posted February 27, 2008
The Chattanooga-Hamilton County Business Development Center will celebrate its 20th anniversary on March 6 with an open house from 4-6 p.m. The public is welcome to attend.
The BDC is a business incubator owned by Hamilton County and managed by the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce.
Located at 100 Cherokee Boulevard, the 125,000-square-foot former ceramic manufacturing facility houses 53 start-up companies, with more than 400 in-house and contracted employees.
“Since it opened in 1988, more than 500 businesses have started in the BDC and 434 still exist or have sold to another entrepreneur,” said Kathryn Foster, Chamber director of small business and entrepreneurship and director of the BDC. “Collectively they have employed thousands of Chattanoogans.”
Ms. Foster said the BDC generated $7.5 million in gross wages during 2007. “That’s pumping a lot of money into the local economy,” she said.
The facility, the largest business incubator under one roof in the state and the third largest in the country, was honored by the National Business Incubation Association as the Incubator of the Year in 1997.
Among the BDC businesses and entrepreneurs honored over the years are:
·Bentco Office Solutions which won the 2004 NASA Kennedy Space Center HUBZone Subcontractor of the Year Award
·Financial Solutions Network, recipient of the SBA Minority Small Business Advocate Award in 2004
·Kris Simmons, head of Fire Eye Productions, which has since moved to offices on 8th Street, was the Tennessee SBA Young Entrepreneur of the Year in 2004.
The BDC offers start-up businesses office or manufacturing space at below-market rental rates. Tenants have access to BDC clerical support, fax machine, copier and postage machine. The Tennessee Small Business Development Center, which has offices in the BDC, provides a business library, computer and video centers, and business counseling services, available to BDC entrepreneurs, free of charge.
“Some people who are starting a business by themselves or with one partner may think they’re too small or too young to locate their company in the BDC,” Ms. Foster said. “Nothing could be further from the truth. No business is too small or too young to become a part of the incubator.”
Ms. Foster, who has more than 13 years of experience working with chambers of commerce, joined the Chattanooga Area Chamber in 2005 as events coordinator and served as membership development manager prior to her new appointment.
“The BDC frequently hears from alumni who attribute their success to the good start they received here,” Ms. Foster said. “Paul McKee of McKee Foods was a tenant here twice and he wrote us a glowing letter about how much he appreciated the opportunity to grow his business skills with other energetic people.”
"The Chattanooga Area Chamber delivers a range of resources for new businesses through the many services at the BDC," said Chamber President and CEO Tom Edd Wilson. "BDC businesses play an incredibly important role in growing our local economy."
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