After 40 years, Ellsworth chamber to move to revamped space

Courtesy / Google Earth The Ellsworth Area Chamber of Commerce’s longtime spot at the Ellsworth Shopping Center is seen in the foreground. The chamber's new location is in the strip building to the right.

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By Staff

With the last of four 10-year leases have expired in January, the Ellsworth Area Chamber of Commerce will move into a refurbished space just a stone’s throw away this week.

The chamber has occupied a spot on a pad at the Ellsworth Shopping Center on High Street since 1981, according to a news release.

The original visitor center at 163 High St. had a small space, with a separate shingled roof bus stop and advertising space. The board of directors leased the location for $1 per year from the Van Loon family with four 10-year renewals.

In order to accommodate the growing staff and the need for more visitor information, the board took out a loan for an expansion of the space that included three offices, bathrooms, a larger display area and more. The staff moved back into the refurbished building in 1986.

Since that time, the cupola atop the building has been a landmark for thousands of visitors to the area and to Acadia National Park.

Owners of the shopping center, KGI Properties of Providence, R.I., are repurposing the pad space, but wanted to keep the chamber in the shopping center. So KGI moved the offices across the parking lot to a portion of the shopping center called the Hanf Block.

“The owners truly appreciate the draw the chamber of commerce has to their center,” the chamber’s executive director, Gretchen Wilson, said in the release. “They worked very hard to make us comfortable with the costs of a move, and we are thrilled that we will continue to be in the center for many more years.”

KGI gutted two spaces that were formerly a nail salon and hair salon, to make one large, airy visitor center, with offices, storage and state-of-the-art lighting, HVAC and plumbing.

The entire front is a large expanse of glass and the ceilings are 11 feet high, giving a contemporary look to the space. The work was done by local contractors and companies.

“KGI gave us the benefit of working with folks we do business with, and are supporters of the Ellsworth Area Chamber” said Wilson.

The chamber was formed by a group of business people in the downtown and incorporated in 1956. In its early days, the organization was run by volunteers, but as business blossomed in Ellsworth, the organization hired a director.

The chamber will celebrate 65^th anniversary this year. The staff has provided members with marketing, educational programming and business-to-business relationships, referrals and more. The group hosts Ellsworth’s Autumn Gold event in September, as well as Early Bird Sale, March Dine Around, Christmas in Ellsworth, and the Annual Awards Event.

The chamber is in the process of moving fixtures, furniture phone systems and computer systems this week and hopes to have a ribbon-cutting early spring and to invite the public in once the staff are settled. The new address is 151 High St., Suite 5.

KGI is the property management and third-party services division of the Koffler Group, a private, full-service real estate company operating a $350 million portfolio totaling 2.2 million square feet. The properties are located across the Northeast, including Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut, and consist of retail, office, industrial and multi-family real estate.

The Ellsworth Shopping Center, with 104,500 square feet of gross leasable area, is located on two major arteries, Route 1 and Route 3. The center is anchored by a Shaw’s supermarket and a Renys store, and serves as the gateway to tourist destinations such as Acadia National Park and Mount Desert Island.

KGI bought the center in 2014, after a half-century of single-family ownership, according to an Ellsworth American article at the time.