Grand time to open expanded Livonia chamber office

We had an amazing turnout Dec. 17 to formally acknowledge the opening of our new office for the Livonia Chamber of Commerce.

Our staff and ambassadors have participated in hundreds of ribbon-cuttings and groundbreaking ceremonies to celebrate new and expanded businesses here in Livonia through the years, but it was strange to organize a grand opening for the Livonia Chamber.

We like to make each grand opening a unique celebration of the risk, work and determination of the business owner. But when it comes to a chamber of commerce, particularly in a community-minded place like Livonia, it is truly an acknowledgment of a healthy business community.

It was a good year-end occasion to acknowledge two significant accomplishments for the chamber in 2015. First, we surpassed 900 members for the first time in more than 20 years. This is a tribute to the resilience and growth of the business community in and around Livonia.

This growth enabled us to move into a nice facility at the Civic Center Office Plaza – with double the space – that allows us to better serve our members and promote the Livonia business community.

In an amazing coincidence, our new office was formerly occupied by the Brashear and Tangora law firm, co-founded by William Brashear, Livonia’s first city attorney and third mayor. He was one of the nine original members of the Livonia Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors when it first met in February 1950. This law firm is now known as Crieighton, McLean and Shea, the chamber’s longest-sustained member.

The Livonia Chamber’s first headquarters was in the Six Mile-Merriman area at the home of Eddie Edgar, a legendary sports writer and Livonia advocate. In the early 1960s, the chamber office moved to a location on Farmington Road, just north of Five Mile, which is currently occupied by a State Farm Insurance office.

For the past dozen years, the Livonia Chamber worked out of an office on the city’s Civic Center campus. It was a challenging time for the chamber when it moved into this space in 2003, so city leaders made affordable arrangements for the Livonia Chamber to re-organize, endure the economic downturn of the last decade, develop better ways to serve the business community and position our organization for the growth we’ve seen so far this decade.

Our move this fall into a bigger space enables us to provide a better clubhouse feel and meeting spaces for our members. Our 21-member board and staff are grateful for the continued support of our organization, which comes from so many people who are fully engaged in the unique community spirit that brings us all together here in Livonia.

Dan West is president and CEO of the Livonia Chamber of Commerce. He can be reached at dwest@livonia.org.