Published July 2002

New headquarters
‘a milestone’ for Marysville Tulalip chamber

By John Wolcott
Herald Business Journal Editor

By mid-July, the Greater Marysville Tulalip Chamber of Commerce will be in its first permanent offices, occupying space in the new Quil Ceda Retail Center at the Tulalip Tribes’ business park.

After moving from a railroad caboose to a warehouse, then to two different levels of a downtown Marysville office building, the chamber will soon be in a facility large enough for the chamber, a regional tourism and visitors bureau, a video-conference and board meeting room, an expanded resource center for area businesses, plus a new entrepreneurial support facility.

“The new facility is a milestone for (the chamber),” said Gary Baker, a Marysville attorney who served on the facility committee. “The chamber will provide important new resources for the business community, and the community at large.”

Even the chamber’s promotional tagline is new: “THE Voice and Resource for Business,” chamber President Caldie Rogers told more than 175 members and guests at the group’s May 31 general membership meeting.

Nine years ago, she said, the chamber had debt three times its annual income, recent events had cost the chamber credibility in the community and growth was stagnant.

Robyn Warren of Langabeer, McKernan, Burnett CPAs, who is a former chamber board Chair and facility committee member, said the new offices are “the culmination of a decade of hard work, overcoming financial and technological difficulties.”

Under Rogers’ direction, and with the board’s support and active participation, the chamber paid its debt in full in only four years. It broadened the scope and experience of the board; moved into local, state and national legislative and economic development arenas; built extensive business, community and economic databases; and earned first-place awards in national competition for chamber member retention programs.

One of the chamber’s biggest ventures was launching the North Snohomish County Summit, underwritten by the Tulalip Tribes, to bring north-county communities together to work on common challenges and economic development.

Rogers also announced that the next North Snohomish County Summit meeting is set for Oct. 10 at the Tulalip Inn’s River City Grill, focusing on the results of a five-month economic development and demographic study of the area commissioned by the chamber.

The report will include data about employment, retail sales, property values, tax bases and other economic and demographic information for each town in north Snohomish County, with comparisons with other parts of the county, the state and the region, plus an assessment of the economic potential for each area.

Located under the north tower of the retail center at the southeast corner of the Tulalip Tribes’ Quil Ceda Village, at the I-5 and 88th Street interchange, the chamber’s new 1,923-square-foot offices will include a reception center with a high-tech video wall, a conference room, brochure and business card walls, a regional tourism and visitor information center and staff offices, including an Entrepreneurial Development Office dedicated to helping new businesses start and flourish.

The chamber offices will be adjacent to the Quil Ceda Conference Center, designed with inlaid paneling accented with marble and equipped for teleconferencing facilities and a full-service kitchen for catering. Regional board meetings, classroom seminars and public hearings and receptions will be held at the center.

An open house is planned for August or September, Rogers said, after the staff has time to get settled into the new quarters.

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