ECD + TNInvestco (more)

A subcommittee of the General Assembly's government operations committee today voted in favor of extending the charter of the state's Economic and Community Development agency until 2017. Review of the State Comptroller's report on TNInvestco and other ECD programs, which have been cited by the Comptroller and ECD officials alike, as need improved administration and documentation, preceded the vote. Related VNC story here.

Accelerator briefing

Representatives of the 3 regional business accelerators in Middle Tennessee will meet with entrepreneurs Wednesday. Lunch is free if you sign-up in time to get a seat. Read the details here.

TTDC update

Tennessee Technology Development Corporation (TTDC) may eventually need to look for private funding for its operations. Update here.

TN co-investment coming

State ECD Commissioner Bill Hagerty is likely within 3 weeks or so to announce criteria for investors applying for a share of the nearly $30MM the State plans to make available for co-investment, in an initiative designed to increase early-stage capital. Tennessee Technology Development Corporation will serve purely as non-judicial administrator of the Hagerty-designed program. Here's an earlier related story on other items in Hagerty's portfolio.

Hagerty's to-do's

Bill Hagerty, ECD commissioner under Gov. Bill Haslam, has a long and growing economic-development to-do list. Notes here.

Hagerty TTDC Chair

The board of directors under Chairman Bill Evans, PharmD, this afternoon elected Haslam ECD Commissioner Bill Hagerty to serve through June 30, 2012, as chairman of TTDC. The story updated here.

Feds fund Haslam initiative

The U.S. Treasury came through with $29.7 million the Administration of Gov. Bill Haslam needs to breathe life into its INCITE innovation and economic development initiative, a cornerstone of the governor's Jobs4TN program. Details are here.

StartupTN: More will be revealed

The press conference and stakeholder briefing with Gov. Bill Haslam, SAm CEO Scott Case, ECD Commissioner Bill Hagerty and EC and ST CEO Michael Burcham at the Nashville Entrepreneur Center produced a good ration of energy this morning. A brief update on the matter is here. Responses to an RFI, solicited from would-be accelerator grants applicants, is due back to ECD by July 15.

Startup Tennessee draws Gov. Haslam, Startup America CEO Case

Startup Tennessee's launch will be celebrated tomorrow in Nashville, with help from Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam, Startup America CEO Scott Case, and others. It could be just the added ingredient the Tennessee entrepreneurial ecosystem has been needed. Time will tell. More here.

Haslam INCITE incites complaints

State Sen. Randy McNally (R-Oak Ridge) and Nashville tax-revolter Ben Cunningham, speaking in this morning's Tennessean, express concerns regarding Gov. Bill Haslam's INCITE program, through which ECD Commissioner Bill Hagerty hopes to get federal permission to use $30MM in federal funds to support co-investment in early-stage companies. If that permission isn't granted, the money might have to go to banks, instead. That, in turn, would eliminate one leg of the Haslam-Hagerty Incite program, and could jeopardize other parts of the plan, including the funding of incubators in some areas of the state. 'Could be coincidence, but McNally's concerns regarding transparency of the program could be partly a result of partly suppressed complaints in E.TN. about the fact no TNINvestco funds in that region were certified and little TNInvestco money has gone into firms in that territory. As we pointed-out in yesterday's NewsBits, The Knoxville News Sentinel opened further this can o' worms this weekend with a batch of stories. Also, as we reported May 23, Hagerty's agency rethought its release of TNInvestco investment-certification information and plans to release less info.

TN-N'ville Venture News

Our latest VentureNotes and NewsBits features include a couple dozen items on new ventures, a new Angel/VC fund, Venture INCITE, state and regional entrepreneurship and tech-transfer initiatives and more. Read it all here.

Fassbender at TN ECD

Paul Fassbender, a former aide to U.S. Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN-Chattanooga) is now assistant commissioner of Economic and Community Development under Commissioner Bill Hagerty. Read about it here.

NewsBits, April 25, 2011

JumpStart's squadron of mentors.. Haslam-Hagerty prepare to unveil innovation strategy.. Blackstone Group foundation support NC entrepreneurs network and much more here.

Jobs4TN via Haslam-Hagerty

Jobs4TN, the economic-development plan crafted by ECD Commissioner Bill Hagerty for Gov. Bill Haslam, was announced today in rough outline, including news of a 35% staff reduction at ECD and promise of a new senior leadership team for the agency. The release did not mention any logical ECD allies by name. As signalled earlier by both the governor and Hagerty, ECD's gameplan will rely heavily on leveraging existing sectoral strengths and regionally significant industrial bases, and will post basecamp liaisons across the state to help push urban and rural development, the latter being further boosted by the addition of a new senior post for rural development. No word yet on when details will be provided. Today's release is here.

TN ECD 'matrix'

'Sounds as though Economic and Community Development Commissioner Bill Hagerty is creating an input-output model of sorts, to project the impact on employment from incentives used to lure businesses to come Tennessee, or to stay put. Details may be out later this week, the TFP reports.

TN Angel Tax Credit?

The idea for a Tennessee Angel Investor Tax Credit has wings, but may or may not have legs. Read about it here.

TN Solar Farm green-lighted

Governor Bill Haslam and ECD Commissioner Bill Hagerty announced today that USDOE has completed its environmental review for the West Tennessee Solar Farm in Haywood County and found the project complies with federal regs. The 200-acre West Tennessee Solar Farm adjoining I-40 in Haywood County will be one of the largest solar installations in the Southeast. The farm will have more than 21,000 silicon-based photovoltaic modules producing more than 7,000,000 kilowatt hours of electricity annually. Development of the Solar Farm is being managed by the University of Tennessee which has contracted with Chattanooga-based Signal Energy as the project’s design/build firm. The project is part of the Volunteer State Solar Initiative, which uses ARRA dollars to create jobs and provide support to a growing solar industry. Under the VSSI, $31 million in ARRA funds will be used to install the Solar Farm and the Tennessee Solar Institute will use $23.5 million to issue grants from the Solar Opportunity Fund, a program designed to underwrite the installation of next generation energy efficiency systems by Tennessee businesses and to provide training, technology and technical assistance to companies in the solar industry value chain. VSSI also facilitates training of workers in new skills and the sharing of “best business practices” among businesses. Earlier background from VNC.

Haslam names Hagerty to key ECD Post

Gov.-Elect Bill Haslam announced 9 January his appointment of private-equity investment executive Bill Hagerty to be his commissioner of economic development. Read more on VNC here.