Clear Lake Chamber of Commerce prepares for renovation of their offices, facilities

CLEAR LAKE — The Clear Lake Chamber of Commerce is preparing to vacate their offices for a year as the project to expand and renovate their facilities is slated to get underway.

The Chamber announced the $2.3 million project in August that aims to more than double the current building’s size, provide a new accessible welcome center, a dedicated event preparation area, and modern meeting spaces. The building also has a number of deficiencies such as an outdated HVAC system and accessibility.

Chamber president and CEO Stacy Doughan says they’ll be transitioning to their temporary office at 306 Main Avenue. “We’ll be at 306 Main Avenue for about a year. That’s the former Laird Law Firm building. It’s really nice and it will give us a feel for what it’s like to have that kind of square footage when our project is complete.”

Doughan says once they are in their temporary location, construction can begin on the project. “Our goal is to move out kind of mid-March, auction anything off that’s still in the building that we’re not going to need in the future. We don’t actually have to tear the building down, it’s structurally sound, we’re tearing the back half of the building off, and hoping to start doing that in April.”

Doughan made her comments during a recent Clear Lake City Council meeting. The council approved providing a $250,000 grant to the Chamber to use for the project.

Construction is scheduled to be completed by the summer of 2026.