FALMOUTH, Ky. — September 16, 2026 — What began as a review of one troubled property at 500 Chapel Street in Falmouth has expanded into a much larger examination of how property, nonprofit organizations, private development entities, government agencies and public funding have intersected across Northern Kentucky.
The Chapel Street story is no longer simply about a failed redevelopment proposal.
It is about following the documents.
Records reviewed to date establish an unusual sequence.
In 2017, New Foundations Transitional Living, headed by Ross Shively, entered into the purchase arrangement for the former school property at 500 Chapel Street for $161,000.
The Pendleton County Board of Education later approved the transfer or assignment of those purchaser rights to Highland Hills Holdings LLC, which received the deed on February 23, 2018.
But the records obtained so far have not produced the underlying assignment instrument, evidence of consideration or reimbursement for that transfer, or a complete explanation of how New Foundations’ contractual interest was resolved.
Then, only weeks later, Verti-Grow Farms was formed on April 16, 2018.
Verti-Grow subsequently became associated publicly with a proposed multimillion-dollar redevelopment of the Chapel Street property. State agricultural-development materials described a project approaching $7.875 million, including a $2 million funding request, private financing and a stated $250,000 building-acquisition component.
Those records create obvious questions because the recorded purchase price for 500 Chapel was $161,000 and Highland Hills, rather than Verti-Grow, held title.
There is another important piece of the record.
A 2020 New Foundations property schedule continued to list 500 Chapel Street at $161,000 with a stated value of $805,250, even though Highland Hills held recorded title. A 2021 Duke Energy bill also continued to identify New Foundation Inc. as the utility customer at 500 Chapel.
None of those facts alone prove wrongdoing.
Together, however, they demonstrate why the underlying contracts, assignments, financing documents and development records matter.
THE FEASIBILITY QUESTION
The Verti-Grow proposal was publicly presented as a significant economic-development project.
But records requests have so far produced remarkably little documentation showing that the basic infrastructure questions were resolved before the proposal advanced.
On September 16, the City of Falmouth reported that it located no records from 2017 through 2023 concerning electrical capacity, engineering studies, infrastructure calculations, work orders, plans, correspondence or service-adequacy analysis for 500 Chapel Street.
Requests are still pending or have been made to state and local agencies for building plans, electrical-load calculations, floodplain materials, engineering documents, permits, inspections and the complete Planning and Zoning file.
That distinction is important.
A development concept and a feasible development are not the same thing.
The public deserves to know when the electrical, water, sewer, HVAC, floodplain and structural requirements were actually evaluated; who evaluated them; what those evaluations showed; and what representations were made before millions of dollars in proposed financing were discussed.
THEN THE CITY BOUGHT THE BUILDING
The private redevelopment ultimately did not occur.
In 2023, the City of Falmouth acquired 500 Chapel Street for approximately $60,000.
City records obtained to date have not supplied a complete assignment/title file explaining every entity referenced during the transaction or the earlier rights associated with the property.
After acquiring the building, the City spent public money on work associated with the property, including roofing, electrical work and payments connected with Hermes Construction, with significant expenditures coming through the City’s ARPA account.
A complete audit reconciliation of those expenditures, contracts, invoices, scopes of work and authorization remains an important part of this investigation.
The property was eventually transferred again.
The recorded chain now shows:
Pendleton County Board of Education → Highland Hills Holdings LLC — $161,000 — February 23, 2018
Highland Hills Holdings LLC → City of Falmouth — approximately $60,000 — May 17, 2023
City of Falmouth → Trinity Southern Baptist Church — $150,000 — October 29, 2025
That is an extraordinary history for one small-town property.
AND 500 CHAPEL IS NOT BEING REVIEWED IN ISOLATION
Our investigation has increasingly focused on the broader structure surrounding these transactions rather than any single individual.
Records involving Chapel Street, New Foundations and related properties repeatedly raise similar questions:
Who actually controlled a property economically versus who held recorded title?
How were purchase rights transferred between nonprofits, LLCs and related participants?
Where did acquisition and redevelopment money originate?
Were assignments, reimbursements and releases properly documented?
How were properties valued when financing or development proposals were prepared?
When did officials and developers know whether the proposed projects were physically and financially feasible?
Were potential property interests properly disclosed when governmental decisions affecting nearby property were made?
And when public money later entered the picture, what exactly was taxpayers’ money purchasing or improving?
Those are questions — not conclusions of criminal conduct.
But they are questions that can be answered with deeds, contracts, cancelled checks, bank records, board minutes, development applications, engineering records, disclosures and invoices.
That is why this investigation continues.
WHY THIS MATTERS BEYOND FALMOUTH
Small-town development failures are often dismissed as isolated bad projects.
The records being assembled here suggest there is a larger story worth examining: how nonprofits, developers, lenders, LLCs, local officials and publicly funded redevelopment can overlap in ways that are extremely difficult for ordinary citizens to reconstruct years later.
The concern is not simply that one project failed.
The concern is whether public decisions were being made with complete information, whether property and financial interests were transparent, and whether taxpayers were eventually left paying to address problems that should have been understood much earlier.
That deserves scrutiny regardless of anyone’s political affiliation, position or relationship to the people involved.
A CALL TO NORTHERN KENTUCKY’S SLEUTHS
We are inviting the Sleuths of NKY, journalists, researchers, former employees, contractors, lenders and residents familiar with these properties to examine the evidence with us.
We are especially interested in records concerning:
– 500 and 501 Chapel Street and surrounding properties;
– New Foundations Transitional Living;
– Highland Hills Holdings;
– Verti-Grow Farms;
– assignments or releases connected with the original 2017 purchase agreement;
– financing, appraisals and valuations used in proposed development projects;
– Hermes Construction invoices and scopes of work;
– Falmouth ARPA expenditures;
– electrical, water, sewer and floodplain feasibility work performed before the Verti-Grow proposal;
– property-interest disclosures and recusals associated with relevant government decisions; and
– any documents explaining discrepancies between recorded ownership and the entities shown in internal schedules, leases, utility records or development materials.
The goal is simple:
Follow the property. Follow the money. Follow the documents. Separate what can be proven from what cannot.
There are already enough documents to establish that the Chapel Street history is considerably more complicated than the public story originally presented.
Now the remaining records need to explain why.
Anyone with original documents, photographs, contracts, correspondence, development plans or firsthand knowledge relating to Chapel Street is encouraged to preserve those materials.
This investigation will continue as additional public records are produced.
DOCUMENTS DON’T TAKE SIDES. THEY TELL US WHAT HAPPENED.
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