When Arts, Entrepreneurship and Placemaking Become Economic Development.

For more than a century, the Shirt Factory has been part of the economic fabric of Glens Falls.
Built in 1902 for manufacturing, today its historic buildings have found a very different purpose. The Shirt Factory has evolved into a thriving campus of artists, makers, entrepreneurs, small businesses and cultural activity.
And the numbers tell an interesting story.
According to Shirt Factory owner Eric Unkauf, special events at the campus now generate approximately 40,000 visits annually.
The increasingly popular Thursday Market & Food Truck Corral alone accounts for an estimated 22,500 visits during the summer season, averaging approximately 1,500 people and as many as 80 vendors on a typical event night. Estimated spending associated with Thursday Market is approximately $600,000 per season.
Add flea markets and roughly 25 other special-event days, and Shirt Factory management estimates approximately $1 million in direct spending associated with special events each year.
And that doesn’t include the year-round economic activity generated by the dozens of artists, makers, shops, studios and other small businesses that call the Shirt Factory home.
What began as the adaptive reuse of a historic manufacturing complex has become something much bigger: a destination, a small-business ecosystem, a gathering place and an increasingly important part of the region’s arts and cultural economy.
The next chapter may be just as interesting. Plans and ideas under discussion include expanded event infrastructure and a potential sculpture trail connecting the Shirt Factory with The Hyde Collection and the surrounding trail network.
Economic development doesn’t always arrive as a new factory or a large employer.
Sometimes it happens one artist, one entrepreneur, one food truck, one historic building and a few thousand visitors at a time.
That’s placemaking. And that’s economic development.