Common Good for the Common Wealth: The Long Game: Investing in Communities That Last

What does it mean to build something that lasts, not just structurally, but socially?

In this episode of Common Good for the Commonwealth, host Nancy Grayson sits down with Anthony Bradford, founder of AmTitan, to explore how thoughtful development can transform not just neighborhoods, but entire communities.

From his early days working on homes in Louisville to leading large-scale multifamily and infill development projects across Northern Kentucky, Anthony shares the journey that shaped his passion for impact-driven work. His approach centers on revitalizing overlooked spaces, addressing the region’s housing shortage, and building what he calls the “missing middle," workforce housing that allows people to live, work, and thrive in the same community.

Throughout the conversation, Anthony reflects on the deeper responsibility of this moment: to build on the foundation laid by those before us, and to ensure the region’s growth remains inclusive, intentional, and sustainable for generations to come.

Anthony is both a member of The 410: Give Where You Live NKY and serves on its advisory board, helping guide and support this growing model of community-led philanthropy. Spanning 29 zip codes across Boone, Campbell, and Kenton counties, “410" is the unifying number that connects Northern Kentucky’s communities—and the next generation of civic and charitable leadership. The 410: Give Where You Live NKY is building a stronger culture of giving across Northern Kentucky by bringing together people who live and work in the region to take part in hands-on philanthropic leadership. 

This episode is both a behind-the-scenes look at community development and a call to action: to think bigger about how we invest, in our neighborhoods, our people, and our shared future.

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:10

This is Common Good for the Commonwealth, where we feature the uncommon advocates of Northern Kentucky who work every day to make our community more vibrant. I'm your host, Nancy Grayson, president and CEO of Horizon Community Foundation of Northern Kentucky. And with me today is Anthony Bradford, a dear friend and really the guru behind AM Titan. So welcome to our podcast. We're so glad to have you here today.

SPEAKER_00 0:38

Thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_02 0:39

Yes. Talk to us a little bit. I know you're a Louisville boy and you grew up and we're so thrilled that you're here in Northern Kentucky now. What got you into development? And then we'll talk a little bit about how your path led you to Northern Kentucky.

SPEAKER_00 0:51

What got me into development? Well, I grew up uh in Louisville, and I was cheap labor for an uncle who flipped homes for a living. So through high school or through college, that was how made my way of making a few bucks was to uh be cheap labor for him. I've always loved the impact that he would have on the on the street. He would take a really ice sore of a of a home, make it really nice, um, and it would improve the the living experience for everyone. I saw that, but I wanted to do it on a larger level, a bigger impact, which is why we do multifamily and bigger projects.

SPEAKER_02 1:28

And so how how did you end up here? So glad you're in northern.

SPEAKER_00 1:32

I am so blessing. Um so I initially came here for undergrad, went to a school called Mount St. Joseph, I think it's university now.

SPEAKER_01 1:38

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 1:39

Uh I got recruited to play football for the Mount um uh forever ago, it seems like. Uh did grad school here at Xavier University, did my NBA there, um, and never left. Yeah. Just became home.

SPEAKER_02 1:52

Yes. Well, and I'm I'm a Lexington girl, so this is not where I grew up either. Actually, my dad, I think I've shared with you before, is from Louisville and did go to St. Nex. And so we uh always thought of Northern Kentucky as being part of Cincinnati. And then when I went to law school at UC, we saw Cincinnati would think of Kentucky as being across the great divide that is Ohio. What is it about northern Kentucky? I I feel like there's something like really unique here. And I think our perspective from different parts of the state kind of has a different angle towards that, but like unique nature of northern Kentucky.

SPEAKER_00 2:27

Unique is a good description. I I it's an awesome vibe. I think the the quality of living in northern Kentucky is second to none. Uh kind of a hidden gem almost. Um so I got here several years ago. We started doing projects, and I I have to say, I kind of got bitten by the bug. I felt like it was like my Kentucky roots calling on back home.

SPEAKER_01 2:50

Love it.

SPEAKER_00 2:51

And so not only did we move our company from downtown uh Cincinnati and OTR moved her, but I moved my entire family.

SPEAKER_02 2:59

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 2:59

Uh from Cincinnati as well.

