We wanted to cater to the creative class.
A German company that came to Chattanooga to meet the information technology needs of one of the world's biggest carmakers is expanding to serve the city's growing start-up scene.
Honigsberg & Duvel Corp., headquartered in Wolfsburg, Germany, opened an office in the city five years ago to help with the Volkswagen plant's IT operations. Now, it has embarked on an initiative to additionally service small and medium firms locally and nationally from the Scenic City.
H&D has shifted into updated office space in downtown's Innovation District to better serve its potential new client base, said Brandon Miller, its vice president for business development in the city.
"Concentrating businesses is good for us," he said about the plans for the district. "There will be a lot of clients within walking distance. We'd be crazy not to be here."
H&D has leased about 3,000 square feet from Fidelity Trust Co. in newly done office space at Seventh and Market streets above what was the Waldenbooks store for many years.
The business, with Chattanooga as its U.S. home office, has typically helped large companies such as VW with IT needs and its employees usually work on site. The company has 77 employees across the country, though only about 13 in Chattanooga. Half of those work at the VW plant, Miller said.
But under the new effort dubbed IT Forward, company officials are reaching out to the small and medium business sector. Within three years, Miller said he'd like IT Forward itself to be up to 100 employees.
Heiko Juerges, H&D's local CEO, said that with the city's ultra-fast Internet and intensive efforts to grow more tech and other kinds of businesses, he sees Chattanooga as "the Silicon Valley of the South."
Juerges, who came from Germany to start the Chattanooga office, said he has seen a lot of changes in the city over the past five years. He'd like small business to become half of H&D's revenue, said Juerges, also the new director of the Tennessee Chapter of the German-American Chamber of Commerce of the Southern U.S.
Matt McGauley, Fidelity Trust Co.'s president, said the H&D office space was designed to appeal to the millennials who are creating many of the start-up companies. It features open rooms, refinished wood floors and other trendy amenities. For example, the H&D office has a 75-foot long white board on one wall, which McGauley guessed is the biggest in the city.
Fidelity, which owns about 90,000 square feet in the city's core, has invested to update other space in a similar manner, he said.
"We wanted to cater to the creative class," McGauley said.
Miller said the aim is to become the IT department of many of the small companies H&D is seeking to serve. He said H&D has seven or eight clients working with IT Forward.
"I don't see any reason to slow down," Miller said.
The Edney Building a few blocks away from H&D at Market and 11th streets has become the hub of the Innovation District, which covers 140 acres of the central city.
The district, lauded by Mayor Andy Berke, is seen as connecting entrepreneurs, creative types and existing businesses to grow companies.
Contact Mike Pare at mpare@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6318.