Hays CVB making a move

By STACIE R. SANDALL

Hays Daily News

It hopefully won't be long before the Hays Convention and Visitors Bureau, Hays Area Chamber of Commerce and the Ellis County Coalition for Economic Development will be in their new building at the corner of 27th and Vine streets.

The former Bionic Burger has been demolished and architects Stecklein & Brungardt are working up the plans for the new three-in-one information center.

“We're still working with the architect, Alan Stecklein,” said CVB director Jana Jordan in late February. “He's still working on the plans so we don't have the finalized plans just yet.”

The Chamber of Commerce and the Coalition agreed to sign memorandums of agreement to move to the new location with the CVB. All three entities feel that they could best serve the people if they were still in the same location.

“The most important thing is to keep our three groups together. We believe in the one-stop-shop,” said Gina Reidel, executive director of the Chamber.

The Coalition's executive director, Michael Michaelis, also likes the idea of the three groups sticking together.

“We are all promoting the area but with a differnet focus. We do share a lot of information between us and we try to work together on a lot of things,” he said.

The Chamber and the Coalition will be able to be tenants of the building for free for as long as they choose to stay.

On a hopeful timeline, said Jordan, the architetcural designs would be expected this spring.

“Then of course, it would be great if we could break ground later this spring or first part of summer and get going on it. Hopefully within a year or less, it depends, maybe we'd be in there sometime after the first of the year,” Jordan said.

The new building is being funded through the CVB from the transient guest tax, which is four percent. The tax brings in almost $500,000 per year and it pays for marketing, salares, operating expense and other CVB expenses.

“We've been saving a little bit of money, too,” Jordan said. “We will probably end up trying to put down as much money as we can. The chamber owns the current building and they will try to help out by selling the building and donating some of the money towards the new building.”

All three groups are looking forward to the future move and providing better services.

“We're all excited about a new home and have a place where we have a meeting room that will hold more than nine or 10 people. We'll be at a location that the CVB is excited about because they will be closer to traffic off of the interstate,” Michaelis said.

Reporter Stacie Sandall can be reached at (785) 628-1081, ext. 136, or by e-mail at

ssandall@dailynews.net.