The Hamilton County Commission on Wednesday voted unanimously to declare as surplus the Hamilton County Business Development Center, the county facility that houses the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce’s business incubator program.
Before the vote, County Mayor Weston Wamp told commissioners for the first time that the sale of the building is necessary to fund a new business incubator facility on the third and fourth floors of the Franklin-Roberts Future Ready Center that’s planned at a former BlueCross BlueShield building at Gateway Avenue and West M.L. King Boulevard.
“The third and fourth floors will be paid for by the proceeds of the sale of the BDC,” Wamp said. “That’s the reason that we felt like this makes sense, is that you have an opportunity to sell the facility and use funds that were set aside for the BDC.”
The commission in February 2025 authorized Wamp to spend about $5 million to renovate the Business Development Center. Those renovations did not happen.
“There’s an opportunity to create something that’s ours and that’s tailored to needs of start-ups today, and then there’s something I care more about, and that is that if we will be so bullish to locate our incubator where there’s ample parking closer to the central business district, I think it will open up pathways to students,” Wamp said.