Horn Lake Welcomes ACBL

Amid considerable fanfare and with numerous government officials on hand, the city of Horn Lake MS welcomed the ACBL, which will relocate national Headquarters from Memphis later this year. Horn Lake is a suburb of Memphis, just a few miles from the Tennesse border in North Mississippi.

Ceremonies took place on the property, a 30,000-square-foot building originally designed as a medical facility. The ACBL will have it renovated to accommodate the Headquarters staff. Jay Baum, ACBL's chief executive, said the work probably will begin in mid-July. "We hope to be able to move in before the end of the year," Baum said. Read More...

The total cost of the project, including the purchase price of the building and renovations, is expected to be about $3 million. On hand to welcome the ACBL were Horn Lake Mayor Nat Baker, representatives from Mississippi's Senator Thad Cochran and Congressman Travis Childer's offices, along with representatives of the Board of Supervisors, plus others involved in business development in DeSoto County.

Baker read a message from Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, whose trip to Horn Lake for the occasion was scrapped because of bad flying weather. ACBL's decision to move to Horn Lake, Barbour said in his message to Baker, "is good news for the city, DeSoto County and Mississippi as a whole."

The ACBL has been in Memphis since 1972, when Headquarters was moved from Greenwich CT. For 18 years, the ACBL occupied a building on Democrat Road near the Memphis International Airport. The ACBL moved to its current Airways Boulevard location in 1990. The ACBL Board of Directors considered moving out of the Memphis area -- Dallas and Atlanta were possibilities -- before approving the purchase of the Horn Lake property.

Just off of Interstate 55 in North Mississippi, the new facility will be easily accessible for visitors to the Memphis area and will have ample room for housing the North American Contract Bridge Museum, the world's largest collection of bridge memorabilia, the Albert H. Morehead Memorial Library and the ACBL Bridge Hall of Fame.


Thanks,
In His Service
Jerry Lemieux