Chamber readies for temporary relocation

The offices will move to the Georgia Power building until May.

The Rome-Floyd Chamber of Commerce will be temporarily relocating its offices at the Georgia Power building at 800 Broad St. this Thursday.

The Chamber is making the temporary move to facilitate the first major makeover of the Chamber building at 1 Riverside Parkway, a process which is expected to be complete by May 1, 2018.

Hodge said the renovations will offer visitors to the Chamber a much nicer first impression of the community. He said the Chamber would have much better audio-visual capabilities, in keeping with the Chamber’s All Things Digital campaign.

“We do expect to have a more effective layout, greater efficiency for how we operate,” Hodge said.

The Chamber has been in its present building, with only very minor modifications, since 1988. John Quinlivan, CEO at Redmond Regional Medical Center and chairman of the Chamber board, said the renovation will reflect Rome’s commitment to growth.

“The physical presence of the Chamber will be new, modern, well lit with a lot of glass and high technology that is a real strength for us locally,” Quinlivan said. “We want prospective employers to see that we’re on the cutting edge.”

Chamber President Al Hodge said visitors to the Chamber can park in the surface lot off Turner McCall Boulevard and enter the glass doors where Georgia Power customers used to go pay their bills in person.

“We appreciate Georgia Power accommodating us,” Hodge said.

Mark Cochran and Audrey Burton of Cevian Design Lab are handling the design of the new building, while Pinson’s Inc. will be the general contractor for

the $400,000 project.

Part of the funding for the renovations comes from the Partners in Prosperity program, part comes from reserves that have been saved over the years and a portion of the money will come from special fundraising opportunities.

“It’s definitely overdue,” Quinlivan said.