An historical well being care apply that gives steady emotional and informational assist to girls earlier than, throughout, and after childbirth, and a constructing that housed a mid-1800s pharmacy in addition to the Covington Masons have been amongst six companies given monetary assist by the Covington Board of Commissioners.

The Fee accredited three rent-subsidy and three façade-improvement incentives via the Metropolis’s internationally acknowledged Small Enterprise Program.

The incentives got here through the fourth spherical of funding this fiscal 12 months underneath this system, which units apart $150,000 a 12 months in three areas — serving to fledgling companies with first-year lease and business property homeowners improve their exteriors or restore an historic electrical enterprise signal.

“That is the fifth spherical of Small Enterprise Incentives I’ve labored on since beginning my place final March, and the number of companies and buildings by no means ceases to impress me,” mentioned Covington Assistant Financial Growth Director Sarah Allan. “This spherical is not any completely different, with recipients starting from a burgeoning health-related enterprise that helps new mother and father to the reimagining of a constructing that was traditionally house to a Masonic Lodge. The chances in Covington to develop a enterprise are infinite.”

The awards:

(Picture from Metropolis of Covington

Hire Subsidies:

• $5,070 to Doulas of Cincinnati, a woman-owned distinctive health-related enterprise offering companies to pregnant girls that has a regional rising market share. The enterprise aligns with the Metropolis’s goal sector of “A More healthy You.”

• $6,000 to Rivertown Classic at 2 W. Pike Road, a woman-owned classic clothes retailer that focuses on males’s clothes, positioned within the Central Enterprise District.

• $6,000 to Skoolaid LLC, a singular academic enterprise at 800 Church St. in Latonia that focuses on growing the bodily well being, psychological well-being, and independence of youngsters and seniors, together with spreading data of kindness via its incapacity consciousness shows.

Façade Incentives:

• $6,000 to Covington sixth Road COA towards a $26,700 façade mission at 201-203 W. sixth St. that may embody portray, home windows, lighting, and tuckpointing. The constructing is within the Previous City/Mutter Gottes neighborhood.

• $6,000 to Felicity Properties LLC towards a $13,860 façade mission at 404 W. Pike St. that may embody portray. The constructing is in MainStrasse Village.

• $6,000 to Covington Commandery LLC towards $63,959 in exterior enhancements at 401 Scott St. that may embody portray, home windows, lighting, and rebuilding of the storefront. The constructing is within the Central Enterprise District.

Orleans Growth proprietor Tony Kreutzjans mentioned the façade grant funds are “important” to the restoration of the constructing on Scott Road, which has an extended and different historical past in Covington.

“401 Scott has been underutilized for many years,” Kreutzjans mentioned. “It’s a cornerstone constructing within the Scott Road hall, and we’re excited to breathe some life into it. Restoring the storefront to its unique peak and design might be transformational. The Metropolis’s façade grant is crucial to this piece of the mission.”

The constructing was constructed in 1865 by Charles Fechter, a druggist/pharmacist throughout his lifetime. Kreutzjans mentioned later deeds label the constructing as “Fecter’s Nook,” with the primary flooring occupied by Fechter’s drug retailer and the higher flooring occupied by the Covington Masons. For greater than 100 years – from 1865 via the mid-Nineteen Seventies – the primary flooring remained a pharmacy. The faint stays of the phrase “Pharmacy” is on the storefront’s higher transom, and an intact bathe room is on the third flooring, which was as soon as a fitness center. The Middle for Nice Neighborhoods occupied the second-floor workplaces through the late ‘70s.

“We additionally found it was an artwork gallery within the ‘90s. It actually had a myriad of makes use of,” mentioned Kreutzjans. “I feel we’ve got all handed this constructing a thousand instances, however subsequent time you might be on foot, discover all the Masonic symbols which are within the middle of the stone trim on the higher flooring home windows. It was considered one of my favourite discoveries of the constructing.”

Companies keen on making use of for both the façade, historic electrical signal, or lease help incentives ought to contact Sarah Allan at 859-292-2144 or sarah.allan@covingtonky.gov. For info, see functions and tips.

Between 2017 and 2023, this system has assisted 128 companies or tasks (not counting 58 COVID-related Small Enterprise Emergency Grants) … supported 36 companies with girls, veteran, or Black homeowners … leveraged virtually $7.3 million of personal funding … helped create or retain over 5,800 jobs … and impacted just below 470,000 sq. ft of vacant business area that has been stuffed or improved.

In 2021, this system acquired an award from the Worldwide Financial Growth Council, the world’s largest group of growth professionals.

Metropolis of Covington