THE FOLLOWING IS A NEWS-GAZETTE STORY BY JENNIFER BAILEY
ABOVE: Vermilion Advantage will be moving into the former Clifton, Larson Allen space on the 1st floor of the First Financial Bank & CCMSI Building in the Danville Towne Center, 2 East Main Street in Danville.
DANVILLE — It’s moving week for Vermilion Advantage.
The area’s economic development and chamber of commerce organization is moving from the back of the Robert E. Jones Municipal Building, 17 W. Main St., to the building that houses First Financial Bank and CCMSI in the former Clifton, Larson, Allen space in the Towne Centre development.
Vermilion Advantage President and CEO Mike Marron said the agency’s executive board will meet Thursday morning at its current location, then start moving afterward.
The office will be closed Thursday and Friday for the move across Main Street, and the agency will reopen Monday in its new location.
Marron said Vermilion Advantage will be leasing part of the first floor in the Towne Centre building.
The agency moved into the Robert E. Jones Building 10 years ago, paying $300 a month for the back half of the first floor. The agreement was for five years, with two five-year renewal options. Before that, it had been based in the Thornton building at 28 W. North St. That move was made to save costs.
Mayor Rickey Williams Jr. said the city notified Vermilion Advantage about a year ago that it would be ending the lease because it needs the office space again after adding rental inspectors and additional employees in the finance department.
“We need more room,” Williams said.
When Vermilion Advantage moved to City Hall 10 years ago, the city’s legal department moved upstairs. The space on the first floor was also vacant because the city’s inspections division moved to the Public Works Facility on Voorhees Street.
Marron said the time was right on his end, too.
“I think we kind of need to expand a little bit and get our own space,” Marron said.
In addition to Marron, Vermilion Advantage currently has three other employees.
“We may have some projects in the future that we’re looking at that would require bringing on somebody else,” he said.
“It would be a revenue-generation element to those projects, too, so that, currently with the budget that we have, the staff that we have is going to remain the same. We have some plans for expansion, but that’s going to be in the future.”
Vermilion Advantage’s Chamber of Commerce services already merged with the Hoopeston Chamber of Commerce last year when Hoopeston Chamber President Valarie Hinkle retired.