The rain made for a dreary picture, but two jobs announcements make for an exciting day at the RiverCenter office complex on the Covington riverfront.
COVINGTON, Ky. - About 90 good-paying jobs are coming to the Covington riverfront as part of two separate business announcements.
One is an expansion, and one involves a company that is new to Covington.
- Prolocity Cloud Solutions Inc.,a highly regarded enterprise software consulting practice headquartered in the RiverCenter I office tower, is expanding its operations. Over the next two years, the company - which already has 15 full-time positions and about 10 contract consultants - plans to add at least 30 new positions with an average salary of over $100,000.
- And BM2 Freight Services - a full-service transportation solutions provider - is moving its headquarters to RiverCenter l, having outgrown its home in Highland Heights. BM2 has 35 local employees and hopes to add 10 more employees over the next few years.
“This is just more confirmation that the City of Covington is an inviting place to do business,” Covington Mayor Joe Meyer said.
Covington Economic Development Director Tom West said the announcements added to the City’s strong momentum and reflected efforts to work with company officials to help these particular developments happen.
“We’re thrilled that Prolocity is expanding its presence here and that BM2 Freight is moving here,” West said. “These are exactly the types of growth companies and jobs we want to attract and retain.”
The City expects to partner with both developments through targeted tax incentives that were discussed by the Covington City Commission at its caucus meeting last Tuesday night. Both deals are on the Commission’s consent agenda for approval at the legislative meeting at 6 p.m. tonight.
Prolocity Cloud Solutions
As a National Salesforce.com consulting partner, Prolocity helps business, public sector, and non-profit clients fully leverage the Salesforce.com Platform to improve sales, marketing, and service delivery, while improving overall communications and operational efficiencies.
It was founded in 2010 and moved to Covington in 2014.
Covington’s proximity and City Hall’s assistance made the company’s decision to expand in Covington an easy one, said John McKenzie, its co-founder and owner.
“We’ve been in Covington for four years, and the central location of RiverCenter gives us quick access to all areas of the tri-state,” McKenzie said. “Plus the City (and the Commonwealth and RiverCenter owner Corporex) made it very attractive for us to make a longer commitment to the area.”
Prolocity is a three-time winner of the Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce’s Emerging 30 award, and it’s a finalist in the Cincinnati Business Courier’s 2018 search for Best Places to Work.
BM2 Freight Services
BM2 Freight specializes in the transportation of food and chemicals while offering second-to-none freight forwarding and expedited services throughout North America.
The company researched multiple facilities throughout Greater Cincinnati and chose the Covington RiverCenter complex for its “first-class amenities and location,” said Jeff Mason, Principal-Finance & IT for BM2 Freight.
“As our company moves forward into the future, we want to continue to reflect and reinforce our core value of ‘Excellence Only,’ ” Mason said. “By making the decision to move to RiverCenter, we feel strongly that we are putting our best foot forward to reinforce that value across all aspects of our company.”
Company officials said they hoped to move to Covington by the end of the year.
The Cincinnati Business Courier named BM2 as a finalist for its 2015 Fast 55 awards, which recognize the fastest-growing private companies headquartered in Greater Cincinnati. In 2014, BM2 was also awarded the Better Business Bureau Torch Award for Marketplace Ethics and the Goering Center Family Business Award from the University of Cincinnati.
West said the announcements were good news for the City from a revenue standpoint and represented a small step toward making up the payroll tax revenue that will be lost when the Internal Revenue Service closes its massive paper return-processing facility on Fourth Street about a year from now.
“By helping existing companies grow and by working to attract new businesses, we can chip away at that shortfall and build a more diverse and sustainable economy,” he said. “Plus, our team is helping companies create quality jobs in the process.”
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