Saratoga News

Photograph by Robert Scheer

Kristin Davis always wanted to own her own business, and for the past 11 years, she's met that dream with The Front Window, her shop in Azule Crossing. Now she's also finding time to serve as president of the Chamber.

New Chamber president looks beyond the Village

By Sarah Lombardo

She's the bookkeeper for her husband's construction business, the mother of an 8-year-old daughter and the owner of her own business in Saratoga's Azule Crossing. Yet Kristin Davis, the owner of The Front Window on Saratoga-Sunnyvale Road, has also managed to fit serving as president of the Saratoga Chamber of Commerce into her schedule.

"I manage to do it," she said of balancing her schedule. "I grew up in Saratoga, and except for a few years at college, I've been here. So it just seemed a natural step for me to continue being active."

Davis, 37, was officially installed as the Chamber president in a ceremony Jan. 31, but she has been serving since the beginning of January.

"I think Kristin is just one of those people who get things done," Sheila Arthur, the Chamber's executive director, said. "If there's an idea, she follows through on it."

Arthur also said that she appreciated Davis' sense of continuity and commitment to finish projects that may have been started before she was named president.

"She's not trying to reinvent the wheel," Arthur said. "She's going to continue with work that has already begun, and I like that."

But Davis does want to inspect the wheel. When the Chamber of Commerce had its annual retreat recently, Davis proposed analyzing the quality of the Chamber's annual events to make sure that each one's goal was being met and that they were being done the best way.

"We want to try to perfect them," she said.

The idea was made one of the Chamber's goals for the year.

A graduate of Lynbrook High School, Davis has roots in Saratoga that go beyond just living in the area. Her grandfather actually helped create the area as it is today by starting the Azule Crossing shopping center in 1937. A grocery store first graced the space in 1939, and the rest is history.

Davis, who was a bookkeeper for about 11 years, said she had always wanted to own her own store and work for herself.

"My mother owned an antiques store when I was growing up, so maybe it was in the family," she said. "But it's always been something I wanted to do."

And almost six years ago, she did--she opened The Front Window.

As for the future, the former Chamber of Commerce Businessperson of the Year said that as Chamber president and as a member, she would like to give a voice to all the city's shopping districts, adding that sometimes people forget that Saratoga's shopping areas go beyond just the Saratoga Village.

"By being a merchant in the Gateway area, I really felt the need to make sure that the other areas [besides the Village] are heard from," she said.

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