SPEAKER_02 3:01

We're so happy. Your boys who are absolutely adorable. Thank you. Uh with Covington, there's a lot of growth right now. And in your focus, tell me your philosophy. I believe it's on um kind of more historic or maybe not um as developed kind of buildings. How what is your kind of philosophy around how you're approaching development and what's your kind of long-term vision with your company?

SPEAKER_00 3:25

Sure. Uh for us, it's what we call the the missing middle. So we have two different buckets within our org. One is historic redevelopment. So think about these old blighted buildings that you know, if they're vacant, boarded up, a real big ISOR, we'll go in and bring those old buildings back to life. Uh, we just did one across from the Carnegie Theater where we did the entire block that was completely vacant and blighted. And now um there's 30, 40 people who are now living on that block that frequent the restaurants and entertainment within our community. So that's one aspect of it. The other aspect is what we call infield development, where we go out and we acquire vacant land within the existing community and build new construction, um, low-dense apartment buildings uh within that space to make it the highest and best use.

SPEAKER_02 4:14

And and with Covington, I think so much development. Uh, we as Horizon Community Foundation have moved into the one in KY Center. You see a lot of uh development happening in the old IRS site. Yes. Um, I think there's a lot of desire around making sure there is, and I will not use the term affordable housing, I think there's the stigma if people follow along, uh, maybe income-aligned housing, um, making sure that we we have not only the missing metal, but the whole gamut. I think of my daughters who are now 26 and 22. And if they were looking at where where would be a good place to live in in Covington, are there options for them that where they feel like it's a walkable community, um, it's uh affordable, quite frankly, for whatever jobs they might have. I think you're providing some of that. I think the the city leadership is really leaning in, and and you've gotten more involved, I think, at the city level too. Speak speak to that some.

SPEAKER_00 5:09

The city um is leading the way. Uh, this is a big goal for them. There's a massive housing shortage right now in Northern Kentucky. I think the most recent report came out and said we're don't quote me here, but roughly 6,500 units short of needed housing in Northern Kentucky. And so uh the the city has really put this on their priority list.

SPEAKER_01 5:33

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 5:33

Of how did they help solve it? I think the the challenge there is there's no easy answer. Right? I think we need a mix of all of it, Nancy. You need high income, you need low income, you need middle income, you need all of it to fulfill the need here. Um our primary focus um again is that missing middle, uh do we call it affordable. I love the work workforce housing.

SPEAKER_02 5:54

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 5:54

Uh um industry aligned, yeah industry income aligned, workforce housing. Um whether it's it's someone that's in our service industry that that work at some of the restaurants we love to go to, yes, that they can live and work in in the community. Yes. And so that's where my passion lies. Yeah. But it all kind of comes down to a financial aspect, right? How long how much what it costs to build it versus what you can rent it at, so on and so forth.

SPEAKER_02 6:19

I had uh the great honor of being part of the task force with the Northern Kentucky Area Development District, catalytic fund and chamber for the report you just mentioned. You got the numbers right. I mean, you did you you know exactly, of course, this is your profession, what you're what you're talking about. Um and I think there were 50, honestly, solutions that were initially uh discussed. And a housing fund is one a priority that we have. Um we have a Northern Kentucky Home for All fund where we're working to provide support charitably to different solutions that come out of that report. But to your point, it's it's not one single answer that's going to fit and solve all of the issues that we have around housing. And certainly different communities which think they don't have housing issues. I live further south. Um, our housing issues are the same. They may show up differently in what it looks like in the community, but we have a high need in Boone County, Campbell, Kenton, it all looks the same. It's not just the Covington issue. Do you think at some point you would move further south in northern Kentucky with your work? I I know you're focused a lot right now in the river area and Covington.

SPEAKER_00 7:23

Absolutely. Whenever there's a need, we want to be there. There's a lot of work to be done here. And so we're trying our best to provide as much value as we can uh in this existing community. But at some point, uh this will stabilize and then we will find other opportunity. But one thing's for sure, this is home and this is where we want to invest.

SPEAKER_02 7:42

Speaking of investing in home, we're so honored that you've been part of our giving circle, the 410 Give Where You Live, Northern Kentucky, which is a newly merged uh effort now. We had two separate giving circles that are now coming together, and you're serving on the advisory board. Thank you of that merged screen. You and Mary Luz and even the boys have come along. Talk to me about your experience about it for someone maybe who hasn't been part of kind of a collective giving, giving circle effort. What does that experience come like offer you? How are you teaching this to your kids so that they can become part of this down the road someday?

