COVINGTON, Ky. — Incentive programs in the city of Covington are set up to attract small businesses and help support them as they get up and running.
The city say it’s been successful in giving Covington a small business-friendly reputation.
The owner of a chocolate shop is taking advantage, saying he couldn’t find something like this anywhere else.
Paul Picton has taken an interesting career path, going from selling jet engines for years to now, to selling chocolate.
“I was always traveling around, and I would bring chocolate home. And when I left the corporate world, after a few weeks I ran out of chocolate, and so I started making it at home. And the more I made it, the more people were encouraging me to bring it to a bigger audience,” said Picton, owner and co-founder of the Maverick Chocolate Company.
Maverick Chocolate has been in Cincinnati’s Findlay Market for 11 years. It also had a store in Norwood, but Picton said the business was recently “essentially kicked out” of that space. He knew he wanted a small business-friendly community to be the new home for his sweet treats.
“Covington is one of the few communities around that offers any kind of incentives for small business,” Picton said.
He’s taking advantage of two Covington small business incentive programs. The first helps with up to $6,000 in rent during the first year.
Patrick Duffy, business retention and expansion manager for Covington’s Economic Development Department, explained.
“We want them to focus more on growing their business and expanding their business, and less about the rent, making their rent every month,” Duffy said.
The second program aims to help prop up one of Covington’s best assets: its historic buildings, by also offering up to $6,000 to help fix them up. This one is for building owners, who are often but not always business owners as well.
In Maverick Chocolate’s case, it applies, because besides the chocolate shop, Picton bought a building that will become a chocolate factory. He said the 60-year-old building was an eyesore, and he’s looking forward to using the funds to “pretty it up.”
“We have a really rich history here in Covington, so it helps us preserve that, and honestly, these old buildings need some work. They’re great, they’re really strong bones, but sometimes they just need a little love to make them more inviting,” Duffy said. “What we want to do is help them pay for their project, up to 50% of the project, up to $6,000, to help them revitalize their storefront, and do it in a historically appropriate manner.”
There’s been four rounds a year of these incentives since 2017. The latest featured the West Sixth Brewery, a CPA and Maverick Chocolate.
“When you transition into a new space, there’s always some growing pains. It takes time for people to know where you are, and so a rent subsidy really helps in the first year as you’re trying to reestablish or establish in the first place,” Picton said.
Duffy said it’s helping with the overall revitalization of the city.
“It’s bringing a lot of diversity of businesses, and it really makes Covington a place where people want to not only work, but enjoy their leisure time,” he said. “The small business owners are what make up our identity as a city. And they really give us a lot of our character.”
The programs are all reimbursement-based. Once a business signs a lease, they can submit their invoice for rent and Covington will reimburse half the rent up to $500 per month for the first year, totaling $6,000. The facade grant will also reimburse up to half the cost of a project up to $6,000.
