Renovation of Downtown Covington Office – WorK Architecture + Design

Developers launch renovation of downtown Covington office building, adding rooftop bar, restaurant

A local development team is starting on a complete renovation of a historical building in downtown Covington.

Covington Republic LLC, a development team that consists of Sparen Real Estate, Manning Contracting and Work Architecture + Design Ltd., purchased the Republic Bank building at 535 Madison Ave. last fall and will renovate the 27,000-square-foot building. The total investment is expected to be $4.9 million.

In addition to renovating the existing office space, expanding its elevator and enhancing the historical facade, the team plans to add a rooftop bar and restaurant space. The team closed on its construction financing last week.

The development team has been working on its plans for this project for the past 10 months, said Joe Stevie, principal with Sparen Real Estate. They were attracted to the building because of its location and “grand feel” in Covington, Stevie said.

“You’d have to be blind to ignore that building coming through Covington,” Nic Manning, owner of Manning Contracting told me.

The four empty floors of the Republic Bank building have been abandoned for about 10 to 15 years, said Tyler Watkins, partner at Work Architecture + Design. The team will gut those four floors and reposition them as class A office space.

The plan is to take the office spaces as close to fully finished as possible. That way, as tenants look to sign leases in the building, they can turn around a completed space in 45 to 60 days.

Tom West, economic development director for the city of Covington, said the city is receiving a number of leads from creative companies and logistics firms looking for office space in the city. Most of these tenants are looking for 4,000 to 15,000 square feet of space.

The challenge has been many of these companies don’t start looking until about 60 days before they need to move. As a result, Covington started working on a strategy at the end of 2018 to get product on the market that could be turned quickly.

In addition to renovating the office space, the team is adding a floor to the building for the rooftop bar and restaurant space. About half of the rooftop footprint will be enclosed, with the remaining half becoming an open rooftop deck. Manning said there will be about 2,000 square feet of enclosed space, using accordion-style glass doors that can be opened up when the weather is nice.

The space will offer views of both the Covington and Cincinnati skylines. The team said they are currently in negotiations with a couple of operators for the restaurant and bar space.

While this is the team’s first development project where they will own the building, they have worked together on a number of projects for other owners.

“This is our first where we’ve locked arms developing together,” Manning said.

Currently, the building has two tenants, Republic Bank on the ground floor and Strategic Advisers LLC. Republic Bank will stay in the building, and the developers are in discussions with Strategic Advisers.

Even though they haven’t started marketing space in the building, Watkins said they have already received a fair amount of interest with commitments from some users.

Joe Stevie said location is a key attribute of this building. Hotel Covington, Braxton Brewing and a number of restaurants and bars are all within a short walk of the Republic Bank building.

Manning Contracting will handle the construction, with Work Architecture + Design serving as the architect. Sparen Real Estate will market the space to potential tenants. In addition, the team is working with the Catalytic Fund for mezzanine debt and its historic tax credit bridge loan, Republic Bank is financing the main part of the deal, and Kyle Stevie helped the team round up investors for the project.

The city of Covington is helping the project by providing a tax increment financing loan and a forgivable facade loan that represent about 6% of the project’s costs.

“This will be the premier office building in the downtown core that gives folks that cool vibe,” West said.

Article Posted in the Cincinnati Biz Journals