Bill Taylor has built a racetrack in China, sold those cute PEZ candies and managed a clothing manufacturing company.

And, he has led the Renton Chamber of Commerce through the deepest recession the nation has ever seen, all the while working with the chamber leadership to buy a new chamber headquarters downtown.

That chamber headquarters includes a new visitors center that will act as a beacon to downtown Renton and the city as a whole.

Thursday, after eight years at the helm, Taylor retired as president and CEO of the Renton Chamber of Commerce. He turned 72 on Tuesday.

He can leave knowing he had completed his most important task, as he describes it, securing the chamber’s financial future and finding it a new home.

He points to a chamber leadership that understands that today it’s no longer business as usual for chambers, whose main job is to advocate for businesses big and small.

“Renton (the chamber) is alive and well and it has a good positive future here, because there have been boards of directors who get it, who understand the need for it and understand how it should be run,” he said Tuesday.

He leaves with plaudits from members of the chamber board, including chairman Jason Parker, and Suzanne Dale Estey, the city’s economic development director.

“I celebrate Bill,” said Parker, who along with his father King runs King and Bunnys Appliances. “Bill has done a phenomenal job.”

Dales Estey has worked closely with Taylor on business issues throughout the city.

“Bill has been a tremendous advocate for the business community and the critical partnerships between the major stakeholders in the Renton Community Marketing Campaign,” said Dale Estey. “His leadership, support and deep commitment to Renton will be deeply missed.”

As board chairman, Jason Parker will convene a search committee to find a replacement for Taylor.

But, first, the chamber is putting together a budget that will reflect for the first time that it has a mortgage to pay.

The chamber purchased its new headquarters at 625 S. Fourth St. – an historic train depot that was home to the Spirit of Washington Dinner Train – for $840,000 from Burlington Northern Sante Fe Railway.

The chamber had about $110,000 to go toward a down payment, but still needed more. Enough money to bring the mortgage down to $630,000 came with a grant from the lodging tax. The Renton City Council approved the request and the chamber was in business.

But the deal almost didn’t happen, Taylor said, because of that $840,000 appraisal.

“I would have given up a long time ago, Taylor said.

But it did happen, he said, because of  the vision of then-board chairman John Galluzzo, who suggested leasing the kitchen to the catering company serving the Renton Pavilion Event Center, then eventually selling part of the 33,000-square-foot parcel.

The chamber is planning a major capital campaign, headed by Galluzzo, to reduce or eliminate that mortgage.

Taylor is a Renton native, who points out he has lived in 21 cities, seven states and four countries

Taylor started as chamber CEO in January 2005, replacing Suzette Cooke, who is now the mayor of Kent. He came to Renton from Leavenworth, where he held the same job with that city’s chamber.

For years, he was the marketing director for Longacres Race Track, at a time when the track was fighting for its survival.

He served on the Renton Planning Commission.

He has spent is career in business, bringing with him to the Renton chamber a deep understanding of how to help a business succeed.

The chamber will hold a grand opening on June 15 at its new headquarters. Taylor likes to point to the many people who have turned what was becoming a derelict building into a showpiece.

Denny Dochnahl donated hundreds of hours in landscaping; Don Jacobson just seemed to be everywhere, and Duc Tran donated the new chamber sign.

Now, Taylor is looking to the future.

A fan of Talbot Hill Elementary School’s MicroSociety program, he plans to remain active in education issues. In all his years as chamber CEO, education was always the chamber’s top priority. He’d like to research his mother’s family line.

He leaves a chamber in good shape, with about 600 members – not far from the high of about 640 members in 2008.

His greatest accomplishment?

“That we are still here. That we are located in a new home,” Taylor said.