Joe Guthrie, president of the nonprofit Chattanooga economic development group Brightbridge Inc.It's official #42 #WPS pic.twitter.com/c9PtIF2oud
— Kendrick Jackson (@15Kjackson) April 29, 2015WHAT'S NEXTA public hearing on the project is set for Thursday at 5 p.m. at the Bethlehem Community Center, 200 W. 38th St.
Chattanooga officials are talking with a company that's weighing a 50-employee operation in the Alton Park area.
Dan Thornton, the city's director of general services, said the business could go on an 85-acre site on the 400 block of Workman Road that the city is slated to buy and clean up.
He declined to identify the company, but said it is in the retail and warehouse sector.
"It will be a clean industry," he said.
Thornton said the city is seeking a $550,000 federal grant to clean up the property, part of which is a salvage yard.
A greenway also could be created on the property, officials said.
"We've got a long way to go," Thornton said. "We've got to make sure all the pieces fit."
Joe Guthrie, president of the nonprofit Chattanooga economic development group Brightbridge Inc., said the company that is considering the site has several locations countrywide.
"They've got a pretty proven business model," said Guthrie. "They've honed in on Chattanooga."
Brightbridge is working on the project along with others in Alton Park which involve cleaning up former industrial sites and redeveloping them.
The Environmental Protection Agency grant would be used to assess and clean up the site, which runs from Workman Road to 38th Street, Thornton said.
Thornton said he did not know how much the city would pay for the property, or what the company may invest in the project.