Roswell economic development team details Q1 work, SEER contract and projects including Hill Street and PBS Aerospace

City staff delivered a quarterly economic development update and described how a master services agreement with SEER World LLC supports deal origination, due diligence and implementation for major redevelopment projects.

Jeff Leatherman, senior vice president leading the city's economic development work, reviewed the city's sector strategy and geographic priorities (downtown, Midtown, Uptown and the East Side). He said Roswell's challenges include limited commercial land, aging commercial stock and competition from nearby municipalities, and staff described tools being used to attract and structure redevelopment (tax allocation district, redevelopment authority, tax abatements and targeted infrastructure investment such as Big Creek Parkway).

Leatherman outlined active projects SEER is supporting under a master services agreement with a $2,000,000 authorized limit (scheduled to reset in 2025). He said as of December 2024 about $583,000 remained in the contract for scopes not yet encumbered; scope-of-work item 7 (communications work) added $97,000 in Q1 2025 and the contract balance decreased accordingly. Leatherman said some initial scopes (site utilization plan, parking business model) closed out in December 2024.

Leatherman emphasized a project lifecycle the city is using—origination, preliminary due diligence, letter of intent, formal due diligence and implementation—and explained that large projects (he used Hill Street as an example) can require many separate agreements and deliverables during negotiation. He described partnerships with the Roswell Development Authority, Select Fulton, Georgia Power, GDOT and state economic development partners.

Leatherman highlighted results and near-term work: PBS Aerospace has located in Roswell and staff projected about 150 jobs; the public safety center purchase reportedly produced $11 million in savings off the original listing price, which Leatherman attributed to legal and SEER negotiation work; and staff said they will develop a public-facing scorecard to measure outcomes (jobs, capital investment, fiscal benefit) for economic development projects.

Councilmembers asked about scope-of-work 1, which had been broad and was being broken into narrower scopes to improve accountability and tracking. Staff said that moving forward the team will define deliverables and report on progress each quarter. Council and staff discussed intake for prospective projects and points of contact; Leatherman said initial intake is through economic development staff and Daryl Connolly, the economic development director, with referrals from other departments as needed.

Leatherman said the city will continue to refine its contract scopes, public reporting and tools such as the TAD policies. He said SEER work is intended to be iterative and to transition work to city staff where feasible as the department builds capacity. No procurement vote was required at the committee meeting; staff will return with quarterly updates.