Kingsport Economic Development Board

What Kingsport Economic Development Board does

Kingsport Economic Development Board (KEDB) is the municipal economic development entity for the City of Kingsport, Tennessee, operating out of 400 Clinchfield Street Suite 100. Its mission is to facilitate job creation, capital investment, and tax base growth by recruiting, retaining, and expanding industrial, commercial, and retail activity in the Kingsport/Tri-Cities market. KEDB serves prospective and existing businesses across industrial/advanced manufacturing, retail, real estate development, and small-business segments, with ex-officio participation from the City of Kingsport, NETWORKS Sullivan Partnership, and the State of Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development. Its core deliverable is a public-facing information and property-listing platform — anchored by the All Properties Property Search Tool — combined with hands-on facilitation services (Pre-development Meetings, Contact KEDB), economic-development incentive programs (Façade Grant, Redevelopment Grant, Downtown Kingsport Loan Program administered via NET EDC), and curated inventory across Downtown, Commercial, Industrial, and Fort Henry Mall categories.

The underlying technology stack is a modest municipal web platform (maintained by Golden Shovel Agency) with searchable property listings, online forms protected by Google ReCaptcha, and an RSS-enabled news feed. Differentiated physical infrastructure — not software — constitutes KEDB's true capability layer: Foreign Trade Zone 204, the Regional Center for Advanced Manufacturing (described as Tennessee's largest workforce training center), the multi-institution Academic Village campus, Tri-Cities Airport, and the Phipside Bend, Northeast TN Business Park, Brookside, Gateway Commerce, and Technology Park II industrial parks. Pricing is per-asset for listed sites (e.g., 21-Acre Redevelopment Site at $10,500,000) or administered through partners (NET EDC loan terms undisclosed), with many listings marked TBD or contact-only.

KEDB's business model is publicly funded economic-development facilitation rather than commercial revenue capture. It does not sell products or services in a conventional sense; instead it curates and markets real-estate inventory, partners with The Retail Coach for retail recruitment and with Hull Property Group for Fort Henry Mall tenanting, co-hosts the Northeast Tennessee Hiring Expo with NETWORKS Sullivan Partnership, and channels incentive capital through City of Kingsport grant programs and NET EDC's Downtown Kingsport Loan Program. Distribution combines direct enterprise outreach (led by Director Steven Bower) with channel-partner GTM (The Retail Coach, Hull Property Group), event-driven marketing (Hiring Expo), and self-serve property discovery on the KEDB website.

Name

Kingsport Economic Development Board

Legal name

Kingsport Economic Development Board

Website

https://kingsportecondev.org

Company type

Private

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Kingsport Economic Development Board (KEDB) is the City of Kingsport, Tennessee's municipal economic development entity. It curates industrial, commercial, downtown, and Fort Henry Mall property listings, runs incentive and loan programs, and recruits industrial, retail, and real-estate projects to the Tri-Cities market.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Municipal Economic Development Services

NAICS

Administration of Urban Planning and Community and Rural Development (92512), Offices of Real Estate Agents and Brokers (53121)

SIC

Real Estate Agents & Managers (For Others) (6531)

akta.pro primary industry

Economic Development & Business Licensing (Local) (BPAIACAN)

Keywords

• Economic development services
• Site selection assistance
• Industrial property listings
• Retail recruitment consulting
• Business incentive programs

Headquarters

HQ city

Kingsport

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Public economic development funding: KEDB operates as a public-sector economic development organization funded through governmental and public sources (no direct product/service revenue in the conventional sense). Its mission is to facilitate job creation, capital investment, and tax base growth rather than generate profit.
2. Property and real-estate facilitation: Curates and markets available industrial, commercial, downtown, and Fort Henry Mall properties — including listings such as the 21-Acre Redevelopment Site at $10,500,000 — and connects buyers/tenants with sellers. Indirect facilitation of transactions rather than direct revenue capture.
3. Downtown Kingsport Loan Program (via NET EDC): Partners with NET EDC to provide loan capital for downtown revitalization projects, functioning as a financial conduit for development activity.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

Kingsport Economic Development Board (KEDB) is a municipal economic development organization that recruits businesses to relocate to or expand within Kingsport, Tennessee. Its core offering combines curated real-estate listings (industrial parks, commercial sites, downtown storefronts, Fort Henry Mall inventory), incentive navigation (Façade and Redevelopment Grants, Downtown Kingsport Loan Program), workforce pipeline development (RCAM training, Academic Village), and personalized consultation through its Economic Development Director. KEDB also brokers site-selection support, Foreign Trade Zone 204 access, and city-department coordination across the relocation and expansion lifecycle.

