A group of local investors have bought the Edney Building, the hub for Chattanooga’s newly created Innovation District.
Jimmy White and Chuck Chitty led the team and closed on the sale last week, according to Ken Hays, president of the Enterprise Center, the nonprofit organization overseeing the district.
The property, which the Tennessee Valley Authority had owned for about 65 years, sold for $1.35 million, Hays said. That was the minimum purchase price required, Hays said in January, when Chattanooga Mayor Andy Berke and Hamilton County Mayor Jim Coppinger announced the district’s geographic outline.
Reached by phone Thursday, Chitty declined to comment on the sale. Talon Office Opportunities GP, for which the Tennessee Secretary of State listed Chitty as the registered agent, earlier this year purchased a tract of land off of Riverfront Parkway from Alstom Power for $3.5 million.
Berke in April 2014 charged the Enterprise Center with creating the Innovation District. A year to the month later, during his State of the City address, he lauded the Edney Building as “the cornerstone of our Innovation District and our new economy,” noting that a team of local developers now owned the building.