The Q Strategies team worked with Noon Development and Steam Logistics to announce the beginning of construction on Steam’s new headquarters at 328 Broad St. The team organized a groundbreaking ceremony by contracting event vendors, securing elected officials to speak at the press conference, and creating and distributing a media advisory and press release.
Steam’s future headquarters, which was recently purchased by Noon Development LLC, has been boarded up for years. The complete overhaul of the building will transform the block, which sits at a pivotal entry point into the city of Chattanooga. The project will also inject an investment of nearly $7 million into downtown Chattanooga, and Steam Logistics plans to hire 400 employees over the next five years.
The ceremony was successful, demonstrated by more than 100 people attending the Feb. 8 event and the Q team securing six media placements. Elected officials and community leaders spoke at the ceremony, including City of Chattanooga Mayor Tim Kelly, Hamilton County Mayor Jim Coppinger, Tennessee Senator Todd Gardenhire, Congressman Chuck Fleischmann, and Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce President Christy Gillenwater. News Channel 12 attended the event, covering the ceremony and groundbreaking.
The team thoroughly worked out the details of the event by creating a run-of-show outlining the schedule, hiring Kathleen Greeson to take professional photos, providing food through Apron Strings Catering, reaching out to B’s Sweets to create custom Steam logo cookies, ordering custom baseball caps as favors from Flywheel Brands, securing a bartender to serve beer and wine, contracting a set-up and sound crew, and decorating the tables with tablecloths and floral arrangements.
For the groundbreaking ceremony, the team ordered hard hats and sledge hammers that were used during the groundbreaking ceremony and for photoshoots with Steam employees and ceremony speakers. The hard hats displayed logos from Steam Logistics and Noon Development. The team printed a large banner that was dropped from the top of the building after the first brick was hammered.
Due to media outreach efforts, the event gained publicity, including online articles and television airtime. Before the event, the team pitched the press conference to local media outlets, leading to News Channel 12 attending the event and airing coverage. Additionally, the team sent out a press release following the event, securing media placements with online articles from Chattanooga Times Free Press, News Channel 9, and News Channel 12.
Noon Development’s LinkedIn post on the project received more than 6,000 impressions, a record for the B2B focused developer. Collectively, multiple posts and photos of the story on LinkedIn received more than 20,000 impressions for the project. Visitors to the Noon page were up 200% and received hundreds of interactions. Q Strategies posted all media coverage of the event, and the Times Free Press coverage trended under the #chattanooga hashtag for several hours.
Do you need help making an expansion announcement or holding a press conference? Contact Kelly Allen at kallen@qstrategies.com to get started.
Learn more about Steam Logistics and Noon Development.
Online earned media:
New Steam Logistics building celebrated with ceremony
by: Jordan Simal, WDEF News Channel 12
Steam Logistics held a groundbreaking ceremony this afternoon for its new downtown headquarters at 328 Broad Street. Read more.
Makeover starts for Steam Logistics new downtown Chattanooga headquarters
by: Mike Pare, Chattanooga Times Free Press
Steam Logistics, one of the fastest-growing companies in Chattanooga in one of the city's highest-flying business sectors, on Friday dubbed its planned new downtown headquarters "the Steam Center." Read more.
Steam Logistics breaks ground on future Chattanooga headquarters
by: WTVC News Channel 9
Steam Logistics broke ground on Friday at its future Chattanooga headquarters, which the company anticipates will bring in 400 employees over the next five years, according to a press release. Read more.
Steam Logistics breaks ground on Broad Street headquarters
by: Hamilton County Herald, Front Page
Steam Logistics broke ground this month on its future headquarters at 328 Broad Street. The company states it anticipates adding 400 employees during the next five years. Read more.
Two weeks later, the story was still earning media mentions:
TVFCU building in downtown Chattanooga sold for $4 million
by: Mike Pare, Chattanooga Times Free Press
Just last week, Noon Development started work on the makeover of the John Ross Building, also downtown at 328 Broad St. Read more.
Noon Development Purchases Tennessee Valley Federal Credit Union Headquarters Downtown
by: Chattanoogan.com
Noon Development LLC announced the commencement of the 328 Broad St. renovation, the 60,000 square-foot future headquarters of Steam Logistics, last week, and recently completed the first new construction at The Bend, which brings additional medical office space to Chattanooga. Read more.
