On a day so hot that it might have made Death Valley seem like a more preferable place to build, Northern Kentucky officials, business leaders and the governor of Kentucky tried to convince developers to invest in five river cities with an innovative “Developers’ Day” presentation Friday.
Whether the floating shopping mall for companies that build retail, commercial and residential projects pays off won’t be known for some time.
There were no announcements Friday that anyone who attended the event had decided to make an investment in Covington, Newport, Bellevue, Dayton or Ludlow, cities that made their pitches aboard the Belle of Cincinnati.
But people who attended gave Southbank Partners, which organized the event, high marks for showing some ingenuity by assembling hundreds of developers, builders, sub-contractors, bankers, lawyers, real estate brokers, architects, engineers and city officials for an afternoon that might lead to “Let’s Make A Deal.”
“I hope they’re spying on this over there,” said David A. Staun of Unit Building Services in Fairfax, Ohio, referring to the city of Cincinnati and its long search for a riverfront developer for The Banks on the Cincinnati riverfront. “I’ve never seen this kind of thing done over there.”
Staun said his company is building condos in Fairfax and a 15,000-square-foot commercial building on Petersburg Road in Boone County.
“I’ve chatted with a lot of people – all of the mayors and the economic development folks. Usually trying to do that on my own is hard to do,” said Erich Switzer of CDS Associates, an engineering and architectural firm in Florence.
Michael Kennedy of Key Bank in Cincinnati thought it a good idea to bring all of the developers together for the broad view of all of the projects going on at present.
“I think everybody could take a few pointers from this,” he said.
It was unclear Friday if the event attracted many distant developers who were not already familiar with Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky.
Southbank Partners, the organization that plays a major role in development deals in cities on the south shore of the river, had said major developers from elsewhere in the country were among the 70 firms that had registered for the event.
But afterward, spokesmen for Southbank said it was difficult to determine if many developers from outside of the region were among the estimated 350 people who attended.
Gov. Ernie Fletcher, who’s seeking a second term in the November election, told the luncheon crowd that his administration has treated Northern Kentucky well.
“We’ve pumped more money into Northern Kentucky than anyone else,” said Fletcher, who estimated that the state has channeled about $165 million into the region during his nearly four years in office.
“It was done for one reason – it’s a good return on the investment,” the governor said.
Southbank President Wally Pagan said about $300 million worth of new development is “already coming out of the ground” along the river in Kentucky.
Southbank estimates that $2 billion worth of projects are under way, including the biggest single project, the $1 billion Ovation development that Covington’s Corporex plans to build on the river shore in Newport’s northwest corner.
