The sale of the Durango Chamber of Commerce building in Santa Rita Park to the city will help pay for a new chamber building on north Main Avenue.
The chamber expects to build its new building on city-owned property next to Brookside Park after the city tears down the A-frame at 2301 Main Ave., Chamber Executive Director Jack Llewellyn said. Demolition will happen before the end of the year and construction may start in the spring, he said.
“I appreciate the due diligence and the partnership with the city,” he said.
The city of Durango agreed to pay the chamber $400,000 for its building and $150,000 to cover the cost of rent and other expenses, he said. As part of the agreement, the city has the option to buy the chamber’s new building after 30 years, he said.
This summer, the chamber moved into the Bank of Colorado at 1199 Main Ave. because the building in Santa Rita Park is being used by city employees while the wastewater-treatment plant is under construction.
The chamber expects to put the $400,000 from the recent sale into the construction of the new building, which is expected to cost between $650,000 and $750,000, Llewellyn said.
Designs for the new chamber building are not complete, but Llewellyn expects it will be between 2,700 and 3,000 square feet, he said.
The chamber looked at other sites, but the cost of land in other areas was prohibitive. Building the chamber near Brookside Park returns it to its original home and allows the chamber to participate in the revitalization of north Main, he said.
The building is expected to have office space and a board room and potentially space for another tenant. But it is not going to replace the welcome center that shared the chamber building in Santa Rita Park, Llewellyn said.
The welcome center was operated by the Durango Area Tourism Office. The former executive director of DATO decided to make the center self-serve in 2017 and move its staff to the Downtown Welcome Center. The center serves about 54,000 people each year.
La Plata Youth Services, a nonprofit that serves at-risk youth, operated in the A-frame for many years, and it plans to move into a house once used by La Plata County, which is adjacent to the fairgrounds, county spokesman Megan Graham said.
mshinn@durangoherald.com
