Lynchburg, VA - Wednesday was a big day for the Lynchburg Chamber of Commerce. They announced some major donations headed their way to help them move to a new chamber building.
27 businesses in total have pledged funding for the building; and a new building is more necessity it seems, than desire.
Within their current home, major announcements were made that will propel the Lynchburg Chamber of Commerce, into its new one.
"It is my pleasure to share with you today that we have a $250,000 gift and that has been given by Centra," said the chamber's capital campaign co-chair Georgia Fauber. "At the end of the day, we want to make an impact in whoever, whatever happens in central Virginia," said Michael Bryant, President and CEO of Centra.
And the announcements continued, "I'm happy to announce that Liberty University has pledged $100,000," said Fauber. "We appreciate that, and this is our way of giving back and supporting what the chamber's trying to do," said Jerry Falwell Jr., the Chancellor of Liberty University.
They're trying to spread their wings.
"The last time the chamber had a capital campaign, it was to build this building," said Rex Hammond, the President and CEO of the Lynchburg Chamber of Commerce.
For more than 40 years, they're current building has served the chamber just fine. But as they've grown, the building hasn't met their growing needs.
"By today's standards it's not as attractive as we would like in order to make an appropriate first impression for the business community," said Hammond.
So, according to chamber officials, they've found the perfect replacement, "The chamber purchased this new location a little more than a year ago. It's sitting on about two acres; it's a building and a footprint of almost 10,000 square feet," said Hammond.
And after more than $2 million in renovations, it will be completed. With a state of the art visitor's center, and situated perfectly at the convergence of Routes 460, 501, and 29.
"This is going to be the new location of the region's leading business organization," said Hammond.
And there were smaller donations announced Wednesday from smaller businesses. Isabella's Restaurant for instance pledged $5,000. $100,000 of Centra's pledge is going to be used to match donations from businesses with fewer than 200 employees.
Chamber officials hope to break ground on their re-model sometime within the next year.
