Between 20 and 25 successful businesses are projected to start up in Chattanooga each year following a $2 million investment from Hamilton County.
The Chattanooga Business Development Center used the money, supplemented with $2.9 million of state and federal grants, to renovate its Cherokee Boulevard location in North Chattanooga. The 127,000-square-foot campus now hosts state-of-the-art conference rooms, economically friendly windows and lights and a heating and air conditioning system which, unlike the old system, can actually serve the entire building.
“With all of this, it’s going to bring an entirely new dynamic to startup businesses,” said Tom Edd Wilson, president of the Chattanooga Chamber of Commerce which operates the center. “It’s a huge deal.”
The business incubator leases office or industrial space to entrepreneurs at below-market rates and provides business training for about three years as startup businesses get off the ground. Each month, advisers meet with business owners in fields as varied as attorneys and military tomahawk manufacturers to make sure their operations are running smoothly.
With a maximum occupancy of 60 businesses, Hamilton County’s Business Development Center is the largest small business incubator in Tennessee and the third largest in the country.