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Monday, November 2, 2026Nov 2

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Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce clarifies who passed on $3 billion project

A Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce representative issued a statement saying it was the chamber, not Hamilton County Mayor Weston Wamp, that chose not to submit McDonald Farm for a potential $3 billion pharmaceutical project.

Chamber CEO Charles Wood said the chamber issued the statement Tuesday to clarify, after some local editorials had made it sound like it was the mayor’s decision.

“We were responding to an opinion piece that was not accurate,” Wood told the Chattanooga Times Free Press. “What I communicated during the commission meeting was that the site could have been ready if the rezoning was approved in 2024 and sewer design moved forward as part of the water project currently under construction.”

The timing was not feasible by the time the chamber received the project request for information earlier this year because the county stopped the rezoning process and had not moved forward with sewer design, Wood said.

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