Mickey Cloud, vice president of VaynerMedia, is photographed in the new offices of the digital media marketing and advertising company Thursday, Nov. 5, 2015, in the Loveman's Building in downtown Chattanooga. The company also has offices in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Online
For more information on the Innovation District, visit www.chainnovate.com.
Chattanooga economic development officials Tuesday announced grants for two companies that have pledged to create 235 new jobs in the city's downtown Innovation District.
Coyote Logistics, which acquired Access America in 2014 and itself was acquired by United Parcel Service last year, is adding 160 jobs in Chattanooga, Economic Development Deputy Administrator Nick Wilkinson said at a City Council meeting Tuesday afternoon.
VaynerMedia, a New York-based advertising firm that opened an office in Chattanooga last July with only a dozen employees, plans to expand downtown to 75 employees over the next three years. VaynerMedia employs about 600 people nationwide.
The two companies qualify for a city grant of $250 for each new job created, for a total of $58,750, Wilkinson said. The funds will be paid only when the jobs are actually created. The median salary for the new jobs will be above $50,000, he said.
Coyote Logistics employs about 2,000 people in 16 offices, with headquarters in Chicago. The company provides brokerage and transportation management services to more than 14,000 shippers.
"As Coyote Logistics has grown across the country, Chattanooga has proved to be an incredible place to attract top talent and a great city to make this investment," said Jeff Silver, CEO and co-founder of Coyote.
Coyote officials said the company has room to expand in its current offices on the third and fourth floors of Warehouse Row on Market Street.
In response to a question, VaynerMedia's Mickey Cloud explained how his firm decided last year to add Chattanooga to its existing offices in San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York City.
"We were looking to get into the heartland of America where there are opportunities for different clients who are not representative of how people live in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco," Cloud said. "We were blown away by the entrepreneurial spirit and the enthusiasm everyone has for the Innovation District."
Established a little over a year ago, the Innovation District is a mix of startup businesses and business incubators, anchored by the Edney Innovation Center, which houses accelerator CO.LAB, the Enterprise Center and the Society of Work.
Contact reporter Steve Johnson at sjohnson@timesfreepress.com, 423-757-6673, on Twitter @stevejohnsonTFP, or on Facebook, www.facebook.com/noogahealth.