- April 20, 2024
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There won’t be a “For Sale” sign in front of 20 Airport Road, but the building at that address, owned by the Flagler County Chamber of Commerce, is up for sale.
“When and whether we should sell the building has been an ongoing conversation for many years now,” Chamber President Rebecca DeLorenzo said in a press release. “After considerable deliberation and due diligence, our board of directors concluded that the pros of selling the building outweighed the cons, and now is the opportune time to move ahead with these plans.”
At an all-member meeting at the Hilton Garden Inn on Tuesday, July 12, Chairman of the Board Rich Stanfield made the decision public.
The loss of nearly $40,000 in revenue from the Chamber’s phone book advertising sales contributed greatly to the decision. The Chamber’s final phone book was published in the 2015-2016 fiscal year. Leasing instead of ownership is also a growing trend in the industry.
Stanfield said 55% of Chambers of Commerce do not own their building, and 88% of those have no intention of buying a building in the future. After consulting with past Chamber chairs and board members, and other Chamber organizations, the decision was made to sell the 11,000 square-foot building that was built in 2005.
“More Chambers, businesses and governments are opting to lease instead of buy,” Stanfield said. “This is an opportunity for us to eliminate debt, and shore up our long-term financial position, while relieving the Chamber of property management responsibilities. We are a service organization, not a landlord.”
Currently the building houses three organizations, besides the Chamber -- CareerSource Flagler, Office Divvy, and Politis and Matovia Law Firm. The Flagler County Tour Development Council is in the process of moving to a larger facility at the Flagler County Airport. These companies, and the Chamber, with the exception of the TDC, will remain tenants as part of the sales negotiations.
Stanfield said the sale would allow the Chamber to have zero long-term debt, a reserve of two months of operating costs, and allow the Chamber to increase services and opportunities to its members.
“We spend a lot of time keeping people in the building,” Stanfield said. “Overall we need to focus on our membership instead of focusing on being a landlord and worrying about having to fix things like the air conditioner.”
After the meeting, Ellen Stanford, who owns Sew N Sew, and has been a Chamber member since 2009, said she was surprised by the announcement, and had a few concerns.
“My worry is that anyone who is going to buy commercial property is going to want to make money on the lease back,” Stanford said. “I am wondering, is the chamber going to downsize and start having people work at home, and not have a need for as much space? Is the ultimate goal to take it down a notch and use community space?”
Stanfield said the Chamber has found the staff of six, it was once as many as 14, is a good number for their size operation.
“We have cross-trained the staff to do more jobs,” Stanfield said. “A couple of years ago we discussed cutting staff, but you can’t cut your way to prosperity.”
“Margaret Sheehan is working on the marketing plan,” Stanfield said. “We don’t want the face of the chamber to change at all.”
