The Huber Heights Chamber of Commerce is saddened to announce the sudden passing of Jack Brankamp on Friday May 18. The Chamber family will greatly miss him. He brought professionalism to the Chamber along with his brand of humor. We all enjoyed him and considered him our friend. He will be sorely missed. Please keep his wife Sandy and his family in your prayers.

Jack Brankamp was our new Administrative Assistant.  He started his new job on January 2, 2018, just a short time ago. He had served as an Ambassador, and a member of the Board of Directors for the last several years. He was most recently the Chamber Vice-President. Jack was very supportive of the City of Huber Heights and sat on the Huber Heights Board of Zoning Appeals.

Jack was born in Cincinnati, and graduated from St Xavier High School. He graduated from the University of Dayton with a degree in Marketing. In 1969 Jack joined the Air Force and had tours in Vietnam and Korea. He served proudly with the 62nd Aerial Port Squadron until his service ended in 1973. Upon returning home Jack worked in the Restaurant and Retail Management for 36 years. Jack was a true community leader.

The Community and the Chamber of Commerce have lost a great supporter.

SureStart Huber Heights is a new project launched by the Huber Heights Chamber of Commerce. It is designed to spark new development of vacant storefront properties. SureStart Huber Heights is very similar to Dayton’s Pop-Up program. The concept of Pop-Ups is not a new one. Pop-Ups happen in the Huber Heights area every Halloween. A business will seek out a vacant building, and negotiate a lease rate with the property owner. That lease is usually three to six months. After the lease expires they move out. SureStart Huber Heights takes the concept much further.

The Chamber Board of Directors asked Executive Director Mark Bruns to research and propose a local Pop – Up program for the Huber Heights community. Research began in the winter of 2014. Bruns contacted the Activated Spaces director Scott Murphy who was instrumental in the managing of the Dayton Pop-Up program. He in turn referred Bruns to the Small Business Development Center, and the Dayton Score office. A visit to the Entreprenuer Center gave him other cities where the concept of Pop-Ups were working. Bruns contacted Cleveland, Ohio and Yipsilanti, New York among others.

The next step was to identify volunteers in the community willing to lend their expertise to this project. A five member Advisory Board was created to review the applications and make recommendations on excellent placement of these new businesses. That Board has been created and has started.

SureStart Huber Heights project will match tenants looking to launch their business with Huber Heights property owners who have storefront space available for occupancy. The SureStart Huber Heights project will require potential tenants to lease a storefront for a minimum of three to six months.

Property owners will be required to lease their storefronts below market value, to qualify as a SureStart Huber Heights participant.

Two SureStart Huber Heights businesses are already in negotiations. If you are willing to volunteer with the SureStart Huber Heights Project, please Call Mark R. Bruns at 937 233-5700 or Email him at chamber.director@hubercc.com.

Please visit www.huberheightschamber.com for details.

Interested in starting a new business?

Download the Request for Proposal Form → sure-start-application-april-2017