PF Chamber of Commerce will move offices to City Hall area

POST FALLS – The Post Falls Chamber of Commerce and visitor center are the latest additions to the growing list of community groups that will call the area surrounding the new City Hall home.

City leaders say the addition will solidify the area as the new city center – something that the spread-out city Post Falls has never had.

A museum and cultural center are also in the works for the area just east of Spokane Street and south of Interstate 90.

“We think it will be great to be in the middle of that,” said Pam Houser, Chamber CEO and president.

The Post Falls City Council Tuesday approved the Chamber’s request to lease city property east of the new city hall at Fourth Avenue and Frederick Street for the group’s new headquarters and visitor center.

Houser said the details of that lease must still be worked out, but she expects construction on the Chamber building to begin this year and is hoping for a spring 2009 opening.

Chamber leaders are still raising money to build the Craftsman-style structure which Houser said will cost somewhere between $250,000 and $350,000. Plans call for a 2,700-square-foot main floor and a 1,000-square-foot basement.

With a definite location, fundraising will now pick up steam, Houser said.

The Chamber initially planned to build its offices and visitor center at the Pointe development, near Cabela’s. That location didn’t work out.

“We couldn’t come to an agreement with Foursquare, the developer,” Houser said, adding that it might have been three or four years before the Chamber could locate there.

Post Falls City Administrator Eric Keck said the Chamber is a perfect fit for the City Hall campus.

“We’re both geared toward the economic vitality of the community,” he said.