Chamber breaks ground on new building

By Jacob Sturm
news@mustangpaper.com

After 50 years serving Mustang, the Mustang’s Chamber of Commerce is seeing the steps toward its own building come to fruition.

The Chamber, which had been working toward the goal of owning their own building, learned of their current space being put up for sale by their landlord in 2022, prompting the Chamber leaders to look for alternative options following the COVID pandemic in 2020.

Renee Peerman, the Mustang Chamber President and CEO, said the Chamber eventually turned their attention to requesting a donation of land from the City of Mustang.

“We looked at available land in Mustang and existing buildings to see if there were any possibilities of turning something into office space,” Peerman said. “None of the leads panned out for us with the resources we had available. This is when we decided to approach the City to see if there was any possibility of them donating land for our use.”

Original plans for Wild Horse Park included the possibility of Chamber office space according to Peerman.

That led to the Chamber approaching the City Council with the request for a permanent office space. Despite the nerves, the Chamber received good news.

Although the City was not able to donate the land, they did find a way to offer the Chamber a long-term (75-year) lease on some land at the park at what will be 1401 N. Mustang Road next to City Hall. Once the lease was signed, the Chamber immediately began talking to architects and builders.

“We are incredibly thankful that they saw value in what the Chamber does for Mustang,” Peerman said of the City’s help in the process. “With very little land and commercial space available within the city limits, the City of Mustang really came to our rescue in providing us with a location on which to build.”

Those communications led to the Chamber working with Platinum Homes, the builder and manager of the project. As part of their work, Platinum Homes will handle all the subcontracting. Peerman said Phil Cobb is the Chamber’s project manager and liaison with Platinum.

“The exciting thing is that we will have our own dedicated office building,” Peerman said. “It will be a professional presentation for this organization that promotes business interests, helps with tourism, and so much more.”

So, what benefits can an office space for the Chamber have for the Mustang community? It all starts with offering a visual representation of the Chamber inside Mustang city limits.

“Almost every Chamber of Commerce in the world has its own office space,” Peerman said. “For Mustang to finally have its own home is not only a relief because we won’t be burdening our members, but it means that we can offer a visual representation of our place in the city as the business and community advocate that we were created to be.”

Peerman also said the Chamber’s mission is to “advance business interests in the Mustang region by providing quality of life through advocacy and services.”

She said every activity the Chamber undertakes relates back to that mission, whether that is publishing a directory or community map, running a leadership program, raising money for scholarships, connecting with new members and more.

It was mentioned that the Chamber building would be done in two phases, and that the first part of what was approved will begin work while the second phase will be started later down the road.

The Chamber is also a 501c6 nonprofit organization and is not a city department or business. The group raises funds through membership dues, events and programs. All their money raised over budgeted expenses has gone into their building fund for the past 10 years.