Chamber breaks ground at new headquarters site
Bear Stephenson addresses the crowd after it is announced that he will give the Anderson County Chamber Foundation a $1 million donation to be used for the new headquarters. (photo:Dwayne Wilder )
The site, at North Charles G. Seivers Boulevard and West Weaver Street in Clinton, was donated to the chamber late last year by Joe Hollingsworth Jr., CEO of The Hollingsworth Companies, and was the second site chosen for the new chamber headquarters.
“The chamber has taken an increasingly more-powerful position in the community,” Hollingsworth said at Tuesday’s event. “And it’s hard for us not to recognize the changes. Now, they still do the ribbon-cuttings, but dang, they work hard to get new businesses in here. They work really hard to grow the existing businesses.
“This is just a reflection of what the community is doing,” he said. “But they’re leading the way.”
Also on hand to speak Tuesday morning was Clinton Realtor and auctioneer Bear Stephenson, who Meredith revealed at the event had donated $1 million toward the cost of the new chamber headquarters.
“It takes a community to make things happen,” Stephenson said. “And the reason I decided to do what I’m doing is because if I didn’t give it to the chamber, I’d blow it on something else. So I figured, ‘What the heck.’”
Tuesday’s event was also the second groundbreaking for the new headquarters, which originally was set to be built on a 1.17-acre tract on North Main Street at North Hicks Street.
The chamber bought the previously announced site on North Main Street in June 2022, and held a groundbreaking ceremony there in November 2022, but never actually began construction.
Earlier this year, the city of Clinton bought that tract from the Chamber of Commerce, and has since turned it into a new downtown parking lot. It’s also being used by parents dropping off and picking up kids at Clinton Elementary School.
The new headquarters site, which has an official address of 107 East Washington Ave., is next door to O’Reilly Auto Parts to the north and Y-12 Federal Credit Union, across West Weaver Street, to the south.
Meredith said in June that the chamber expected to finalize its contracts with lenders to finance the construction by mid-July, and to begin construction shortly thereafter.
Hollingsworth acquired the property in October 2023 from AM-PM Mart of Kentucky. It has been vacant for some time. Records show AM-PM Mart purchased the property in November 2012 for $220,000.
The new chamber site, which sits just east of the R.J. Corman Railroad line (formerly Norfolk Southern), was cleared, filled and leveled using concrete removed from the old Green Bridge in spring 2022.
Fill work was performed by one of Hollingsworth’s companies, Concept Developments Inc. of Clinton. Since that work was completed, the lot had been sitting empty.
Because the chamber was still raising money to pay for the new headquarters, construction had been delayed.
Hollingsworth officially donated the land to the Anderson County Chamber Foundation, which is leading the fundraising drive for the new headquarters.
The one-story headquarters building “will include a diversified room with up-to-date technology for training and videoconferencing, available for chamber members, nonprofits, and community partners,” a Chamber of Commerce announcement said in November.
“A welcoming lobby, a catering kitchen for events, and offices for chamber staff and Anderson County Economic Development Association are included in the building’s plans. MBI Companies, Inc., an architectural, engineering and interiors firm with offices in Knoxville and Chattanooga, designed the building and serves as project manager,” it said.