Developer: Albany project ‘heart-driven’

ALBANY — Brandon Riddick-Seals brings a high level of energy to everything he does. It was natural, then, that the Atlanta-based developer take point in presenting Albany Development Partners’ unique proposal to turn energy savings into investment capital as a way to kick-start redevelopment of Albany’s flagging downtown district.

But being one of the driving forces in the proposed development plan is about more than dollars and cents for Riddick-Seals, who worked with lobbyist Rufus Montgomery to put together the Albany Development Partners team hoping to use the dinosaur-istic Albany Civic Center as a starting point for development. In the time he’s taken to conduct feasibility research and meet with officials in the city, Riddick-Seals has discovered a community much like the one he calls home.

“I am, first, a businessman,” Riddick-Seals said during a recent conversation with The Albany Herald. “I’ve partnered on deals north of $1 billion, so this is not a new experience for me. But as for being the head of the leadership team, yes, this is maybe one of the top three to five projects that I’ve been a part of. So this obviously is important to me.

“But what I’ve found in doing the due diligence required to determine the feasibility of this project is that it’s become very much a heart-driven endeavor for me. I see a lot of the smaller-town roots of how I was raised by a educator mother and a father in the construction business. I was raised in Enterprise, Alabama, and I see a lot of my hometown in Albany. I feel like I’m coming home here.”

Raised in the small south Alabama community and an Auburn University graduate, Riddick-Seals moved to Atlanta 16 years ago and started his own construction company. Over the years, as he “listened to the clients I worked with,” Riddick-Seals branched out into other areas of development, from Real Estate to financing to legal consulting.

Now he’s been pivotal in putting together a team of representatives from Engie, PlanLED, Chasm Architecture, Stantec, Field Equity, Alston & Bird, Project Cost Solutions, SL King, Conor Aquisitions and his own RS firm that wants to take an estimated $2.5 million in annual utilities savings that Albany Development Partners’ research says the city of Albany could realize — utilizing the partners’ expertise in that area — and use it as investment capital to begin redevelopment efforts downtown.

Those efforts, the team told Albany city commissioners at a recent commission meeting, would start with turning the seldom-used Albany Civic Center from a “loss-leader” into a centerpiece for entertainment, retail, dining and convention business.

Riddick-Seals, who visited Albany last week with RiddickSeals Legal Group attorney Tiffany Wills to continue talks with city officials about a memorandum of understanding the group is seeking that will give them the greenlight to move forward with their “no tax money” plan, said none of the heavy hitters on the Albany Development Partners team would have gotten on board for the project without reason.

“We felt the right puzzle pieces were in place,” Riddick-Seals said. “With the city of Albany’s new leadership — headed by City Manager Sharon Subadan, Mayor Dorothy Hubbard and a forward-thinking City Commission — and the age of the buildings owned by the city, we saw the possibilities of using utilities improvements to generate savings.

“Certainly we’re aware of the poverty in the area, and that’s one of the reasons we are seeking the kind of public/private partnership we are with the city. Economic development is traditionally driven by the private sector, but if you look at the metrics here — and we have — you see that a public/private partnership allows for a longer relationship as you look for return on investment. Plus, by using our private funding to partner with the public, we can provide something a community like Albany needs badly: permanent jobs.”

Riddick-Seals said that by focusing on areas that can help create a vibrant market in Albany, Albany Development Partners can help alleviate — or at least slow down — another local problem.

“The question is, how do you capture the youth market? How do you stop the brain-drain that’s happening here?” he said. “By providing a vibrant atmosphere that caters to the interests of the younger market, you’re helping ensure that more of that age group that attends college here stays here to start careers and raise families.”

Riddick-Seals said the fact that many of the partners on the Albany Development Partners team are African-American is a somewhat unintended but beneficial element of the partnership.

“What we’ve done is carefully sought the best partners for this project,” he said. “But the fact that a lot of the citizens here look like me, and a lot of the partners involved in the project look like me, that’s another reason for us to succeed. I take it as a point of pride and responsibility that I have the opportunity to show young African-Americans that there are opportunities out there for them to succeed.”

Asked if convincing his partners that the Albany project is worth the risk was difficult, Riddick-Seals offers a simple answer.

“The numbers don’t lie,” he said. “Trust me, we had to make our case to the business partners before we even approached city officials. We had to see all the way to Z before we even started.

“We’ve proved our case to ourselves on paper. Now we need to get our message across to city officials and get a memorandum of understanding in place. We have the talent, the expertise, the capital to make this happen. We’re ready to get going.”