Recent Open House featured preview of state-of-the-art facility
BY MICHAELA YIELDING FOR THE OBSERVER
PHOTOS BY ROBERT NOLES | THE OBSERVER
OPELIKA — The Opelika Chamber of Commerce hosted an open house at the old Lewis Cooper Jr. Memorial Library on 200 S. Sixth St. on Jan. 29.
Since 1987, the Whitfield-Duke-Searcy House, a 130-year-old Queen Anne Victorian style home, was headquarters of the Opelika Chamber. The new location is across the street in a much larger facility.
The new building is part of Forward Opelika, the chamber’s comprehensive five-year $3.9 million strategic community and economic development plan that began in August 2022. Forward Opelika has three goals for the city’s development: 1) attracting and aligning talent, 2) growing businesses and quality jobs and 3) creating a business hub.
Instead of tearing down the old Opelika library, the city agreed to renovate the building and allow the chamber to relocate there. Renovations included installing windows on the front-facing side of the building, new paint, limewashing the exterior brick, adding cornices, a new parking lot, rentable office spaces and a dedicated area for Auburn-Opelika Tourism that includes office space and an interactive exhibit. The finished renovation leaves the building spanning approximately 10,136 square feet.
Ali Rauch, president and CEO of Opelika Chamber of Commerce explained that intentional thinking prioritized functionality throughout the planning and renovation stages of the new location.
Rauch described the move as “taking a giant step forward” for the Opelika Chamber. The new building helps the chamber tackle the lack of workspace at the previous location, connect employers to the workforce and provide information, resources and support for small business owners.
“How can we, as the Opelika Chamber, become a transformational organization where we try and tackle problems that our community is facing instead of just being reactionary to those things,” Rauch said. “In order to do that we needed a new space to enable us to do that work in a more meaningful way.”
Auburn-based commercial construction company Gamble Winter Construction oversaw the renovation, with the estimated project value being $2.4 million.
The building houses a conference room that fits eight people, an executive boardroom that fits 40, a training center that fits at least 100 people and a business resource center that helps growing and new businesses.
The business resource center is still awaiting further renovations to help fill the space with offices and resources that can help businessowners. There is also a rentable media space, where members can film or take photos in an already staged area.
According to Rauch, Auburn AV equipped all the meeting spaces with soundbars, cameras and interactive televisions.
Adorned with velvety green cushioning and nature prints, Botanic designed an intimate nook that can be used as a small gathering space. Botanic is a bar, grille and marketplace in Opelika that also helped with landscaping at the new location. Names of businesses and community members who invested in the Forward Opelika campaign line each room. There is also a donor wall in the foyer.
“If you visit our donor wall at the front, you’ll see we have 87 investors who all helped make it possible, and it’s everything from an individual person that maybe gave us $500, to maybe a couple or a family who’s giving us a thousand dollars a year for five years,” Rauch said. “So it’s really a wide array but the community got behind it for sure.”
The Opelika Chamber of Commerce shares the building with Auburn-Opelika Tourism, who has offices and an interactive visitors experience that highlights popular areas and the history of the Auburn-Opelika area.
“Auburn-Opelika Tourism is incredibly excited and proud of the visitor experience that we are bringing to the new Opelika Chamber of Commerce building,” President and CEO of Auburn-Opelika Tourism Robyn Bridges said. “The exhibit will allow visitors to explore Auburn-Opelika like never before, immersing them in the sights and stories of our destination. It’s a dynamic way to showcase everything our area has to offer and will be a must-stop for visitors and locals alike.”
Auburn-Opelika Tourism is a non-profit organization that promotes tourism and travel in the Auburn-Opelika area. The organization helps make events, travel and hospitality information accessible to visitors and the community.
“We’re thrilled to be part of this new chapter in Auburn-Opelika’s story,” Matt Ferguson, Chief Innovation Officer at Storyland Studios said in a press release on April 7, 2024. “This interactive visitor experience is designed to surprise and delight guests, going beyond an information center to become an attraction in itself, inspiring people to stay longer and keep coming back to the area.”
With offices in California, Atlanta and London, England, Storyland Studios is a creative team that includes alumni from the Walt Disney Company, Walt Disney lmagineering, Pixar Animation Studios and Universal Studios that create immersive storytelling experiences.
Although the chamber hosted an open house as a sneak peek into the new location, the official grand opening and ribbon cutting won’t occur until construction of the Auburn-Opelika interactive exhibit is completed.
The new location will be open from 9 to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, with options to rent spaces for members coming soon to the Opelika Chamber of Commerce’s website. Rauch said that just like someone going to a visitor experience or the Opelika Chamber, anyone can come in during the open hours.