On Wednesday, Southgate city council voted to join the roster of Northern Kentucky cities working with economic development organization Southbank Partners. The city will be the first city partner that is not a river city and represents an expansion of the organization’s outlook on regional development.
After sitting down with Mayor Jim Hamberg to discuss the city’s development needs, Will Weber, president and CEO of the company, made the pitch to the council. Weber said he is also reaching out to other “non-river” cities in the region as the plans for development broaden.
He explained the benefits of joining with other cities in the region to tackle broader-range development projects.
“It’s truly a partnership of cities that collaborate for these long-term strategic goals as it relates to economic development,” Weber said. “We recently had a strategic plan called Innovate 2028 that really details out three specific verticals as it relates to transportation and infrastructure, vibrancy and placemaking, and entrepreneurship and small business.”
Here’s how the partnership works: Southbank Partners works with city leaders and staff to help them plan out and achieve both annual and long-term goals. They help identify and facilitate grant opportunities on all levels, bringing cities together as needed on joint projects. The organization also helps connect cities to other project partners such as engineering firms, architects, marketing companies and others.
Connecting communities
“There’s three key phrases that help limit the scope when we talk about serving this partnership of cities — connected communities, vibrant river fronts and resilient downtowns,” Weber said.
By “connected communities,” he said, the thinking is on regional corridors. He identified Southgate’s business district in the historic area along Electric Avenue as one area for development. Still, it is U.S. 27 that represents a broader development opportunity as part of an active highway commercial corridor.
“From Carothers at U.S. 27 all the way to Memorial Pointe, for example, that stretch of road is predominantly going to be vehicular based,” Weber said. “So whether it be your gas station, your oil change place, X, Y or Z businesses, what does the next 20 or 30 years look like?”
He said his firm would help plan for the future while working with cities to achieve shorter-term goals.
Southgate City Clerk Brandi Barton works on much of the city’s grant identification and applications. Southgate Partners would help her find appropriate opportunities and navigate the larger, more complex federal grants such as those through the OKI Regional Council of Governments.
Earlier in the council meeting, Hamberg discussed the need for a traffic light at U.S. 27 and Memorial Pointe Drive. While the need is great, the cost to add that, he said, was $600,000. In his monthly report, Fire Chief John Beatsch noted a new ambulance might be needed in the near future. Weber said if the city was a member of Southbank Partners, they could help identify and apply for grants for shorter-term projects such as those.
Testing the waters
Mayor Hamberg said Weber had offered the city a prorated membership fee for a half year at $7,500. Council members Mark Messmer, Aileen Okura and Thomas Wegener asked several questions about what the city would get from the membership and how the city would be charged for grant writing and similar services.
Weber said that to determine membership fees, the organization uses a formula that involves population, geographic measurements and other factors. Additional fees, especially on larger complex grants, would be charged based on labor hours and the size of the grant.
Hamberg said the city has money available through the return of some grant funds from a project that was not utilized, so the city would have the money to cover the half-year from January to June 2025. Council would need to add a budget item for Southbank Partners for the 2025-26 fiscal year.
“With Will’s experience and ties to OKI, it could help us out a great deal,” said Hamberg. “My thought for you all…is to put a toe in the water for this year to see where things go with this. We can reevaluate when we get into the next budget year”
Messmer made the motion to join with the option to review how the partnership is working before deciding to add it to next year’s budget. Council agreed in a voice vote.
Other cities working with Southbank Partners are Covington, Bellevue, Dayton, Fort Thomas, Ludlow, Newport and Silver Grove.