In 1978, Bernie Thoma, our founder and Senior Consultant, began working for the City of Cortland's Community Development Office. He was first hired to manage the City's housing rehabilitation program and within two years he was the Acting Director of the office.

In 1980, the opportunity arose to manage Cortland's Community Development Office as an outside contractor. In October of 1980, one other staff member of the City's Community Development Office joined Bernie to form Thoma Development Consultants. Within a week, another employee was added and Thoma had its first contract to manage grants for the City of Cortland. In the beginning, this three-person team devoted all its attention to the City of Cortland, and our office space was even located in City Hall. Though Thoma was established to provide grant management services to this one municipality, our formation as an independent contractor allowed for the possibility of assisting more customers. By 1983, four new customers were added and Thoma grew to a five-person team. By the end of the decade, our customer list had grown to over 20, and our staff numbered eight.

In the 1980's, we opened our own office in the upper floors of a building in downtown Cortland. In 1987, we moved to our present location at 34 Tompkins Street, occupying the second floor. Through the 1990's, we continued a gradual growth of staff and of our customer base. Five new team members have been added since 2000. Our customer list has grown to include over 70 municipal customers and over 30 non-municipal customers. Over 40 of these customers continue to be active. We are proud to continue to work with 10 long-term customers that we have served since the early 1980's.

Thoma Development Consultants has now grown to a team of 14 people and we now occupy both floors of 34 Tompkins Street. Recent growth seems aggressive by past standards and amazing to those of us who have been with Thoma since the beginning. Despite our growth, we have been able to maintain our personal service, family atmosphere and, most importantly, proven results for our customers.