chamber a long time ago,” he said.

Shimkus said the new Clifton Park office will offer programs and benefits to local members. Right now, he said, the chamber is focusing on using technology to figure out a reliant, quick way for the two offices to communicate.

“The real focus has to be on our members, and what they’re looking for,” he said.

Over the last decade, Shimkus said, his priority has been to focus on expanding Saratoga County’s economy.

“How we can contribute best to growing the region economically is making sure that Saratoga County is the strongest it can be,” he said.