Rather than replace outgoing Economic Development Director Antranette Forbes with a staffer, the City of St. Cloud is turning to an outside consulting agency to drive the city forward.
The City Council met Monday for a special meeting to choose from one of six companies that responded to the city’s Request for Qualifications. Following three hours of presentations and dialogue, it voted to direct staff to negotiate with Goman+York Property Advisers LLC based out of Hartford, Conn., for a contract to handle the city’s economic development initiatives.
Goman+York Principal Mike Goman, who touted 45 years in the economic development industry at Monday’s meeting, is licensed as a Florida real estate broker and has lived in Florida for five years.
“Through my years of commercial real estate development, I kept seeing a need for cities to better understand what drove investment decisions on the part of developers and companies in selecting sites,” he said to the Council. “That’s something at Goman+York we bring to the table.”
He characterized his means of work “on a clean hands basis.” “We will never have a role as an owner or developer, we will always be working as a professional services firm,” he said. “Our goals and interests align with those of our clients. I learned years ago to understand the market at a granular level and make sure you’re addressing your position from market demand, and help implement that.”
Council member Kolby Urban asked about how Goman+York would address the deficiency of commercial development in the city.
“You’re in a normal evolution in the path of growth,” Goman said. “How best do you steer that growth, commercial growth, not the bedroom growth you have, to your advantage?”
Mayor Chris Robertson said the firm “checked every box” in a process that’s taken more than six months to select a firm.
“You understand what a lakefront community looks like,” Robertson told Goman. We all know what we’re looking for and what we’ve been lacking. Goman+York brings a wealth of experience … we haven’t had that kind of experience. It’s my vision that we don’t need someone to just market our city.
“Economic Development is a unique animal. (Goman) knows the difference between a developer and a company or industry that we want to locate here.”
Goman said his firm will have team members in the community over the first six months delving into what will work in St. Cloud.
“Four or five months into it, we’ll be having pretty deep conversations about what we see as opportunities,” he said. “Waterfront opportunities are hard to find and so many communities don’t utilize them in their stories.
“We like to meet with the public and tell them why some of the things they want won’t work in their market … A lot of listening and research.”
