The first midsized city to have an Innovation District will wait a little longer to see it come to fruition.
A private developer had been expected to own the district’s hub, the Edney Building, by late February, but negotiations are still underway.
“We are finalizing those now,” said Ken Hays, president of the Enterprise Center, the nonprofit organization that Chattanooga Mayor Andy Berke charged with spearheading the project a year ago. Hays on Wednesday said he hopes to “announce details” of the deal in the next several weeks.
Co.Lab’s move into the building also has been delayed. The nonprofit business accelerator currently located in the city’s Southside neighborhood had planned to move in this month as the anchor tenant, eager to host its summer GigTank event there. That probably will happen this fall.
Innovation Districts, touted by the Brookings Institution, are meant to provide “collision opportunities” for entrepreneurs. The Washington D.C.-based think tank, which inspired Berke to pursue creation of a local district, describes them as “geographic areas where leading-edge anchor institutions and companies cluster and connect with start-ups, business incubators and accelerators. They are also physically compact, transit-accessible, and technically-wired and offer mixed-use housing, office, and retail.”