St. Cloud interviews economic-development consultants, council presses for jobs and project management

The St. Cloud City Council on Wednesday interviewed three firms competing for RFQ 2025209 to provide economic-development consulting services, pressing applicants to show how they would deliver short-term job leads, manage existing projects and connect the city nd its land assets to new employers.

Mike Scholl, national economic-development lead for Ayers Associates, outlined a partnership that includes Metro Forecasting and Arnett Muldrow and said the firm brings developer relationships and proprietary market tools such as ESRI Business Analyst and CoStar. "I always say, if you control the land, you control your future," Scholl said, arguing that identifying developable ground and linking it to developers is central to recruitment.

Laura Smith, urban analytics director with GAI Consultants, said her Central Florida firm would begin with a market diagnostic and public engagement to assess why St. Cloud is currently a "bedroom community" and where commercial opportunities best fit. "Starting there and really absorbing that, understanding where you are," Smith said, "lets us build recommendations you can track against benchmarks such as occupancy and leasing rates."

A Goma New York presenter emphasized implementation and underwriting rather than only producing reports. "We don't want to be a planning firm," the presenter said. "We want to be there to help implement it and be held accountable for it." The Goma team also said it would combine deep data subscriptions with boots-on-the-ground field work to identify specific sites and move deals forward.

Council members repeatedly framed the city's priorities as short-term job creation, not more retail, and an immediate need for hands-on project oversight. Council member Urban and others warned that St. Cloud, with roughly 71,000 residents discussed in the meeting, must produce tangible results during the council—our-year terms. One council member pointed to an existing pipeline of projects and asked consultants how many proposals or employer prospects they could produce within the first six months.

Applicants proposed different emphases: Ayers highlighted developer-facing connections and retail/redevelopment experience; GAI stressed market studies, opportunity-zone prospectuses and public-engagement tactics; and Goma emphasized negotiating development agreements, vetting sponsors and active project management. All three firms said they could tailor early workplans to the council's stated day‑one objectives.

Council members also raised city-specific assets the firm should use, including the recent update to the city—uture land use map, the CRA-led lakefront project and proximity to NeoCity, which councils and presenters described as a source of skilled workers and spin-off business opportunities. The mayor and deputy mayor noted a separate downtown P3 and a CRA contribution toward a parking garage; during the meeting council members referenced roughly $6,000,000 toward that garage.

No formal selection or vote occurred at the workshop. The council paused between presentations and scheduled additional interviews later in the day. Council members emphasized they want a consultant who can move deals forward and act as an "in-house but out-of-house" partner to manage a long list of active projects and produce measurable leads in the near term.

The council resumed interviews after an hourlong break; the RFQ process will continue as the city evaluates proposals and follow-up materials from each firm.