Chattanooga is on the Leading Edge of the Recovery
By Tom Edd Wilson
Chamber President and CEO

According to a recent report from Moody’s www.economy.com, metro Chattanooga is among the local economies that moved from recession to recovery by the end of 2009, and our region is primed to outperform the national economy this year. In my mind, this positive forecast is a tribute to our local business community, which is led by you and our other Chamber members. Chattanooga’s economic resilience is a direct result of the daily toil of your companies in combination with the investments many of you made in Chattanooga CAN DO, the Chamber’s comprehensive job creation strategy. The Moody’s report said Volkswagen will drive our local economy to surge faster than others. I would add Alstom to that calculation. During the months leading up to the recession, hard work and providence resulted in the announcement of these two king-sized job creation projects, which established Chattanooga as a significant player in both the auto and power generation industries. Volkswagen and Alstom were team efforts. Governor Bredesen, Mayor Ramsey and Mayor Littlefield served as our quarterback and receivers. In our role as Chattanooga’s lead marketer and economic development project manager, the Chamber served as the offensive coordinator for the effort. We also took our place at the center of the line of scrimmage along with 50 other economic development partners to create the opportunity for our star players to score. The community-at-large and especially our Chattanooga CAN DO investors served as our team’s financial backers.

The Moody’s analysis also confirms the solidity of our economic foundation, noting that Chattanooga has experienced a smaller than average decline in employment. Even as the national economy reeled and our mega-projects had yet to begin production, our region held its own. That underlines the importance of the less glamorous components of our job creation strategy. Over the last year, 16 start-up companies graduated from our business incubator, members generated new revenue through connections made at our Business EXPO, and we directly assisted 11 companies (not counting Volkswagen or Alstom) in announcing new investments of $171.7 million to create 960 new jobs.

All of these facts demonstrate our successful track record as well as the need to continue aggressive job creation efforts. For decades, Chattanooga was a laggard in economic growth. Today we are a leader, but the years ahead present many challenges.

Neither individual companies nor regional economies can expect to succeed by following the playbooks established before the downturn. The Chamber will continue to play a pivotal role in supporting the growth of individual companies while proactively implementing big-picture economic development strategies.