The City of Covington has already garnered lots of interest from developers who want to work on the Covington Central Riverfront site.
So far, 35-40 out-of-town developers and 10-15 local developers have reached out to the city, according to Covington’s Economic Development Director Tom West.
But before the city begins an official search for developers, it hired a firm to help prepare a marketing strategy, identify developers, and subdivide the site. That firm is BusinessFlare Economic Development Solutions.
“We want to make sure we have the right developers doing the right kinds of projects – not just a lot of people who’ve contacted us saying they’d like to have a piece of this site,” West said. “Furthermore, we want to figure out the best way to divide and position these parcels to best effect, and then how to market those.”
Covington has placed importance on utilizing outside expertise for the project. With the proposed uses of the development being office, retail, hotel, housing, and recreation space, the city says they feel more secure by using multiple developers to work on the site in stages rather than hiring a single master developer.
“We want the best deal for the citizens of Covington, so we end up with the right kind of development, not just the fastest or easiest or the shiniest object,” West said.
BusinessFlare is a local government strategic consulting firm and will help the city in five areas:
- Marketing, including messaging, the communications tools, and tailored strategies for selling various parcels.
- Policy guidance, including on the use of incentives and negotiating strategies.
- Subdividing the site.
- Developing marketing materials.
- Oversight of the initial appraisals of the parcels.
Overall, the work is projected to take 12 weeks to complete.
“We recognize the magnitude of importance that this redevelopment means to the future of Covingtonians,” said Kevin Crowder, founder of BusinessFlare. “This large riverfront site under City control presents an opportunity to change how the world views Covington, and the right development will attract additional investment and jobs throughout the City.”
In addition to BusinessFlare, the Northern Kentucky Catalytic Fund is also provided the city with consulting work. The Catalytic Fund is developing financial models for several types of projects to attract smaller local developers.
A previous version of this story said that Covington is currently looking for developers for the site. The city has not yet reached that stage of the process. LINK nky regrets the error.
