Glendale Chamber of Commerce goes downtown

The Glendale Chamber of Commerce has sold its office building on Louise Street for nearly $1.7 million as it moves into a smaller, more visible headquarters in ground-level space in the 701 North Brand Building.

The chamber’s former 3,500-square-foot building was sold to Chris Pogosyan, founder of Pogosyan Corp., which operates state-of-the-art medical imaging services, a mail-order/compounding pharmacy, reference library and a pharmaceutical manufacturing facility.

A Pogosyan representative on Monday could not immediately say what type of operation would move into the South Louise Street building.

Judee Kendall, executive vice president of the chamber, said she’s excited about the move. The chamber signed a 10-year lease valued at more than $500,000 for 1,637 square feet of space on Brand Boulevard, according to the Charles Dunn Co., which negotiated the deal.

The chamber plans to begin operating out of the new location on Monday.

Kendall said the Louise Street building, where the chamber has been located for more than 40 years, sold quickly.

“I think it was about two weeks after we put the building on the market,” she said.

Finding a new home took a little longer — about two months, she added.

The smaller space is ideal for the chamber, Kendall said. Computer technology has greatly reduced the need for its larger digs because what used to be labor-intensive activities, such as mass mailings, are now done with computers, making bulky filing cabinets a thing of the past.

Kendall said chamber officials knew they wanted to have ground-floor access and high visibility.

“We wanted to be on Brand Boulevard,” Kendall said.

-- Mark Kellam, Times Community News

Twitter: @LAMarkKellam

Photo: The Glendale Chamber of Commerce is moving into 701 N. Brand Blvd., where the California Credit Union is a major tenant. Photo: Times Community News.