UPSTART held a street party at Covington’s new Innovation Alley to celebrate entrepreneurship in Northern Kentucky.
Thursday’s celebration on the alley between Washington Avenue and Russell Street is the fourth annual event presented by UPSTART, mixing dozens of groups, leaders and organizations equipped to facilitate the “transition from dream to reality” of innovative ideas. Small business owners, lenders, advisers and others were on hand to connect with innovators.
UPSTART is sponsored by the NKY Chamber of Commerce, Tri-ED and the Kentucky Innovation Network in Northern Kentucky.
James Weaver, Jason Payne, and Tom Tilmes, of Republic Bank, with Casey Barach, director of the Kentucky Innovation Network for the Northern Kentucky region.
As part of the celebration, Republic Bank donated $5,000 to fund improvements to Covington’s Innovation Alley, which will serve as a focal point and gathering spot in the city’s burgeoning Innovation District.
“Republic Bank is proud to make this donation for the new Innovation Alley located in the heart of Covington’s new Innovation District,” said Tom Tilmes, Senior Business Banking Officer at Republic Bank. “We are excited to continue our participation in the ongoing revitalization efforts in downtown Covington, including this collaborative, transformational project less than a block from our downtown office.”
Innovation 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.
Republic Bank’s donation – along with additional funding from U.S. Bank and Duke Energy – will be used to for permanent lighting, replace alley pavers that are in disrepair, install other amenities, and make other repairs and improvements
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Innovation Alley is a key component of Covington’s nascent Innovation District, 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.
“Innovation districts are magnets for talent, they nurture collaboration and knowledge-sharing, and they bring about a clustering of 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.
“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.”
The alley improvements, which will be made in three different phases, are designed to play on the city’s history and its future, said Clete Benken, a principal of MKSK, the Covington-based landscape architecture, urban design, and planning firm that designed the alley improvements.
“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.”
