Tom Edd Wilson	- Download MP3-

When Chattanooga’s small business incubator was created 20 years ago, its settling in at a former North Shore manufacturing building helped revitalize the area.

Today, the Business Development Center sits amid one of the city’s hottest real estate markets and officials are considering other sites with more space.

“Long term, we’d like to move it to a different facility — somewhere that would be more efficient and we’d have more parking,” Hamilton County Mayor Claude Ramsey said Thursday.

But a new location hasn’t been picked, he said. When the BDC moves, it will have the same mission of helping entrepreneurs grow their dreams into money-making enterprises, Mr. Ramsey said.

Since it was spawned in 1988, the facility has hosted more than 500 companies, of which 434 still exist or were sold, said Kathryn Foster, who directs the incubator for the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce.

Gross wages generated in the facility last year equaled $7.5 million, she said.

Staff Photo by Allison Kwesell -- Roger Halligan applies an oil treatment to the steel base of Bow Echo, a concrete and steel statue that he has been working on for three months in his studio at the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Business Development Center.

“That’s pumping a lot of money into the local economy,” Ms. Foster said.

Ms. Foster said there are only a few vacant spots at the Cherokee Boulevard building, and interest has been brisk over the past few months.

Carlton Rose, president of HLR Healthcare Resources, said his business moved into the BDC in November because of the services and support it offers start-ups.

“It takes time to grow the business,” he said. “This gives us a good safe haven.”

The BDC offers new companies office or manufacturing space at below-market rental rates. Also, tenants have access to clerical support as well as fax, copier and postal machines.

In addition, the Tennessee Small Business Center office has a business library, computer and video centers along with counseling services for free.

Jan Chenoweth, owner of Two Oaks Studio with husband, Roger Halligan, said they relocated from North Carolina in connection with Chattanooga’s Arts Move program and shifted into the BDC in August.

“The support there is phenomenal,” she said. “They’re geared up to help us succeed. They make you feel anything’s possible.”

Tom Edd Wilson, the Chamber’s chief executive, said the BDC is one of the largest of its kind in the country offering 125,000 square feet of space.

He said it would be “a pretty large company” if its tenants were considered as one business.

Business Development Center

* Location: 100 Cherokee Blvd.

* Opened: 1988

* Businesses started: More than 500

* Current companies: 53

* Company employees: More than 400

Source: BDC