Stories of Technology, Innovation, & Entrepreneurship in the Southeast

Leaders in Covington, KY, just across the state line from Cincinnati, are moving forward with plans to transform a former furniture store in the downtown area into SparkHaus, an entrepreneurial hub.

Kenton County is partnering with Blue North and the Northern Kentucky Port Authority to transform the building to foster Northern Kentucky’s next generation of business leaders. The project aims to bring together founders, investors, and support organizations under one roof, creating a front door for entrepreneurship in Northern Kentucky.

The vision behind SparkHaus is three-fold.

• Capital: A primary objective in creating SparkHaus is establishing a space where funders, from seed stage venture capitalists to Northern Kentucky’s largest private equity groups, can easily interact not only with one another but also growing companies.
• Growth: With a wide variety of flexible space, SparkHaus aims to be a go-to destination for companies growing and scaling. These spaces are designed to serve companies regardless of their size, from one-person shops to teams of 10 or more until they grow into more long-term space.
• Collisions: By bringing together founders, investors and support organizations, SparkHaus will foster a collaborative environment where ideas can collide to fuel the region’s next success story.

In May 2023, the Port Authority deployed $3 million from the Kenton County site development fund to purchase the building on behalf of the Kenton County Fiscal Court. SparkHaus was the first project to benefit from the $13 million fund, which is overseen by the Port.

The building has a total of 47,000-square-feet with more than 85 percent of that space can accommodate rent-paying office space.

Total costs for the project are not yet finalized, although a presentation from a Kenton County Fiscal Court meeting last May estimated that the project would cost between $9 to $10 million. Kenton County and its partners are working to raise private dollars to help finance the project.

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