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Chamber, township make $100,000 deal
(by Barbara Christian - March 31, 2011)
Chamber, township make $100,000 deal
By BARBARA CHRISTIAN
The Chagrin Valley Chamber of Commerce has paid Chagrin Falls Township Trustees $100,000 for the right to lease office space in Township Hall for the next 25 years.
Those funds, prepaid to the township, were derived from the sale of the chamber telephone directory, according to chamber spokesman Peter Balunek. "It is the best example of a public-private relationship."
Township Trustee Thomas Florkiewicz said trustees had to be creative in keeping their campaign promise to restore the historic Township Hall. Talks with the chamber began nine months ago, he said, and the result is a perfect fit for their needs.
Funds from the lease payment are being used to build the new office in the Township Hall balcony.
However, the major portion of the chamber's lease funds will be used to repair the foundation and brick work, restore the three steps in front of the building, add a handicap ramp on the south side and redesign the foyer. Work began March 17.
Township Trustee Michael Wise said the new office area will take $30,000 of the funds, the Americans With Disabilities Act ramp will take $20,000, and the steps and foundation work will take the remaining $50,000.
The remodeled foyer will continue to be used by the Your Home Town Chagrin Falls organization, which runs a visitors center there.
The foyer will be refitted with more storage. When the redesign is completed, "it will look more like a visitors center," Mr. Wise said.
All of the work inside and out is being overseen by the historic restoration consulting firm Chambers, Murphy & Burge Restoration Architects, of Akron.
In describing the new chamber office, Mr. Balunek said, although it is just 450 square feet, it will pack a "wow factor." The area will be glassed in on two sides, with the balcony overlooking the main hall, and a new entrance will be at the top of the foyer staircase. The office will be air conditioned, wired for new technology and provide desk space for the director, assistant director and a summer intern.
The move-in date is early to mid-May, depending, he said. A May 21 community open house will show off the new interior and exterior work.
Mr. Balunek said the chamber has been looking for a permanent home, ideally on Main Street. "We have been bouncing around from place to place the past few years," he said of the chamber's three recent locations. He approached the trustees about the possibility of using space in Township Hall last June.
Mr. Wise noted that all three township trustees brought certain skill sets in reaching the chamber agreement and the various restoration and building projects. "Tom has dealt with projects before, I'm a lawyer and the deal guy, and Jeff is an engineer with knowledge of architecture," he said.
Trustee Jeffrey Homans said the work being done at Township Hall is a lesson in "creative financing." Other improvements remain to be done, he said, including improved acoustics and energy efficiency, a sound system and air conditioning for the main hall and refurbishing the basement.
Mr. Florkiewicz said trustees had gone the traditional route of identifying government funding and applied for a stimulus grant. A grant for historic buildings was turned down, because the building, while on the local and state historic registries, is not listed on the national register.
"We are living in tough times, and local governments are seeing their funds decrease, so we had to get creative and began to look at our unused space," Mr. Wise said.
He said the chamber will be a perfect fit, because it is a not a for-profit organization. The township would not be legally permitted to lease space to a for-profit group.
Regarding future fund-raising efforts, Mr. Florkiewicz said, "For now, we are going to wait and catch our breath."
The chamber of commerce was able to broker its lease deal with the township by "getting back to the basics and living within our means," Mr. Balunek said. It involved "a major restructuring of the chamber's finances," he said. Now, instead of dipping into the directory proceeds, the chamber is running its operation by other means such as member dues, he said.
Mr. Wise said ongoing classes will be held in Township Hall during construction, and it will continue to be rented to groups for meetings and events.
When construction is completed, he said, the hall will be more marketable. It will become even more desirable when the building is fully restored and renovated to modern standards, he said.
Mr. Homans said the hall's courtyard area, created last fall in a onetime alley on the north side of the building, will be planted by the Dogwood Valley Garden Club. Outdoor furnishings and lighting will be provided for that area, he said.
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