SPEAKER_00 8:18

Absolutely. It's it's so rewarding to be a part of it, Nancy Now, and I'm honored to to be on the board. Um, giving back, it's a part of my family culture. Um, we've always either volunteered in local sports for for our community. And so I think what the 410 provides is uh the ability to give back in a bigger way, having a bigger impact because you're putting your resources in a bigger pool and then you see the results of it, right? And so um having kind of a topic for the year that you get a chance to to listen uh to the various different organizations and how they're making a difference, and then say, hey, this is the one that I want to support, and having this big pool of resources that we collectively do as a community to pour into that um uh to that organization, it's beyond rewarding. So uh if you're not involved, I highly recommend you do get involved and I'm happy to explain every step of the way.

SPEAKER_02 9:15

Well, we'll share his information at the end. Uh just kidding. I love the social part of it. So um my husband and I are members, I let him vote to be clear. I want to be equitable because we have so many good nonprofit uh partners in our region that are serving northern Kentucky. But I've I've learned a lot about other nonprofits, um, smaller ones that I hadn't heard of before. It's always fascinating to me to see when uh we have our first meeting to hear from the group what their passion areas are. Um I know education is important to you and your family. Um, what else might be something that that you would focus on if if you would lift up a few focus areas for for nonprofit support?

SPEAKER_00 9:56

Uh education, as you mentioned, is really important. Um child poverty, uh, I think anything regarding investing in our youth to get them on a path um to success. Uh sometimes you can't always control the environment that our youth experiences, but being able to kind of, I'll call it on ramps of opportunity where someone has a skill set or or kind of taking them out of their environment and exposing them to what they can achieve in life, I think is critical and can actually change the entire trajectory of that family at times just by exposing one family member to uh you know kind of a different way of life. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:38

And I think too teaching our kids about this, I think for a long time in society, and we're both people of faith, church was kind of that that locus of giving back an activity, thinking of someone helping your neighbor in need. Um and that has changed a little over time. There's certainly still very many active churches we both attend to. Um, how are you seeing, how are you embedding this in your family, the fabric of giving back? How can we as a society think about it for northern Kentucky? We really want to be that public horizon. How are we helping to instill this value in future generations? It takes a lot of time and attention, but how are you viewing that for your own family and then how can we maybe expand that into the area of northern Kentucky?

SPEAKER_00 11:26

I would say my hope is to keep them involved with them to um some of the formal events or additional checks, and I can't just point this is um obviously for the family. This is one of our family missions. And I hope it's that somebody take up and continue.

SPEAKER_02 11:46

That's wonderful. So now I'm gonna pivot slightly. Um you've moved to the southern side of the Ohio River 410, which is the first three digits of our code in the Kentucky. 36 cities, which I talk about on other podcasts in my three county footprints. A lot of unique identities, small neighborhoods, community culture. What are some of the favourite things you've been doing? I'm I'm a foodie. I always want to talk about what your favourite restaurants are, where are you taking the family? What are you guys doing? Definitely how that you live on this side of the river. How long do we have some friends and their businesses, right?

SPEAKER_00 12:24

Um I would say um if it's a nice day, we're definitely at the movie park. I get to come up. It's actually it's how many awesome things are still on we have uh I kind of know what to do now, but that's one um I would say um restaurant.

SPEAKER_02 12:45

It's okay, it's hard to make a few.

SPEAKER_00 12:50

I would say my immediate I'm gonna open a table that we have a minute, I would say um. I would say um, I would say um opening my need is here and hopefully off the bridge pretty much. That's a great option here. You know, I have my typical um a lot of my meetings are either at at a hotel cabinet or spark house. If someone's coming in town and they want to come around town, we start either here or there, and then I get a chance to walk them around and see what we have to offer.

SPEAKER_02 13:39

Yeah, Spark House, where we're sitting for this podcast, um, has become the entrepreneurial hub for Northern Kentucky. I feel when I was tapped, a great privilege to sit in the seat that I'm in um for Horizon as CEO.

unknown 13:53

But founding it's a very important thing.

