Chillicothe/Ross Chamber Of Commerce Promotes 2021 & Beyond Initiative

Presented By Hometown-Motors, Inc.

Local business and economic development officials learned about and shared stories of successes in 2020 and what is ahead for 2021 in their Community Outreach Breakfast Conference held virtually by the Chillicothe/Ross Chamber of Commerce, Friday morning.

Speakers on the virtual conference included Tiffany Baldwin- Director of Downtown Chillicothe, Tammy Eallonardo- Economic Development Director for Greater Chillicothe and Ross County Development, Ross County Health Commissioner Garrett Guillozet and featured speaker Ryan Wardlow- Advisor/Wholesaler for J.P. Morgan in Ohio, Indiana and Michigan.

Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Mike Throne told the virtual breakfast following that their emphasis is on the “2021 And Beyond Initiative”.

Tiffany Baldwin says she believes 2021 will be a “turnaround year” for local businesses. Despite the pandemic, “20 new businesses started in Chillicothe’s downtown and 8 more have already started up thus far in 2021”, Baldwin says. She added that the organization known as Downtown Chillicothe is still trying to increase ways to keep customers coming to downtown businesses.

Tammy Eallonardo pointed to the arrival of a new business in the spec building located near Kenworth Truck Company. The truck manufacturing supplier General Fasteners is occupying half of the spec building with Chillicothe based Petland‘s recent expansion announcement having them utilizing the remaining 50,000 square feet of that spec building.

Eallonardo also stated that much has been done locally thanks to more than $248,000 in grant support, the commitment of $837,000 in new capital investment and new and retained payroll of just over $2 million.

She added that the lack of spec building space might have contributed to missed business location opportunities in 2020, which is why more such space is needed.

Health Commissioner Garrett Guillozet discussed how his department has worked during the COVID-19 pandemic and how much of 2021 will look like what they have been doing in 2020.

Featured speaker Ryan Wardlow of J.P. Morgan talked about successful investments during the last year and said some of the big investment winners, according to the S&P 500 were:

Online Retail- up 62%

Information Technology- up 43%

Home Improvement- up 31%

Chamber President and CEO Mike Throne says they will have an announcement later this year on their Annual Meeting date- but will begin accepting nominations March 1st for Entrepreneur of the Year. Throne is hopeful the annual meeting can be held in July, while their Annual Chamber of Commerce Golf Outing is planned for September 17th at Jaycees Golf Course.