Chamber of Commerce CEO Ethan Hadley spent Thursday in Nashville presenting Crossville’s case to receive a spec building grant.
The Site Development Grant Program could grant Crossville up to $5 million to be put toward building a 100,000-square-feet industrial spec building. The intent is to build the spec building to attract more industry to the city. Hadley said having Whisper Aero in Crossville has helped garner interest from unique industries.
“Whisper Aero has created this overlay,” Hadley said. “This neural, pretty much like a neural network. We are making more connections to companies and talent and capital that we have not had before.”
Hadley said he feels the presentation went well, and they should hear back about the grant in the coming weeks.
“I think we did what we needed to do,” Hadley said. “We present well as a community. We have a lot going on. We are in a state that is doing extremely well that is investing in future infrastructure, investing in workforce development, investing in communities. I think that the program itself shows the foresight of the state, and we were just happy to be able to be selected as a finalist to apply for this grant opportunity.”
Hadley said Crossville is doing its part in growing the region and the state.
“I think the future’s bright for Crossville, for the Upper Cumberland, for the state of Tennessee,” Hadley said. “There are a lot of people out there everyday that are thinking how do we make ourselves better and acting upon those thoughts and doing it, not in silos, but together. That’s the way you affect progress and real change and make our state more dynamic.”
Whisper Aero was also in Nashville making an announcement with other state and private organizations declaring their intent on making Tennessee a hub for technologically advanced transportation. Hadley said Whisper Aero makes presentations to investors and other companies across the country. He said by proxy that gives Crossville recognition.
“We’re front and center on a slide at a presentation making people aware ‘that’s in Tennessee, that’s somewhere in Tennessee, so we need to find out more about why this company is located there and what they’re doing there’, and it’s truly exciting that they have such a broad array of sponsors, investors, companies that are interested in working with them,” Hadley said.
Whisper Aero specializes in electric propulsion. The startup has been headquartered in Crossville since 2021.
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