With a new office, new leadership and new goals for 2025, officials at the Richmond Chamber of Commerce say they want to get back to basics and focus on boosting membership and improving the city’s business climate.
The group plans to accomplish these goals by emphasizing their advocacy role on behalf of Richmond businesses and by providing more networking and branding opportunities for their members.
There are also plans to support the revitalization of the city’s core downtown area in addition to working with the county’s Green Empowerment Zone” to lure energy-related companies with high-paying jobs.
“We hope to have a bigger voice with a bigger membership base,” said John Ziesenhenne, the owner of M.A. Hayes Insurance Co. and a member of the chamber’s executive board.
The chamber, which celebrated its 100th anniversary last fall, is starting 2025 with some leadership changes.
James Lee, who served as the chamber’s executive director for more than eight years, resigned in October to pursue other interests.
Vernon Whitmore, a retired newspaper publisher and longtime Richmond resident, has stepped in to serve as interim director for one year.
The chamber has also relocated from its longtime Macdonald Avenue location to a new headquarters at 3720 Barrett Ave.
In addition, chamber officials have disbanded the organization’s Richmond Business PAC (RichPAC). The political action committee sparked some tension last year when it endorsed three city council candidates, prompting other candidates to boycott its campaign forum. It then neglected to file several campaign finance reports on time.
“We have decided to stay out of the political arena,” Whitmore said.
Richmond Chamber says it’s offering ‘branding, advocacy, networking, conduit’
Instead, Whitmore and other chamber officials said they will focus on enticing new businesses to open up shop and educating their members on the benefits of being part of the chamber.
Rich Doellstedt, chair of the chamber’s board of directors executive committee and co-owner of Richmond Wholesale Meats, said they have come up with the acronym “BANC,” which is short for “branding, advocacy, networking and conduit,” and the related slogan: “You can BANC on us,” to get the message out.
On branding, Doellstedt said the chamber can help businesses with their messaging and promotion.
On advocacy, it can serve as the business community’s representative at city hall to help with issues such as permits and municipal codes. As an example, Doellstedt noted that the chamber helped merchants on 23rd Street persuade city officials last year to reduce the number of street vendors in their neighborhood by establishing new locations where properly permitted vendors can legally sell their wares.
“It’s all about relationship-building, just like any good business,” Doellstedt said.
For networking, the chamber plans to sponsor quarterly mixers as well as other events. The organization recently held a mixer for its members with the Rosie the Riveter Trust, and it participated in a Jan. 27 four-city mega mixer in San Pablo. In addition, there are plans to hold a seminar in the coming months for chamber members as well as the public on artificial intelligence. Its website also is undergoing some changes, with a more current user-friendly calendar and a refreshed homepage.
On conduit, Doellstedt sees the chamber as the vehicle for collaboration between the city and business community as well as with neighborhood councils.
Chamber leaders also plan to work closely with the Richmond Main Street Initiative to try to reinvigorate the city’s downtown core along Macdonald Avenue. Sarah Walley, the initiative’s new executive director, now sits on the chamber’s executive committee.
The chamber also hopes to work with Contra Costa County Supervisor John Gioia to help Richmond take advantage of the county’s Green Empowerment Zone program.
That program focuses on providing tax incentives, grants, loans, workforce training and private sector investment to renewable energy companies.
Gioia says Richmond is uniquely positioned to take advantage of the program.
He says Richmond’s abundant and accessible shoreline, plus its inventory of undeveloped land and diverse workforce, make it appealing to green energy companies.
“Richmond is well-placed to attract the type of businesses that are our energy future,” Gioia said.
Over time, chamber officials say they would like to strengthen the city’s Convention & Visitors Bureau to lure hotels and events as well as encourage people outside the city to travel here.
Gioia says Richmond has the capability to bolster its entire business community, especially with Whitmore as the executive director.
“Vern has a lot of history and knowledge of both the businesses and the community in Richmond,” he said.
Chamber officials say their top priority in 2025 is to recruit new members.
Before the pandemic, the chamber had more than 300 members. That has shrunk to less than 200. About 70 percent of those members are small business owners with fewer than 10 employees.
Ziesenhenne says it’s all about educating business owners about the benefits of a chamber membership.
“We need to inform them about how advantageous it can be to have a bigger voice,” he said. “How the Chamber of Commerce can be helpful and be a voice for them. Let them know they are not alone.”
Whitmore agrees.
“We need to let them know what we can bring to the table to help them,” he said.
Disclosure: One of the freelancer photographers for this story, Andrew Whitmore, is the son of Vernon Whitmore.
I look forward to a strong and active Chamber in Richmond. Vern, Rich, and John are just the people to get this done. I also applaud the decision to exit the PAC as it can cause misconceptions about the true mission of the organization! A strong Chamber helps the City thrive through local businesspeople who invest int he community.