Seabrook City Council awarded Pomodoro’s Cucina Italiana an $850,000 construction and development grant at its July 21 meeting to incentivize the Italian restaurant to build a location in Seabrook.
The details
City Council voted 6-1, with council member Angela Cervantes casting the sole vote opposing the incentive as written.
Earlier in the meeting, Cervantes said the incentive should be capped at $200,000 to protect taxpayer money and that the Seabrook Economic Development Corp., which will fund the incentive with sales tax revenue, had implemented guardrails limiting incentives to $200,000.
In response, Rick Guerrero, director of economic development for the city, said negotiations with Pomodoro’s began in August 2025, before SEDC adopted that policy in January 2026, thus grandfathering in the $800,000 amount.
By the numbers
The SEDC has a $1.2 million annual budget, meaning that the $600,000 payment in the first year would spend half of the organization’s annual budget, Cervantes said. Yet proponents say the economic benefits of the restaurant coming to Seabrook justify the city's investment.
According to previous reporting by Community Impact, Pomodoro’s Cucina Italiana is projected to be a revenue and job creator, producing:
- 15 to 20 full-time employees
- 15 to 20 part-time employees
- $2 million in sales in the first year
- $4.3 million in economic impact from sales tax, property tax and employee wages after 10 years
If Pomodoro's fails to maintain target employment levels, they are obligated to return a proportionate share of the incentive
The debate
Mayor Jim Sweeney said the investment is part of a long-term strategy to anchor the $200 million Seabrook Town Center development.
Sweeney said that the capital improvements funded by the grant would remain in the building, even if the restaurant fails, because other restaurants could move into the space, and purchasing an existing building is more desirable for restaurants than building an entirely new structure.
"These capital investments will live beyond the restaurant,” Sweeney said. “Let's say something happens and Pomodoro's fails in five years. Everything that we put in place for this investment stays there for the next tenant ... and it just makes that project more and more tenable."
Cervantes said that if the city awarded the incentive, it would risk “unjustly” incentivizing competition with existing Italian restaurants in Seabrook, namely Villa Capri and Mario’s Pizza and Pasta.
"Our job is to be good stewards of the taxpayer funds, not to pick winners and losers,” Cervantes said.
What’s next?
The grant will be awarded in three installments, beginning with $600,000 upon opening, followed by two annual payments of $125,000, according to previous reporting by Community Impact.
