A Morro Bay City-owned building will continue to be the home of the town’s tourism bureau and the Chamber of Commerce under new leases the City Council recently approved.
Visit Morro Bay, the business name of the Tourism Business Improvement District (TBID) an assessment district for lodging businesses that promotes tourism, and the Chamber of Commerce have been using the former fire department building at 695 Harbor St., for many years.
Originally, the Chamber also served as managers of a visitor’s center at the site and the tourism bureau was a City-run department.
They and two other entities — the Rock Community Radio Station and The Resource Center also occupied the building.
All those entities moved in after the Harbor Street Fire House was completed and the fire department moved across the street to its new headquarters.
The property at Harbor and Piney Way had once been the site of the Public Works Department, which was housed in an old cramped building that caught fire about 25-years ago forcing the department to move into temporary quarters — an old bank building (now Distassio’s Italian Restaurant) on Morro Bay Boulevard. The old Public Works Office was eventually torn down.
Then the fire station across the street was damaged in the December 2003 San Simeon Earthquake, and eventually condemned mainly due to the structural damage but also due to potential health hazards, in particular mold growing in parts of the building.
The City bought a modular building and erected it on the old Public Works site moving the fire department in until a new, proper firehouse could be built. The old firehouse was burned down in a training exercise.
For several years, fire department personnel were in the modular building and the fire engines and other large pieces of equipment was housed under a large canvas tent the City put up across the street.
When the City eventually completed the Harbor Street Fire House, all went back to normal and the modular building became available.
Terms for the lease were approved in 2022 and set the rent at $200 each for Visit Morro Bay (VIB) and the Chamber, plus a proportional share of utilities. That brought VIB’s rent up to $257 a month and the Chamber’s rent to $238 a month.
The Chamber first moved into the building in 2015 and was on a month-to-month basis. It also staffed a visitor’s center as part of the deal.
Visit Morro Bay took up residency in 2021. Neither paid rent in the beginning but the City re-negotiated the $200/month rent in 2022. Still that’s a bargain for a space in Downtown Morro Bay.
That new rate allowed the City to “get closer to market rate, within the context of the economic benefits provided by the Chamber and VMB to the City and community,” reads a report on the leases. “In 2025, the Council approved a month-to-month lease agreement with the Chamber at the continued rate of $200 per month plus utilities.”
The Chamber’s new lease is for 1 year and Visit Morro Bay’s is for 3 years. The City Manager’s report listed why he wanted to give the Chamber a deal.
“Given the Chamber’s roll,” reads the report from City Manager John Craig, “in support of a strong local community and quality of life by promoting a strong local economy, promoting business development, including business attraction and retention programs, staff recommends the Council approve a one-year lease agreement requested by the Chamber.”
And while VIB is geared towards promoting the lodging industry and fully supported by assessments of 3% of a daily room rate per lodging business — including hotels, motels, B&Bs and vacation rentals — the City is a direct beneficiary of a healthy lodging industry through collection of transient occupancy taxes.
TOT is the second highest source of general fund tax revenues for the City behind property taxes. The City’s TOT tax is currently 10% of the cost of a room night.
