The Industrial Development Board (IDB) of Chattanooga, Tennessee, held its September meeting on September 9, 2026, to consider several economic development initiatives, including a new commercial corridor revitalization grant program, a TIF bond refinancing, a small business incentive grant, and the creation of a registered apprenticeship employer incentive fund. All resolutions were approved, with one board member expressing intent to abstain on the apprenticeship fund.
So we will go ahead and call the September meeting of the industrial development board for order. Check the focus with the comments. Thank you all for being here. The minutes are in our packets. Can I um return a motion for approval? Thank you. Thank you. Next, we'll move into our first resolution. This is a resolution approving the commercial corridor revitalization grant program and authorizing the administer of the development of economic at Department of Economic Development to enter into an agreement with the Chattanooga Area Regional Council of Governments to process applications and recommend funding to the Industrial Development Board for the commercial revitalization grant program for a period of two years with a fixed fee and the amount of 27,000 per year with two with a two-year renewal option. Thank you. Good morning. Hey, good morning. Well, so I'm Winston Brooks. It's great to be here today. I'm the director of Economic Development and Entrepreneurship. It's a pleasure to be here today to launch the Chattanooga Commercial Corridor Revitalization Grant program. No, that one works. Our program targets vital commercial corridors outside of the downtown footprint that the economic development team has been identifying and assessing. A corridor strategy was identified three years ago, and last year the city council authorized 1.3 million dollars to the industrial development board for this purpose. Today we're ready to begin deploying these funds directly to our small businesses. This effort is a true team sport, and we could not do this without the cooperation of the city council, the IDB, our internal departments, and our external organizations and partners such as the Tennessee Small Business Development Center and the Southeast Tennessee Development District, which is also known as the Chattanooga Area Regional Council of Governments. And I want to recognize one of our colleagues today, MLN Porter, who is here with us today. MLN is a business development specialist with SET D and an invaluable partner in this process. Our commercial corridors are the gateway to Chattanooga's neighborhoods, well kept storefronts, stabilize neighborhoods, protect local tax revenue, and directly advance our one Chattanooga goals of economic vitality and response of government. And today I quickly want to walk through the data that drove this program, give you an overview of the grant tiers, explain the eligibility, and preview our new application pipeline. And I'm gonna pause right there and give just a second to pull the document up here. Yeah. Fantastic. So as I said, we'll um run through the um quickly look at the overview of the grant tiers, explain eligibility preview our new application pipeline. So we did not design the program in a vacuum. It's blocked, it's uh backed by data and specifically the 2023 HRA study, which was named the economic development and economic development in Chattanooga, and it explicitly recommended that we activate our commercial corridors as the fastest way to support local entrepreneurs and build local neighborhood wealth. So with that roadmap in hand, um we are ready to help merchants breathe new life into their properties. And over the past couple of months, we've been assessing these corridors to understand what their needs are, and now we're ready to assist those corridors. So these are the four grant tiers. This is the high-level breakdown of the four funding tiers we've designed to create maximum impact. Signage and security cameras is the first level on the left-hand side of the screen there. Up to five thousand dollars. This covers updated exterior signage and places cameras that will sync directly with the CPD's Dragonfly Network and boost public safety. Next level is the facade grant, which um goes up to $10,000, and this is for street-facing structural cosmetic updates like windows, doors, and lighting. And then as you may know, if you go into these corridors, there are many vacant buildings, and so storefront activation is meant to activate these vacant storefronts, and that is a grant of up to $25,000, and it's specifically designed to fill these vacancies. It uses a formula to uh with $10 a square foot to get new businesses into empty spaces. And the highest level is what we call business retention, up to $50,000. Our highest tier using a $15 per square foot formula to help our existing legacy merchants grow and expand right where they are. The top tiers require more rigorous planning from the applicant because we want to ensure taxpayer dollars are invested wisely. And once an applicant consults with our department and gets approved, they have a strict nine-month window to finish the project. Each project will be evaluated on four clear standards. The location, which we've been working to identify the locations with our city council members. And those include MLK, Rossville Boulevard, Brainerd Road, Class Street, 38th Street, Highway Fix, Highway 58, Hicks and Pike, and we'll probably likely add a few more here and there as we move forward. The activation of the street, so we we want to activate the the street at the street level. We don't this project will not um repair roofs or things that cannot be seen from the street level.