By LINDA CHION KENNEY
In a letter sent to members in December, leaders of the Greater Riverview Chamber of Commerce opened the door to a name change that would upend decades of history for an agricultural town once known as Peru.
That change was unveiled for the first time in a fresh logo at the chamber’s masquerade ball and awards program at The Regent in Riverview on Feb. 2. The Riverview chamber is now the Central Hillsborough County Chamber of Commerce.
“The new name offers more equal representation of the multiple communities we serve,” according to chamber leaders Tammy See Folsom and Ny’kole Krivda, in the letter shared to members in December. It reviews the premise behind disbanding the Riverview name, used since the chamber’s founding in 1966.
Folsom is in her second year as chamber board chair and Krivda last year was named chamber president and CEO, replacing Tanya Doran, an East Bay High School graduate who filled the role for many years. Krivda started her job April 5.
Michael Owen, now in his first term on the Hillsborough County Board of County Commissioners (BOCC), grew up in Brandon and graduated from Bloomingdale High in Valrico. Folsom and Krivda referred to his words as a “clear positive” for the chamber name change.
“Commissioner Owen, during a recent BOCC meeting stated, ‘Riverview has become the urban core now,’ ” reads the letter signed by Folsom and Krivda. “As a chamber we must remain a relevant business leader in the surrounding economic core.”
Indeed, times change and so do chambers of commerce, and, especially so, as they strive to remain relevant in a world where digital connections and booming development continue to reshape the landscape for who meets whom, when and how, for business and community connections.
In their letter, Folsom and Krivda say the chamber’s story began in 1966, in a town “once called Peru,” for the Peruvian Mining Company, which was paramount to the town’s initial development. The name Riverview came about in 1885, in reference to the Alafia River.
The chamber letter gives credence to the belief that this once agricultural town, as it grew in population and became “a strong economic center to the surrounding areas,” in turn “grew flawlessly to the booming residential and business community we are today.”
“Flawless” might be a stretch, and, especially so, for those who focus on the demands of high growth on roads, water, schools and other infrastructure, and quality of life issues. But all can agree, that with every new sprawling subdivision and high-rise apartment building, with every new hospital, school, professional park, shopping plaza and business center, comes further proof that Riverview’s days as an agricultural town are long past.
“Change has been a catalyst for growth, both in our area and with our chamber,” according to Folsom and Krivda. Their letter notes the area’s growth in population from 2000 to 2010 (12,035 to 71,050 people) and through today (98,928 people), and that Riverview “employs more than 49,000 individuals across various industries.”
With this growth in mind, Folsom and Krivda say it is time “to be proactive in setting the stage for the story that will be told of us in the years to come.”
And that story, some 58 years after the original story behind the founding of the Riverview chamber, bears the name and tagline, “Central Hillsborough County Chamber of Commerce – Where Change Meets Prosperity.”
