Group Working to Create Chamber of Commerce in University City

A group of University City residents is volunteering their time to try and organize a Chamber of Commerce here in U City. Currently, the City does not have one.

The participants include Raymond Lai, the deputy director of community development for U City; attorney Jack Fishman; school board member Ellen Bern who used to work for the Maplewood Chamber of Commerce; Linda Locke, founder of a consulting firm; Michael Tsiakliades, who has a background in banking and the retail industry and former Olive business owner Dan Savory.

Mayor Shelley Welsch spearheaded the effort to bring the group together to help lay the groundwork to create a chamber of commerce, one of Welsch's campaign pledges when she was running for mayor.

"People have chambers around us and we need to be competitive in that way," she said at Friday's meeting, the second gathering of the group. "I think we've been a little too comfortable with whomever is here or happens to be here and we haven't done as well as we should in trying to attract more businesses to University City and help convince businesses to stay in U City."

At the meeting, Bern presented a draft document to the group that would explain to people, a chamber's purpose and potential impact.

"I think people are going to wonder, what are you talking about. What do we need a chamber for? We've never had one before."

Top priorities for the chamber would be encouraging and assisting the growth of existing businesses and helping to attract new businesses to U City. Bern said there are people interested in starting businesses in U City but they don't know where to start.

Several participants noted the importance of bring U City's entire business community together. "We all know Joe Edwards (owner of Blueberry Hill and other Loop businesses), and Joe has a voice and that's great, but Joe's not the only business in town," said Bern. However, the group voiced concern that the Loop businesses may not want to join a chamber. Businesses in the Loop have essentially had their own chamber of commerce of sorts for years. The Loop Special Business District has been around for more than 20 years, is well established and has its own budget.

Jessica Bueler, owner of  and the new president of the Loop Special Business District told University City Patch in an email "This is the first that the Loop Special Business District has heard about a Chamber of Commerce for University City." However, she added "The board looks forward to reviewing," any information related to a chamber of commerce "and hearing more about the suggested make up of this proposed organization."  

For Linda Locke, helping U City residents start businesses is paramount. She said ideally the chamber would offer some kind of business to business mentoring and support. "Wouldn't it be fantastic if someone was starting a food business on Olive and somebody like Joe Edwards could say, here's what I faced in the early days." She said that would be invaluable advice.