The Covington Board of City Commissioners has conducted a first reading of an ordinance that will name the alley that connects Russell and Washington Streets between Sixth and Pike Streets as “Innovation Alley” — recognition that this alley serves as ground zero in the city’s burgeoning Innovation District.
The alley is located between Mother of God Church on Sixth Street and several buildings fronting on Pike Street that have been rehabilitated and repurposed in recent years to house startups, tech companies, and incubators, such as bioLOGIC, Bexion Pharmaceuticals, UpTech, and Bad Girl Ventures.
“This formal action taken by the City Commission is the first step in recognizing what many people have worked so hard to build during the past 15 years – an innovation district in heart of downtown Covington,” said Casey Barach, director of the Kentucky Innovation Network for the Northern Kentucky region and Senior Vice President of Entrepreneurship for the Northern Kentucky Tri-County Economic Development Corporation. “We want to thank the Mayor and City Commissioners, the City staff, and the Covington business community for their vision and support of this transformational project.”
An innovation district is about clustering entrepreneurs, startups, tech-companies, business accelerators and incubators, and funders, along with all the necessary support businesses and services, such as co-working space, public Wi-Fi, mixed-use development, coffee shops, restaurants, bars and breweries, Barach said.
“Innovation districts are magnets for talent, and they nurture collaboration and knowledge-sharing,” Barach said. “Cool places like an Innovation Alley, urban housing projects like Duveneck Square on Pike Street, and cool celebrations like UpStart grow organically in innovation districts.”
Republic Bank and U.S. Bank each donated $5,000 and Duke Energy donated another $2,500 to make improvements to the alley. MKSK — the Covington-based landscape architecture, urban design, and planning firm – has created design plans for the alley’s improvements, which will take place through three different phases.
Clete Benken, a principal of MKSK, said the new design and improvements for the alley — which is anchored by historic Mother of God Church on the north and historic buildings that now serve as homes to businesses and incubators like bioLOGIC and UpTech on the east and west — will play on the city’s history and its future.
“The idea behind the design is to be an interesting blend of past and future, a place where you can see both Covington’s past and its not-too-distant future,” Benken said. “When the project is finished, the alley will be a fascinating literal and figurative walk though Covington history.”
Benken said the first phase of improvements will focus on “creating some great social spaces out in the alley.” This includes putting banners and lighting in the alley to celebrate the businesses located there and the city’s 200-year history.
The next phase of the project will be to restore the alley’s brick pavement. “A lot of the original brick pavers are there, but portions have been torn out over time and replaced with other materials, and we want to restore the pavement to its original look and feel,” Benken said. The final phase will involve finding grants and partners to help make improvements that will reflect the mindset of businesses along the alley, such as a solar parking canopy on the west end of the alley, patio space, and awnings.
Innovation Alley also will play a prominent role in the UpStart Celebration of Entrepreneurship on Oct. 6, starting at 4:30 p.m. Now in its fourth year, the celebration will take place in a one-block square area of the Innovation District, where visitors will find the Northern Kentucky Innovation Network Office (formerly the ezone), UpTech Accelerator, Bad Girl Ventures, bioLOGIC, Bexion Pharmaceuticals, SIDIS, UpTech Funds I & II, the Northern Kentucky Growth Fund, 15 early-stage innovative entrepreneurial companies, and several hundred people celebrating the region’s entrepreneurship.
“It is only natural that the UpStart Celebration of Entrepreneurship party will be hosted in Innovation Alley in the hub of the Covington Innovation District,” said Trey Grayson, president of Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce and an UpStart partner. “In the spirit of the entrepreneurial community, this event will include beer, bands, food trucks, and of course, entrepreneurs and a lot of fun.”
Tom Prewitt, chairman of the executive committee for the Graydon law firm and a co-founder of the NKY ezone (now the NKY Innovation Center), said the Covington Innovation District has been 15 years in the making.
“We set out 15 years ago literally to change the culture,” Prewitt said. “As we pause and look back, we can now see that actually happening. It is manifest in the people, the physical assets, the programs, the funding sources, the companies, and just the entire movement. The next 15 years of this journey should be even more inspiring.”
Prewitt said that when the UpTech Accelerator opened its doors in Covington in 2013, he and Barach were hit with the reality that “space matters.”
“Space mattered when we started the ezone 15 years ago and it matters now,” Prewitt said. “Fortunately, along with Brad Zapp, founder of CONNETIC Venture, we’ve been able to create a cool space in downtown Covington that is attractive to start-ups and entrepreneurs and should serve as a hub of innovation in our region for years to come.”
City of Covington