UPDATE: The Covington Board of Commissioners approved final contract documents for the financing at the their meeting on April 14, 2026, effectively serving as the final prerequisite to actually issuing the financing in earnest.–LINK nky editorial, April 17, 2026.
The Covington Board of Commissioners approved municipal financing Tuesday night for a mixed-use area in the Central Riverfront Development site, located on the same site as the old IRS building.
Specifically, the board approved the issuance of up to $75 million in industrial revenue bonds, or IRBs, to CCR-MN Developers, an LLC specifically formed for the project. Statements from John Sadosky, Covington’s assistant director of economic development, indicate the financing will help cover the costs of the development’s parking structure. The IRB’s term is 20 years.
The city first agreed to sell the land to CCR-MN last summer, and the developers had not asked for extra financing at the time.
“During [the developers’] inspection period, they received a bid that came in that exceeded the budget due to unanticipated escalation of the price of labor and materials, and really it’s impossible for them to do the structured parking component of this project without this IRB,” Sadosky said on July 8.
CCR-MN Developers consists of several companies: developer Silverman & Co., Messer Construction, and architectural firm KZF Design. Silverman & Co. is behind several retail and office developments in Blue Ash and is spearheading a mixed-use development in Deerfield, Ohio, called The District at Deerfield.
Industrial revenue bonds are a common municipal financing measure that developers utilize to secure tax exemptions, and cities employ to attract development.
When the city, or another taxing entity such as a school or county, agrees to issue an IRB, it serves as a conduit for capital financing for a project. The developer will seek financing from an underwriting institution, such as a bank, as a means of injecting capital into the project.
The city then takes on an owning interest in the property, at least on paper, so the developer can use the city’s credit score as a way of obtaining private investment. In exchange, the city grants the developer a tax incentive, the details of which vary depending on the deal.
Instead of paying taxes, the developer often agrees to issue a payment in lieu of taxes, or PILOT, to ensure the city still generates revenue from the property while reducing the developer’s initial investment expenditures. Developers and cities like IRBs because the developers defray their investment costs, and cities get to make money on a property or lot that might otherwise sit unused, generating no tax revenue; lower revenue from a PILOT is better than no revenue at all.
The financing debt itself is held by the developer, meaning the city isn’t on the hook for paying back the debt. Usually, when an IRB period ends, the incentives disappear and the legal ownership of the property reverts back to the developer. If a project fails or the developer goes out of business, the property can be sold to settle the debt.
The PILOT included in Tuesday’s deal is 60% of the real property taxes on the property for the 20-year term of the bonds. The developer has also sought sign-offs on the IRBs from Covington Independent Public Schools.
Additionally, Tuesday’s approval saw a revision of the purchase agreement of the deal. The developers will purchase the land for a total of $2.6 million – $1.5 million up front and then four annual installments of $275,000.
The development will be mixed-use, meaning that it will contain both residential and business properties on the CCR site’s M and N blocks, which run along Washington Street between 3rd and 4th Streets. Documents submitted to the city before Tuesday’s meeting state the development will feature about 7,700 square feet of retail space, 277 market-rate apartment units, and a 113-space parking facility, some of which will be underground.
Economic Development Director Tom West stated last year, when the proposal first came before the board, that the rough total investment into the site will be $67.2 million.
