Courtesy Graphic/Northern Nevada Chamber - The Sparks Chamber of Commerce released its new name and logo Friday. The new identity is meant to reflect the chamber’s now-regional membership, said Executive Director Len Stevens Friday.
The rebranding changes reflect the chamber’s significant increase in membership growth, mostly from outside the city of Sparks.
Len Stevens, executive director of the chamber, said its relocation from its old address at 634 Pyramid Way to the Legends at Sparks Marina retail center has been a two-year process since discussions first began with Legends developer RED Development.
RED offered the chamber a nine-year lease for a space more than 2,100 square feet, including 800 square feet for a tourism lobby, the size of the chambers home on Pyramid.
“(The new space), with all the tourists we’ll be getting at the Legends, will increase by more than two-and-a-half with more than about 40,000 coming in our first year here,” Stevens said. “These are the things that attract people to Sparks and now we’ll have access from Interstate 80.”
The small chamber staff has been making preparations all week ahead of its grand opening celebration on Monday.
Despite changes to its physical space and outreach to businesses in the region, Stevens said the chamber will remain faithful to its Sparks members.
The Sparks chamber’s major expansion began in 2008 with the merger between itself and the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, a move that Stevens has called unprecedented.
“At the time there was an agreement that there would be a name change,” Stevens said. “But we never imagined we would triple in size when we have more members outside of Sparks than (inside). … And what we’ve become is a Sparks-based chamber with bloodlines that have a very thick connection to Sparks and we never want to lose that.”
The new Northern Nevada Chamber recently has branched out to Tahoe, Incline Village, Fernley and Carson City businesses, employees from which have attended local Sparks events and mixers. Today, the chamber has nearly 1,200 members.
“It didn’t happen overnight,” Stevens said.
It took careful consideration of how to distribute services and not to view itself as the competition of the Reno-based Reno-Sparks Chamber of Commerce.
“If you look at both chambers, there is very little duplication of services,” he said. “That’s good because it allows us to have a niche to do what we do … and people can choose to be a member of both if they want or one or the other if they find something they like in particular.”
As far as the name change itself, Stevens said his staff have not received any resistance or negative comments from members.
“There’s always emotion when change comes about,” he said. “The name is not changing who we are but it’s resembling what we’ve become. We’re part of the Sparks city family.”
He credited the chamber’s ability to “think outside the box” to experience the growth that it has by offering various programs, including partnerships with small business, free evaluations by SCORE, the BEST kids recognition program and scholarships to high school students. Stevens added that the Sparks chamber also offers the lowest membership dues at $170 of any chamber regionally because it has only four-and-a-half full time equivalent staff members as opposed to the average nine-and-a-half. Because the local businesses are cooperative with each other and the chamber is member-run, he said, everyone benefits with mutual, community-minded efforts.
“The biggest thing for the chamber is that we are the mirror of our community,” Stevens said.
The executive director said more than 300 guests are expected to show up at its new office for the grand opening.
The grand opening and ribbon cutting for the new office takes place Monday from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Legends at Sparks Marina, next door to Forever 21 and across the street from Fuddruckers.
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