Small business owners petition to save Hamilton County Business Development Center | Local News

Small business owners are left with more questions than answers as the County Commission discusses the fate of the Hamilton County Business Development Center.

A resolution on the commissioner’s agenda states, “A Resolution to declare the property located at 100 Cherokee Boulevard, Chattanooga, Tennessee, owned by Hamilton County, as surplus property, and to authorize its disposal in accordance with applicable law and policy.”

Opponents have started a change.org petition with more than a thousand signatures.

The county commission is set to discuss this resolution on Wednesday at 5:00pm.

An owner who currently occupies a space inside the center says they learned of the news only three days ago.

“We first found out about this on Monday at 3:00pm when we had the Chief of Staff for Mayor Wamp come by, as well as the Head of Public Works, and we were told specifically that the maintenance costs of this building were too high,” said Chantz Yanagida, co-founder of Protoproof.

Shortly after receiving the news, Yanadiga created a petition to help save the center, which now has over 1,000 signatures.

County Commissioner Lee Helton confirmed over the phone with Local 3 News, the building’s high maintenance ticket, and the headache from those expenses. Helton also confirmed that if they plan to move forward with this resolution, business owners would not have to move out overnight, describing it as a slow transition.

Yanagida tells Local 3 News that this potential move could cost their business millions of dollars. The cost of moving equipment and finding a new location could also result in the loss of clients.

“Collectively, this is going to cost us hundreds of 1000s, if not millions, said Yanagida. “We have several of our businesses right here that do federal contracts right now across all departments, Department of Health, Department of War and like, and all of them right now are sweating at the idea that, wow, we were completely banking all of our investment and support into getting these contracts, and now with an address move, it pretty much is setting all of those to  be, unfortunately rejected, just because we will not have a sustainable place that’s been verified.”

Another business, One-Off Robotics, has been stationed inside the center for six years. Co-founder, Tony DeSanto, praised the support and services provided by the INCubator and center and hopes it sticks around for other small businesses to utilize its resources.

“We started with a small suite upstairs. We built one or two robotic systems in there, which we then were able to get a larger space,” said DeSanto. “As a business, it’s been absolutely invaluable for our growth over the years. I would really like to see this building continue to stay the Business Development Center and the incubator. It’s a great building and a great location for us,” said DeSantos.

Helton said this potential change would help improve the business program, and the county would continue providing support with a goal to help scalable businesses.