- By Dan Veaner
- Around Town
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 Cutting the ribbon (left to right): Doug Levine, Jodi VanVleet, Kevin Berkley, Tim Joseph, Fred Bonn, Paul Tatar, Kyle Tuttle, Jean McPheeters, Donna Pinnisi, Suzi Munoz, Louise Felker Holl, Michelle King, Traci Wells |
County legislators, Chamber representatives and members of the local business and not-for-profit community gathered to celebrate the opening of a 2,000 square foot addition to the original building, which opened in 1987. It was the culmination of a two and a half year project that reconfigures the Visitor's Center and adds meeting rooms, offices and storage and work space to accommodate the Chamber's expanded staff and activities. "You have no idea how little space we had before this," says Director of Membership and Public Relations Doug Levine.
The ribbon cutting began with a welcome by McPheeters, followed by facts about the Chamber by Director Fred Bonn. Board Chairman Kyle Tuttle thanked the architects and builders and M&T Bank, that financed the addition, and the entire Chamber staff. Ithaca luminaries were given scissors to cut the ribbon, and everyone went inside to see the new facility.
The expanded Visitor's Center has all new information racks, and provides information about the whole state in addition to the Tompkins County information previously available. In addition to the brochures and information counter the Visitor's Center will have computer kiosks where visitors can book their rooms on-line. A small shop will sell t-shirts, hats and mugs.
"It accommodates additional foot traffic through our visitor's center so that we can up-sell the Ithaca experience, try to capture that overnight stay," says Bonn. ""We engage people in conversation that enables them to realize there's an awful lot to do here in Tompkins County and try to get them to stay here two or three nights." That makes a difference in the local economy. Levine explains, "For every one tourist that comes here they spend an average of about $250 for 24 hours for a room, food, gas -- that's an infusion into our economy."
Also on the first floor is new quarters for the sales team and a work room for processing bulk mailings. Upstairs there is a large meeting room and a smaller conference room and offices. A beautiful deck overlooks the lake on the back of the building. The addition melds seamlessly into the older building.
"I've been an employee of the Chamber for over ten years now," says Bonn," and this will be the first time that we've been able to hold board meetings in our own building." Bonn says the staff has expanded from two full time employees and a half time worker in 1989 to seven full timers and three part time. In that time taxable room sales for Tompkins County have surged from $7.2 million to over $26 million.
Large meeting room upstairs
"I'm very excited that this is opening up," says Town of Lansing's County Legislator Mike Sigler. "I think this is great, not just for the City of Ithaca, but for Lansing. This is really the gateway to Lansing considering we're going to have the scenic byway going right through." Bonn estimates that initiative along with expansion of the Cayuga Wine Trail will bring the number of annual visitors to the area from between 12,000 and 14,000 people to 20,000 per year.
McPheeters says it wasn't always easy to get work done while the construction was going on, but that it was worth it. "I'm delighted not to have hammering," she says. "There was a while there while they were doing some work when it was like living inside of a dentist's office. But I have to say that all of the construction crew were so clean and neat and so wonderful about making sure we were able to get our work done while they were here." Now that it's completed the staff is raring to use it to grow commerce in the county. "This building is really a testament to our ability to deliver an unbelievable experience," says Bonn.
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