To the Citizens of Fort Thomas,

The Fort Thomas School District, Campbell County and Fort Thomas City Council decision to support our residential mixed-use development paves the way for another great community asset. Besides the best schools and parks in Northern Kentucky, residents will boast about their attractive downtown in the coming years.

This project would not have happened without their collective leadership. Building a new mixed-use development is expensive and risky. Everyone knows about escalating construction costs, but a bigger challenge for a developer is entering an untested market. Fort Thomas is a downtown with primarily older retail and office space and lower rents. It is a city without modern condominium flats with elevators and underground parking. So, we are going to establish a new market with our project.

We are bullish on Fort Thomas but needed the partnership with the City to make the numbers work. This partnership includes Industrial Revenue Bonds that will be paid off by the new tax proceeds collected by the City on the project. It also includes the City purchase of land and construction of a public parking lot to support merchants.

Public incentives to stimulate economic development are not just happening on large projects like Ovation but smaller mixed-use projects in neighboring communities like Newport and Covington. For example, Duveneck, River Haus and John R. Green projects all received donated land or funds to create public parking along with tax incentives.

Our collective investment will result in many positive returns. For the school system, a significant increase in future revenue from real estate taxes. For the City, an opportunity to attract additional retail/office development and earnings taxes. For existing merchants, a way to generate additional traffic or expand into new commercial space. For citizens, the realization of your community plan “to create a vibrant and resilient business district.”

For our development team the outcome is not just a fair return on investment. It is about the satisfaction of building community. We look forward to working with you to create an exciting new gathering place and new residential lifestyle for Fort Thomas.

Sincerely,
Rick Greiwe
Greiwe Development