FAYETTEVILLE -- City officials are interested in -- but not committed to -- buying the building the Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce has called home for the past 45 years.
Steve Clark, chamber president and chief executive officer, announced plans last week to move the chamber's offices to the second floor of the Bradberry Building, 21 W. Mountain St., where Tiny Tim's Pizza, Jammin Java and West Mountain Brewing Co. are located.
"We plan to be occupying that building no later than Jan. 1, 2016," Clark said Wednesday.
The building, once it's owned by the chamber, will also house a "maker space" for the Arkansas Regional Innovation Hub. Plans call for a third-floor meeting space to be built and made available for lease.
The chamber plans to sell the building it has owned at 123 W. Mountain St. since 1970. The nearly 6,000-square-foot building is listed at $998,000.
Clark said the chamber owned the front half of the building for 24 years, and then the back half was purchased in 1994.
Clark said he discussed the move with city administrators before last week's public announcement.
"We felt like since we're partners with the city in so many things, we should tell them before we told the world and let them know that the building was going to be for sale," he added.
Mayor Lioneld Jordan was out of state on vacation this week. His chief of staff, Don Marr, said he didn't want to speak for Jordan on his level of interest in buying the chamber building. But, Marr added, the city's building maintenance supervisor was asked to inspect the building to see if it would be suitable for city use.
"I certainly think it's logical for it to be evaluated by the city when it's surrounded" by other city-owned buildings, Marr said Wednesday. "At the same time, we don't want to have space just to have space. We have to have a need for that space because there's a cost associated to it."
The chamber offices are sandwiched between the City Administration Building and the Development Services Building, where the city's Planning, Engineering and Community Services divisions are located. The District Court building and the Police Department are around the corner at 176 S. Church Ave. and 100 W. Rock St., respectively.
The GCM Building, 101 W. Mountain St., where GCM Computers Inc., the Fayetteville Underground and Nu Fangled Images are located, is the only building on the entire block that's privately owned.
State Desk on 07/04/2015