Lockhart Chamber of Commerce finds new home

By LPR Staff
Editor/POST-REGISTER

After several years of talking, thinking and planning, the Lockhart Chamber of Commerce solidified plans earlier this month to purchase a building and relocate.
For more than 15 years, the Lockhart Chamber of Commerce has leased office space at 205 S. Main St., just off the Courthouse Square.
This September, howeve

r, the Chamber will find a new home on Highway 183.
“Everyone we”ve talked to about the location thinks that it”s the perfect place for the Chamber and Visitors” Center,” said Lockhart Chamber of Commerce President Wayne Bock. “It”s going to be much easier for people to find us, because we”ll be right there on the highway, and because the building has that big, covered porch, we will be able to leave more brochures and maps for people to drive through and pick up.”
The Chamber”s new building (officially 631 S. Colorado) is most often referred to as “the log cabin on the highway.” The quaint, nearly 900-square-foot building is home to a reception area and four small offices.
Bock expects that some, limited renovation might take place, but current plans for improving the location mostly rotate around building a detached storage building.
“We plan to build a 20″-by-30″ building, that we”re going to cover with wood siding to make it as attractive as the cabin,” he said. “We”re going to use that for most of our storage, records and the like.”
Bock said the plan to purchase the cabin has been an idea in the heads of some Chamber directors for some time.
“There have been other times we had looked at the cabin, but it was always for lease and not for sale,” he said. “When we heard at the beginning of this year that it was for sale, we started talking about it, but that talk kind of tapered off.”
The talk started again in the spring, when Chamber directors found the building was once again available and still for sale.
“At that point, we put together a committee to do a feasibility study,” he said. “Everything just came together and we knew that this was the right move to make and the right time to make it.”
In considering real estate agent representation and financing options, Bock said the Chamber Board was as diplomatic as they could be.
“We took all of our member Realtors and put their names in a hat,” he said. “Then we drew, so that it would be a fair chance for everyone. We also approached each of the financial institutions to discuss what we needed and what we wanted, and allowed them to make us offers as to what they could do.”
“There have been a lot of volunteers and membership help in getting us this far,” Bock said. “But that doesn”t mean the battle is over. We still need those volunteers and our membership to help us raise the money to pay for the building. After all, because we”re the Chamber of Commerce, it”s not really our building – it belongs to the members.”