SPEAKER_02 13:54

And and helping to grow it from the ground up is it's a challenge. I mean, starting your own company, that entrepreneurial mindset, um, I think it takes a lot of grit, a lot of stress, uh a lot of flexibility, a lot of um time and and understanding on the part of our families. Really, I I think um my kids were much younger. I mean, it's it's been almost nine years now since we launched Horizon. How is that for you, launching your company and building that to what it is today as it continues to grow?

SPEAKER_00 14:29

No easy task. Uh, I'm very thankful to my wife and her patients. There are there are long days at times. Um but it it's a sense of purpose. And luckily the man above gave me someone that understands me and wired a little bit different than most um in a good way. And so um but we're we're on a really cool journey of being able to be fulfilled, of giving back and um really helping improve our community. But you know, uh this journey isn't for everyone. I just I don't always recommend it. It's not it's not uh an easy task. And so uh I get a lot of questions from people because my journey of entrepreneurship is a little different than most. I spent 15 years in corporate America uh in various leadership roles, and I always had this burning desire to to to build something special. And so I was kind of building AM Titan um on the side for a very long time. And then I had the opportunity uh to take the leap and continue pour some rocket fuel on it.

SPEAKER_02 15:35

And I you know, that shift from corporate America to entrepreneurial space, there's a safety net that's there previously. Um but then you get to build something of your own that's pretty unique. And I think there's something special with that. What um with Covington, there's there's so much change. Um I think people who've been following on our podcast hearing us talking a lot about the riverfront and and all of the investment that's happening right now. What gets you excited about your new community in Covington? Uh the river cities.

SPEAKER_00 16:05

Some great momentum. I always love hearing the stories of what it used to be. Uh it gets me excited. Uh but I would I would truly say the people, Nancy, the business community here. The business community is such a strong community and uh everyone plays a vital role in where we're headed and is bigger than just having a return. Like it's bigger than just a one-off investment. People are fully vested. They live here, they work here, their families are here, they're raising families here. And so everyone is they lead with purpose. And I get really honored just to be kind of um welcomed per se by the community. Um and it's people who were, you know, to where we're at today with the momentum. There they're I'll look at the people who were here, you know, decades ago when it wasn't a lot of momentum and they were planting seeds for housing funds, kind of funding They're planting seeds for a vision of what we have today. But that started two decades ago.

SPEAKER_01 17:08

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 17:08

And so at times I get a very sense of gratitude of saying I have a chance to be here here at this moment. Yes, yes. To take advantage of this wave that's been happening for so long. And I'm like, all right, how do I bring value to make sure that it's equally as good for that challenge?

SPEAKER_02 17:23

Yeah, well, I feel like we're at an inflection point. It's funny you mentioned even a couple of decades ago, I know the Ohio River sometimes feels like an ocean. And um I I heard from um one of our founding board members, Bill Butler, whom you've you've met many times, um, talk about, and I wasn't a real aware of this, but historically, when our greater region was being developed, the reason that they went uh the developers, the pioneers, to the northern side of the river was because of the land and the slope. So that if you are looking from the northern side of the river towards Cincinnati, you can see how the land slopes up. We were fertile land, but we were flooded all of the time. So the development didn't really happen even north of uh 7th Street until much, much later until levees were produced. So it feels like it's been many, many, many decades actually, for our time to come now, for our time to shine. Um, because it it was not able to be done in the early days. And we have been the bedroom community for so long. But I think there's a sense of spirit that we're doing something a little bit different together right now. Um I know you're a final part of that, which can see you really excited too. Um what are your hopes for northern Kentucky overall moving forward as about the past 40, 50 years of that way?

SPEAKER_00 18:52

I think how do we take advantage of this season that we're in? How do we maximize it and create a strong foundation for business growth, for for community growth, for inclusion, for for um all of the above to make sure that we build something because it's very organic, I feel like. Our growth as a community is very organic. So how do we continue to build it with a strong foundation that to last for the long term?

SPEAKER_02 19:17

That's incredible. We're so grateful having you here today on our podcast. Um we look forward to this year's joint merged giving circle, the 410 Give Where You Live. Thanks for your leadership. Thank you for the work that you've leading in our community, and thank you for joining us today. This is common good for the common wealth.