Product overview

Kingsport Economic Development Board (KEDB) operates a public-facing information and property-listing platform rather than a single commercial software product. The core of the offering is the All Properties Property Search Tool, which centralizes commercial, industrial, and Fort Henry Mall listings (Downtown Properties, Commercial Properties, Industrial Properties, Fort Henry Mall) and feeds the broader economic development mission. Adjacent offerings include the Schedule a Pre-development Meeting and Contact KEDB service channels, the Life in Kingsport quality-of-life portal, and the News and Events feed. Specific listed real-estate sub-products include the 21 Acre Redevelopment Site, East Stone Commons, Green Acres Shopping Center, Kingsport Pavilion, Reedy Creek Terrace, Northeast TN Business Park, Technology Park II at Holston Army Ammunition Plant, and the Fort Henry Mall property. The platform also surfaces economic development incentive add-on programs — the Façade Grant Program, Redevelopment Grant Program, and Downtown Kingsport Loan Program — alongside master-planned community developments such as Brickyard Village.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• All Properties Property Search Tool
• Pre-development Meeting Scheduling
• Direct Consultation with KEDB Economic Development Director
• Façade Grant Program
• Redevelopment Grant Program
• Downtown Kingsport Loan Program
• Regional Center for Advanced Manufacturing (RCAM) Workforce Training Partnership
• Foreign Trade Zone 204 Access Coordination

Quantifiable outcome

• 21% lower cost of living than the US national average
• +5 more outcomes

Named customers3 records

Segments6 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration2 records

Feature4 records

Partnerships

Seven partnerships are on record, tiered core, flagship and minor.

• The Retail CoachcoreGTM or Marketing Partner · 11 February 2025Partnered to conduct retail recruitment for Kingsport, leveraging cell-phone analysis technology to identify and target national retailers and restaurants whose customer profiles align with Kingsport trade areas. The partnership directly supports Fort Henry Mall tenanting and downtown commercial revitalization. Announced February 11, 2025.
• NETWORKS Sullivan PartnershipcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCo-hosts the Spring Hiring Expo connecting Kingsport employers with regional job seekers and reinforcing the talent pipeline narrative that underpins KEDB's workforce value proposition.
• City of KingsportflagshipStrategic or Co-development PartnerDeep public-sector partnership providing KEDB with hands-on city-department support across permitting, infrastructure, and incentives for relocating and expanding businesses.
• Academic Village consortium (Northeast State, Milligan College, Lincoln Memorial University, East Tennessee State University, King University)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerFive higher-education institutions co-located on a six-building Academic Village campus, providing accelerated degree pathways, workforce credentialing, and talent pipeline support for Kingsport employers.
• Downtown Kingsport Association (Robin Cleary)coreGTM or Marketing PartnerJoint programming and co-marketing for downtown revitalization, festivals, and community events that drive foot traffic and support small-business tenants.
• Move to Kingsport (Jeff Fleming)minorGTM or Marketing PartnerResident/relocation-focused promotion targeting prospective residents and small-business owners considering Kingsport, amplifying the city's quality-of-life narrative.
• Hull Property Group (John Mulherin)coreChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorFort Henry Mall management partner executing tenanting strategy and the $5M+ mall renovation, with Rural King serving as anchor tenant.

Scale indicators11 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Regional players

• NET EDC: Northeast Tennessee economic development lender administering the Downtown Kingsport Loan Program; functions as an adjacent financial-incentive peer rather than a direct competitor, with comparable small-business lending products across the region.

Emerging players

• The Retail Coach: Nationwide retail recruitment and market research firm partnered with KEDB since February 2025; provides comparable Retail360 demographic and tenant-recruitment services to other municipalities and is increasingly a peer in the retail-attraction segment.

Direct peers

• Johnson City Economic Development Board: Twin-city economic development peer in the Tri-Cities region with overlapping laborshed, retail catchment, and industrial recruitment focus.
• Bristol Tennessee Industrial Development Board: Municipal economic development organization immediately adjacent to Kingsport in the Tri-Cities region; co-hosted the 2025 Northeast Tennessee Hiring Expo with KEDB and competes for overlapping industrial recruitment.
• Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce (Economic Development): Tennessee municipal economic development peer competing with Kingsport for Southeast industrial relocations and operating comparable property-listing and incentive programs.
• Greater Memphis Chamber (Economic Development): Tennessee municipal economic development peer with similar industrial-recruitment and incentive-administration scope, competing for the same Southeast capital deployments as Kingsport.
• Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce (Economic Development): Tennessee's largest municipal economic development organization, offering comparable industrial and retail recruitment services while competing with Kingsport for capital, talent, and corporate relocations.
• Knoxville Chamber (Knoxville Economic Development Alliance): Tennessee municipal economic development peer performing the same site-selection, industrial-recruitment, and incentive-negotiation functions for Knoxville, competing directly with Kingsport for advanced manufacturing and FTZ-adjacent projects.
• NETWORKS Sullivan Partnership: Regional workforce and economic development partner for Sullivan County / Kingsport; co-runs the Spring Hiring Expo and sits on the KEDB board via Clay Walker, with overlapping employer and incentive missions.

Broad incumbents

• Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development: State-level economic development authority that funds, supports, and oversees municipal boards like KEDB; Lynn Tully sits on KEDB as an ex-officio member, illustrating the direct operating relationship.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/kingsport-economic-development-board

Compliance1 record

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles17 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Kingsport Economic Development Board