Monday, February 13, 2006
Southern Kentucky is growing!
From the Park City Daily News
Bowling Green KY Chamber to build �gateway'
Planned new headquarters billed as opportunity to put region's best foot forward
By RACHEL ADAMS, The Daily News, radams@bgdailynews.com/783-3256
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| Submitted The cover of a promotional booklet for the Bowling Green Area Chamber of Commerce’s capital campaign shows an artist’s rendering of the chamber’s planned new headquarters. |
The Bowling Green Area Chamber of Commerce is on the fast track to constructing a new building that chamber partners hope will serve as a gateway to the city's historic downtown.
For the past three years, the Chamber of Commerce has been mulling a change, said Doug Gorman, building committee chairman. They finally decided to relocate from their current headquarters at 812 State St. to the corner of College Street and Seventh Avenue, where the Odd Fellows Lodge now stands.
Working with project manager Scott, Murphy and Daniel and Louisville-based architects Stengel-Hill, the campaign cabinet is “finalizing the layout of the building and also the outside look of the building,” Gorman said. “We are in the middle of our capital campaign and that is going very, very well. We have been embraced so far by the business community and our chamber partners.”
The two-story, 15,000 square-foot structure represents “the first major investment into downtown revitalization,” Gorman said. “We're proud of that. There's been a lot of talk about it for years, but the Bowling Green Area Chamber of Commerce is the first one to really buy into that and to move forward.”
It was announced at the chamber's annual dinner last month that $400,000 in donations from some of the 1,200 chamber business partners has already come in, said Tonya Matthews, vice president of chamber operations. The capital campaign goal, according to the chamber's campaign brochure, is $1.5 million - slightly less than half of the project's total price tag of $3.3 million.
The capital campaign was launched a few weeks ago, said campaign co-chairman Charlie Moore.
“We don't look at it as a contribution - it's not like the average charity,” Moore said. “This is an investment for every chamber partner; it's to bring more business to them.”
When potential business people come into Bowling Green, Moore said, “the first place they come is to the Chamber of Commerce. We certainly need to improve our image. The building there is not something that would catch your eye when you come into Bowling Green.”
The project's consultant is Jerry Bartels, former president of the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, Moore said. Bartels has participated in dozens of capital campaigns, Moore said, and “he's very good. I'm sure it'll be very successful.”
Chamber partner Citizens First Bank recently contributed $100,000 to the campaign, said bank President and CEO Mary Cohron.
See the whole story at BGDailyNews.com
