UPDATE: The Covington Board of Commissioners voted to approve the business incentive described in this article on April 14, 2026. –LINK nky editorial, April 17, 2026
Global Business Solutions, a integrated IT company currently located in Newport, is considering moving its HQ to the old Wadsworth Electric Manufacturing building in Covington, possibly bringing 57 jobs with it.
Global Business Solutions, or GBS, provides integrated IT services, which entails both normal workplace computer infrastructure as well as security measures, for several cities in the region, including Florence and Covington. The company has been providing managed IT services for Covington City Hall since 2021 and will be installing the IT infrastructure at the new City Hall building on Scott Street.
Property records indicate that GBS Founder and President Gaby Batshoun purchased the building in late March (through an LLC) for $5.4 million. Additionally, the City of Covington is set to offer a business incentive to the company to encourage it to move; the incentive will appear on the consent agenda for the Covington Board of Commissioners next week. In spite of this, Batshoun emphasized to LINK nky that the move hadn’t been finalized yet and that it’s still up in the air.
“We’re exploring,” Batshoun said, adding that the company had been looking at other properties, including ones in Newport, since about 2021.
“This location presented itself, and we’re going to see if it works out,” said Batshoun.
Documents from the city’s Department of Economic Development submitted to the Board of Commissioners before this week’s commissioners’ meeting suggest the company would have to invest about $6.8 million in capital to make the move. If they do finalize the move, the city expects the company bring in about $4 million per year in new payroll and $1.1 million (or about $840,000 after incentives) over the course of the ten years.
“This is an investment about 3:1 for the city,” said Covington Business Attraction Manager Susan Smith.
The incentive is a 1.25% reimbursement of payroll taxes per year over the course of five years. The company will have to successfully generate at least the aforementioned $4 million per year in order to qualify for reimbursement, for which it will need to submit an application to the city. Ideally, the company would bring in more jobs over the course of ten years than the initial 57 slated for the first year of its relocation.
The city’s Economic Development Department put the base salary of the new jobs at at $70,600, or $88,300 with benefits.
Mayor Ron Washington pointed out at the commissioners’ meeting that the company would be moving from a neighboring city, Newport, to relocate to Covington. He asked if there was an explicit policy about this.
“We do not actively go out and recruit businesses to move from another community to Covington…,” said Economic Development Director Tom West. “They approached us; we don’t go poaching.”
“I thought that was important that we get that on the record for our sister city,” Washington said.
The commissioner will cast a final vote on the business incentive next week.
