Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms tapped a construction firm executive to head Renew Atlanta, the city’s first major investment in aboveground infrastructure improvement program.
Josh Rowan began is position today replacing Thomas Weyandt Jr., a former deputy chief operating officer for the city, who had been in the position on an interim basis. Rowan will oversee the $250 million program, which includes managing the bond program and T-SPLOST infrastructure improvement program.
Atlanta has more than $1 billion in infrastructure needs but has less than half that in funding to chip away at those projects, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution previously reported. In 2015, the city created a $250 million Renew Atlanta fund and the following year voters passed a 4 cents per $10 sales tax to raise perhaps $300 million over five years ending in 2022.
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Rowan previously served as leader of innovation strategies for the construction management firm MBP, where he oversaw construction on the Paulding County Adult Detention and Law Enforcement Center and The Georgian Terrace, a Sotherly Hotels renovation project.
“His record of strategic innovation in construction will help us perform creatively and efficiently for the taxpayers who overwhelmingly supported the Renew Atlanta Bond and T-SPLOST,” Bottoms said in the news release.
A Georgia Tech graduate, Rowan has more than 24 years of program and construction management experience at the local, state and international levels, according to the release. He also served as independent engineer for U.S.-financed transportation infrastructure projects in Tanzania and Mozambique.
“It is an honor to serve in Mayor Bottoms' Administration,” Rowan said in the release. “I am excited to work with city leadership and address our most critical infrastructure needs.”
— Staff writer Bill Torpy contributed to this article.
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