Jackson Chamber sells former post office to real estate firm

The Jackson Area Chamber of Commerce, which focuses on business activity in and around the City of Jackson, did a little business itself Friday when it sold its headquarters to an area real estate company.

"We sold the building," chamber president Brian Gerau said Friday shortly after completing the transaction with Chris Cole of Realty Executives. According to Cole, "repairs, light remodeling and restoration" is underway at 125 E. Main St., once home of the Jackson post office.

Terms of the sale were not disclosed. However, Gerau said he and other chamber staff will lease space in the building until they can find and move into new offices.

"We are looking," Gerau said. "In the meantime we will stay until we are able to find a new building."

He hopes that can be "in the next 90 days or so."

Built in the late 1930s, the Chamber of Commerce building on the southwest corner of Main and Hope streets served as Jackson's post office until it was replaced by a new postal facility on the opposite corner.

In October 1984, the City of Jackson bought the building from the U.S. Postal Service for $65,000 and immediately sold it to the chamber, which has occupied it since then.

"We put the building up for sale about a year ago, right before the pandemic hit," Gerau said, "but it's only been in the last few weeks that we've had a serious buyer."

Cole, the buyer, said his "intent is for the building to be a multi-tenant office lease space, a training facility for Realty Executives agents, and a conference, event and community space."

As for the chamber, Gerau said he would like to find suitable office space along or near one of Jackson's main thoroughfares with ample parking and about 2,500 square feet of floor space for offices, meetings and membership gatherings.

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