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big challenges to grow the economy
Chattanooga developed its fame in industrial history as a crossroads of trade and a mega manufacturing hub in the south. Moving the economy from its roots in the past to new foundations for the future economy is an effort that has taken place over some thirty years.
As Director of Economic Development for U.S. Senator Bob Corker when he was Mayor of Chattanooga, CEO Amy Walker Cherry got a chance to contribute to this evolution. The agenda for growth and change was large: Over $30 M in new federal incentives were ditributed to the private sector to stimulate growth in revitalization areas of the city; the Master Plan, branding and recruitment targets defined for the area's largest industrial mega site (now the site of Volkswagen's only US automotive manufacturing site announced in 2008); working with Computational Engineers from Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Chattanooga became the first city in our state to establish a major fiber optic link with the Natiional Lab's supercomputer, enabling supercomputing power for university and related research endeavors; successful recruitment and development of Computational Engineering program for the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga expanded the city's goals for increasing the number of trained persons for higher paying jobs; creation of a new multi-million dollar business loan fund for minority and women-owned businesses; facilitation and gaining the first funding for a demonstration fuel cell technology project with K.R. Sridhar, now of Bloom Energy, in Silicon Valley and more ...
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local merchants: still left out
While gratifying to achieve some "big" wins for the local economy, the local merchant community continued to struggle and were often left out of larger development plans in the community. After leaving City Hall, Amy formed Buy it Local, LLC in 2005 to begin to identify issues undermining local merchant success and to begin researching and creating practical tools to help them grow. In Buy it Local's research, we discovered the problems our merchants face are similar to those in communities across the US.
In 2005-2007 we began focusing on business tools and technology we could transfer from the private sector to community efforts that would help support local commerce. We focus on solutions that can be scalable, measurable, simple to use and cost effective.
We develop Tools
to GrowYour
Local Economy
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Our mission:
to connect shoppers
with local merchants
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