2023_Fall_ValpoMagazine

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NEW LOOK, NEW NAME, SAME MISSION | FREE ENTERPRISE CENTER If [our members] need a place to operate for a couple hours, we've got some space that we make available... — Rex Richards >> cubicles that figured prominently in many of the Chamber’s videos over the years. Implemented by many offices over the past 10-20 years with the intention of improving collaboration, some open office layouts are now being reconfigured to offer a little more privacy. Replacing the open cubicles are a glassedin conference room and a private office for the organization’s CFO, while most of the other staff members now have private offices along the building’s east wall. “We deal with a lot of businesses that are thinking of expanding and growing, and we have meetings in here, so you have to kind of have some confidentiality. And so, by moving most of the employees into private offices, it makes it better for business,” said Richards. A Space Designed to Serve Businesses of All Sizes In addition to the offices of the Chamber, the Free Enterprise Center also serves as home to Valparaiso small businesses Directions Wealth Management and GGNet Technologies. The Chamber itself also maintains some flexible office space for use by Chamber members. “We have a lot of members that are from out of town, from Lake County, from La Porte County. If they're over here doing business, and if it's winter, it's raining and they need a place 6 FALL <strong>2023</strong> | to operate for a couple hours, we've got some space that we make available to our members,” said Richards. The upper level of the Free Enterprise Center was renovated in 2013 to create a conference center space, featuring one large and several smaller meeting rooms. “A lot of our members do not have space where they can have conferences. This conference space makes our building that much more available to our members,” said Richards. “We get tremendous usage of our second level now.” The Independent Order of Odd Fellows also continues to hold meetings in the upstairs conference center. A Prominent Place in the Business Community’s Past, Present and Future Clocking in at 12,000 square feet, the building itself has housed a wide variety of businesses over the years. Built circa 1875, the building originally housed the Grand Opera House, a venue for theatrical, musical, and vaudeville performances. After the 1891 opening and subsequent popularity of the G. A. R. Memorial Opera house forced the closure of the Grand Opera House, the building housed a dry goods business and then the Grand Opera One-Price Clothing Store, the precursor to Lowenstine’s Department Store. Over the years, the building also housed a furniture and undertaking business as well as Sears, Roebuck and Co. Today, the Free Enterprise Center occupies a prime location along downtown Valparaiso’s Lincolnway, right next to City Hall and just steps from Central Park Plaza, the Urschel Pavilion and a wide range of restaurants and other small businesses that the Chamber is proud to represent. “We Wanted to be Where the Action Is” The city’s investments in a lively and robust downtown over the past 20 years helped to make the Chamber’s decision to invest in the future at their current location an easy one. “I think what you have seen over the last 20 years in the downtown alone, with the Urschel Pavilion, with the new Central Park that we have, the band shell, everything that the city’s done over the last 20 years has been to strengthen and continue to improve the downtown,” said Richards. “This is a major investment in our community, and I think that this investment in the Chamber building shows that the business community believes in making a contribution of its own to the city that creates so many opportunities for businesses.”
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Page 1 and 2: FALL 2023 VOL. 23 ISSUE 4 New Look,
Page 3 and 4: FALL 2023 COVER PAGE 4 PAGE 4 New L
Page 5: n a warm July day, Rex Richards, Pr
Page 9 and 10: smiles begin! Where beautiful Where
Page 11 and 12: lparaiso By Haleigh Vander Vinne gr
Page 13 and 14: TH 8X WINNER Anniversary Celebratio
Page 15 and 16: HEART AND SOUL OF VALPARAISO | CHAM
Page 17 and 18: Now, more than than ever... experie
Page 19 and 20: 1973-1978 Jack Shaffer served as Ex
Page 21 and 22: CHAMBER NETWORK NIGHT 2023 >> THURS
Page 23 and 24: Taking Care of Business. Business C
Page 25 and 26: Presenting Sponsors: Aldi 2352 Mort
Page 27: CALL/TEXT: 219-462-4655 *IN-OFFICE
Page 30 and 31: MEMBER INVESTOR ANNIVERSARIES ANNIV
Page 32 and 33: 32 FALL 2023 |
Page 34 and 35: NEW MEMBER INVESTORS MEMBERS >> NEW
Page 36 and 37: WE MAJOR IN SucceSSful CAREERS. Our
Page 38 and 39: AROUND TOWN >> AROUND Town is an im
Page 40 and 41: IN STOCK CABINETS GEORGETOWN WHITE
Page 42 and 43: VALPO VIEWFINDER VIEWFINDER >> VALP
Page 44 and 45: EXCELLENT HEALTHCARE. CONVENIENT LO
Page 46 and 47: FINAL THOUGHT THOUGHT >> >> FINAL A
Page 48: Make an Appointment to face the fut

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