LAKE PLACID — Gov. Kathy Hochul announced on Saturday that the state would give the town of North Elba $6 million to go toward replacing the Long Building at the North Elba Show Grounds. This is the latest piece in a joint effort between the town of North Elba and the Lake Placid Horse Show Association to modernize the grounds and make them available for more uses year-round.
The state funds will be administered by the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York. DASNY funds projects that support community and economic development. The effort to obtain these funds was shared between the town and the Regional Office of Sustainable Tourism and took months.
The statement from Hochul’s office estimates that the two six-day horse shows generate $17.9 million in total economic impact every year for the region. This includes $13.9 million in direct spending, $2.8 million in state and local tax revenue and support of 164 jobs.
Although the horse shows are a yearly boost to the local economy, the town of North Elba sees the benefits of this project going far beyond the two weeks of horse shows.
“Equally important is, not just that the state is supporting the horse show, but they really supported our plan to integrate that building with the community,” said town Supervisor Derek Doty.
The new building will include a full-service, commercial kitchen and accessible bathrooms. Doty said the town envisions this building being used for a number of different purposes. It will be used as a VIP area for the horse shows, and could also be used in similar ways by the state Olympic Regional Development Authority — top leadership at ORDA also vouched for the plan in Albany, Doty said — for events at the Olympic Jumping Complex across the street.
Beyond big events, the new building will be used by Camp Placid throughout the summer. It would also be available for the numerous nonprofits in the area to use as an event space. It could even be used as an emergency shelter.
“It’s kind of the core of everything we want to do at the showgrounds,” Doty said. “It’s recognition for this whole community aspect of the Long Building that really secured the funding.”
The larger project to revitalize the showgrounds is already underway. The first phase was completed last month, just before the horse shows began, and included a total investment of $2.1 million, according to figures referenced by the governor’s office statement. The Lake Placid Horse Show Association raised its own funds for the better part of this, which included major improvements to the rings, including the footing.
The town of North Elba, for its part, has invested hundreds of thousands of dollars to improve stormwater management infrastructure, Doty said. They’ve also created a 150-car parking lot near the Lake Placid Airport runways and spent around $150,000 on new metal roofs for many of the showgrounds buildings.
This is all a part of the North Elba Show Grounds and Athletic Fields Master Plan, which has been developed along with the town’s comprehensive plan by the consulting firm SE Group.
“I hope (the community is) excited about the town board’s effort to not only secure the horse show for the future, but to be able to offer the community much more access,” Doty said. “With an improved building, I think we’re going to find many new uses that we haven’t even thought of yet.”
The goal will be to finish the new Long Building by next summer, before the 2026 horse shows begin, Doty said.