BY SUSAN VELA
The Cincinnati Enquirer
About 200 new jobs -- at least half with middle-income wages and salaries -- could be coming to Northern Kentucky.
The Kentucky Economic Development Finance Authority gave preliminary approval Thursday for about $3 million in tax credits for FRCH Design Worldwide in downtown Cincinnati, and a new venture between Lemforder Corp. of Hebron and Bosch ZF Friedrichshafen of Germany.
Those firms will mean 101 new jobs for Northern Kentucky.
Another coup could be one now in the rumor stages.
The Lafarge Corp. of Reston, Va., is looking at Northern Kentucky or Clermont County as a possible site for a $100 million light industrial facility that would employ 100 workers, a source confirmed Thursday. The company specializes in construction materials and apparently is looking at railyards in Silver Grove and Moscow.
The tax incentives approved Thursday amounted to:
$2.3 million over the next 10 years for Lemforder Steering Corp., which plans to manufacture steering parts in a new facility in Hebron.
Construction could begin next week and be finished by March, company Controller Paul Griffiths said.
The tax credits would be on the land, building and site development for the new facility. Lemforder would employ 76 workers and offer an hourly wage of $13.62.
$750,000 for FRCH Design Worldwide if it relocates to Newport. The architectural firm would hire 25 new employees once it moves. The jobs pay about $36,800 a year. FRCH is promising the work forcewould jump by 18 more employees in the next decade.
The company also is looking at a site in Ohio, said Bryan Quinsey of the Tri-County Economic Development Corp, the public and private agency that works to bring jobs to Northern Kentucky. The agency works with all companies hoping to get state incentives.
Calls to FRCH officials were not returned.
