With Czech Aerospace Investment, Roswell Sees International Strategy Taking Off

A Czech aerospace and defense company landed in Roswell Monday, the culmination of an investment journey that, to hear city leaders tell it, is the result of equal parts providence and planning. 

PBS Aerospace has operated a sales office out Buckhead for about a decade, but a combined and concerted effort by state leaders and city officials, coupled with a fraught geopolitical environment, pushed the company toward what will be a U.S. headquarters and factory. 

PBS is set to invest up to $20 million and create up to 150 jobs in its first American manufacturing facility, which will make its TJ40 and TJ80 turbojet engines for short-range missiles and drones.

While it evaluated other relevant offers around the South, some including aggressive financial incentives, the “team effort” from Georgia helped seal the deal, said Tomas Koutsky, the Czech-based director of PBS Aerospace, who has been visiting metro Atlanta on-and-off for 10 years since he worked with Atlanta attorney (and Hungary honorary consul) John Parkerson to incorporate the company. 

Increasing U.S. military sales helped drive the recent decision to localize sourcing and manufacturing, Mr. Koutsky said. 

“I strongly believe that here we’re in the best position to make the successful on-shoring of this production,” Mr. Koutsky told Global Atlanta. 

PBS is selling “battle-tested” engines already deployed in American defense systems, and demand for shorter-range missiles with lower price tags has increased along the front line in Ukraine, Air Force veteran and PBS CEO Erin Durham said. 

“The U.S. doesn’t have stockpiles of these kinds of munitions,” Mr. Durham said.

He likened developments in unmanned flight and advanced air mobility to what took place as the rudimentary biplanes of World War I gave way to advanced fighter jets by the end of the 20th century. 

“This move aligns seamlessly with our larger growth strategy, which focuses on partnering with Georgia’s extensive manufacturing, aerospace, and defense sectors,” Mr. Durham said in a news release.

In remarks at Roswell City Hall, Mayor Kurt Wilson tied the announcement to both the present international security situation but also to a history of entwinement between Czech and American citizens. 

When Roswell officials visited an industry fair in Brno last October to meet with Czech investors before heading to Prague to meet PBS, they brought gift baskets featuring candles from West + Peak, a Roswell shop run by Nicole Dorazil and her husband, Mike, whose grandfather fled the Communist invasion during the Prague Spring in 1968 and settled in the United States.  

A Czech company, PPF Real Estate Holding, also is the largest landowner in Roswell after an acquisition of the Mansell Overlook office park in 2021 for more than $100 million, its entree into the U.S. market. 

The mayor, who credited God’s providence with this full-circle moment, also pointed to the city’s adoption of a C-suite structure to make its government more responsive and prepared to recruit new types of industries. 

Roswell is pushing to become a hub for advanced air mobility, an industry on the rise in Georgia with the arrival in the state of Archer and other key industry players, and artificial intelligence. 

“Today’s announcement is proof that our efforts are paying off. PBS Aerospace’s decision to call Roswell home speaks to the strength of our business-friendly environment, our investment in strategic growth and our ability to compete on a global stage,” Mr. Wilson said. 

Georgia Department of Economic Development Commissioner Pat Wilson, who visited the company’s headquarters in the Czech Republic on his own recruitment trip, said the investment from a storied 200-year-old group represents the promise of global engagement for growing local communities.

He added that PBS is in talks with Georgia Tech about creating a pipeline of workers to fill jobs that will average $150,000 a year in salary. Ensuring that talent doesn’t leave the state, but instead serves its No. 1 export industry — aerospace, with 800 companies employing 200,000 Georgians — helps make the case for investing in workforce readiness within the university system and at technical colleges, Mr. Wilson said. 

“For years, we’ve been sending that academic talent to other places, to Skunkworks at Lockheed Martin in California, or to Seattle, or to Charleston with Boeing. We get to keep that home. That’s why these jobs are so important,” Pat Wilson said. 

Having just visited a NATO base with Gov. Brian Kemp on his trip last week in Poland, Mr. Wilson said the defense element of the investment is also important. 

“This is the future, and this is what we need to be focused on,” he said. 

Peter Sorckoff, a consultant who moved to Atlanta years ago from Canada to work with the Atlanta Thrashers and Atlanta Hawks, said the PBS investment is the “cornerstone” of more investment come as Roswell uses its Czech ties as a gateway into Central Europe. 

“Inevitably, one of the next steps is for us to create a land bridge, essentially, with the Czech Republic, which really represents Central Europe for Roswell, so that we can start bringing companies from Czech Republic, Austria and Hungary,” he said. 

Mr. Sorckoff’s firm, Seer World, caught the attention of the city for his work on the Cincinnati airport, which capitalized off of his experience redesigning the fan experience at State Farm Arena. 

The approach stemmed from his initial career as a therapist, Mr. Sorckoff, whose firm is being paid up to $2 million per year on a five-year deal by the city to bolster its economic strategy and outreach, told Global Atlanta. 

Going international was part of the “cognitive dissonance” needed to shake Roswell from its mindset as a “bedroom community” of Atlanta and attract industries beyond health (Wellstar and McKesson), consumer products (Kimberly-Clark’s research hub) and automotive (General Motors IT innovation center).

“Those industries are all very mature, so from my perspective, that means you can only expect incremental growth,” Mr. Sorckoff said. 

The $15,000 cost of city officials attending the MSV International Industry Fair in Brno, Czech Republic, brought scrutiny from the community that Mr. Sorckoff said “was not unexpected.” 

“Cognitive dissonance requires something that is a big enough, bright, enough contrast where it’s actually jarring to people by design,” he told Global Atlanta, giving Mayor Wilson credit for a “visionary” approach after his election in 2022.

Both Mr. Sorckoff and the mayor praised City Councilwoman Christine Hall and Government and Community Affairs Manager Katrina Singletary for their role in the relationship. 

“We had a responsibility to change the economic fabric of the city of Roswell, that she was in malaise, and that she had not been tended to,” Mr. Wilson said. 

All parties credited Monika Vintrlikova, honorary consul for the Czech Republic in Georgia, for making vital connections and helping city leaders navigate the trade fair in Brno that they said was instrumental in confirming the investment. 

Ms. Vintrlikova is in the process of creating an incubator of Czech companies to Georgia in hopes of replicating the success of companies like PBS, without the same amount of lead time. 

The incubator will launch March 12 at Atlanta Technology Park in Gwinnett.

In April, PBS will initially move into an existing facility at 1350 Northmeadow Parkway, not far from the intersection of SR-9 and Hembree Road. Full operations including small aircraft engine assembly are scheduled to begin in September. The company will then build out a new, permanent facility at Tech Village North.