HHM to restore downtown Cleveland building for growing CPA firm's third office

Staff Photo by Robin Rudd / From left, Adam Osborne, Partner, Chattanooga Office (will be the Managing Partner of the Cleveland Office when complete), Amy Donahue, vice president of marketing for HHM, Beverly Edge, COO, General Counsel and Partner, Chattanooga Office, and Donnie Hutcherson, Managing Partner, Chattanooga Office, are pictured in front of the future Cleveland office. HHM, Henderson Hutcherson & McCullough CPAs, is expanding into Cleveland with a office to be established in a planned renovation on East Inman Street.
Staff Photo by Robin Rudd / From left, Adam Osborne, Partner, Chattanooga Office (will be the Managing Partner of the Cleveland Office when complete), Amy Donahue, vice president of marketing for HHM, Beverly Edge, COO, General Counsel and Partner, Chattanooga Office, and Donnie Hutcherson, Managing Partner, Chattanooga Office, are pictured in front of the future Cleveland office. HHM, Henderson Hutcherson & McCullough CPAs, is expanding into Cleveland with a office to be established in a planned renovation on East Inman Street.

Chattanooga's biggest accounting firm is expanding into Bradley County with a new office next year in the heart of Cleveland's oldest and quickly redeveloping part of downtown.

HHM, which celebrated its 40th anniversary earlier this month, announced Friday that it has purchased an abandoned car dealership and office next to the Museum Center at 5ive Points and will convert the 2-story structure into its third company office.

"We have a number of our employees and clients who are already here in Bradley County and we see a lot of opportunity for further growth in Cleveland," said Adam Osborne, a lifelong Cleveland resident who joined HHM 13 years ago after graduating from Lee University.

When the 7,000-square-foot structure is renovated and converted into offices and an outside garden, the new facility should house about 10 HHM accountants and other staffers. Osborne will serve as its managing partner.

Beverly Edge, the chief operating officer at HHM, said the CPA firm is spending about $1.5 million to buy, repair and upgrade the building, which she expects to be complete by next summer.

"We like to fix things and, as you can see, this needs some fixing work," said Donnie Hutcherson, one of the four founding partners of HHM who started the firm in 1981. "This is a great site in the heart of the city and we think we can help in the redevelopment of this area."

Hutcherson helped convince his partners to move into the Freight Depot in downtown Chattanooga nearly two decades ago. About 150 workers for HHM now work out of the renovated Freight Depot. Another 50 employees work at HHM's office in Memphis, which the firm added in 2017 when it merged with the CPA firm of Brundige Payne & Co. PC

The new investment in Cleveland is part of the city's efforts to revive a number of older structures with office and residential development in Cleveland's downtown.

HHM at a glance

* CPA firm started in 1981* The firm has about 200 employees, including 150 at its Chattanooga headquarters* Inside Public Accounting ranks HHM as the 110th biggest CPA firm in the country with $39.1 million in net revenues last year* The firm has offices in Chattanooga and Memphis and next year will add an office in Cleveland

As HHM was announcing its plans for renovating one of the Inman Street storefronts Friday, workers just a block away were beginning the restoration of the 40,000-square-foot Sanda Mill building for 53 new downtown apartments. Two blocks up the street, the city has also begun marketing efforts to find a buyer to renovate and upgrade the former Cherokee Hotel, a 7-story brick building at Inman and Ocoee Streets.

Joe Fivas, city manager for the city of Cleveland, said the city is offering property tax breaks and freezes to spur some of the redevelopment. But he said the growth of Lee University only a few blocks away and the cleanup and reuse of former plans and mills in the area are creating a new urban vibrancy in Cleveland.

"The city council and mayor really appreciate the investment and plans that HHM has for this area, along with the other new developments we are seeing downtown," Fivas said. "There are a lot challenges to these kinds of developments, but we see a great opportunity here."

Contact Dave Flessner at dflessner@timesfreepress.com or at 423-757-6340.

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