A nonprofit publication of the Kentucky Center for Public Service Journalism

Kenton County provides information about new administration building, seeks input, at open house


By Mark Hansel
NKyTribune managing editor

A wealth of information was available about plans for the new Kenton County Administration Building Wednesday evening at an open house at Covington Latin School.

Kenton County Judge/Executive Kris Knochelmann (center) speaks with residents at Wednesday's open house at Covington Latin School (photos by Mark Hansel).

Kenton County Judge/Executive Kris Knochelmann (center) speaks with residents at Wednesday’s open house at Covington Latin School (photos by Mark Hansel).

Visitors could learn why the county is moving from the current administration building on Court Street in Covington, and factors that led to the Bavarian Brewery site being chosen for the new offices. Guests were also encouraged to submit ideas or ask questions about the new location.

Kenton County Judge/Executive Kris Knochelmann said public input is a critical part of the process.

“This is a public building, it’s public dollars and the residents has every right to give their ideas and suggestions on what they think might be the best use,” Knochelmann said. “The core of this whole project is not about a specific building, it’s about providing service and the beauty of it is that we are going to be able to do it on this site as it fills that need.”

The Bavarian Brewing Company operated at the site from the 1870s until the 1960s. The building remained primarily vacant until Ken Lewis bought the property in 1996 and opened Brew Works. Millions of dollars was invested in the property, which was later sold and became the popular Jillian’s nightclub.

Jillian’s closed in 2006 and the property, which is located just off of Interstate 75 at the entrance to the city’s Twelfth Street corridor, was sold to Columbia Sussex in 2008, but has remained largely vacant.

The decision to purchase the Bavarian property for $4.5 million earlier this year was made after the County determined it would be too costly to renovate the current administration building, which is no longer efficiently serving its residents.

“The biggest issues, if you want to cut right to it, we have no surface parking to speak of around the building,” Kenton County Administrator Joe Shriver said. “It’s a congested location to begin with, very poor proximity to the highway and, even though locals know how to navigate it, asking folks from the south end of the county to come down is a challenge.”

Norther Kentucky residents and business owners check out the plans for the new Kenton County Adminstration Building, to be located at the former Bavarian Brewing Company site during Wednesday's open house.

Norther Kentucky residents and business owners check out the plans for the new Kenton County Adminstration Building, to be located at the former Bavarian Brewing Company site during Wednesday’s open house at Covington Latin School.

There are also maintenance and occupancy issues with the building, which was built in 1969.

“We have had three major chiller failures in the last seven years and that means no heat or air conditioning,” Shriver said. “It’s half empty since the jail moved out and even if we renovated the thing, we don’t know who would use the other floors.”

Renovation and the temporary relocation of offices was estimated to cost more than $26 million and still would not solve the accessibility issue for county residents.

“Half of Northern Kentucky is working from Twelfth Street, north,” said County Engineer Nick Hendrix. “It’s a struggle to get there and once you get there, there is no surface parking or good access.”

The city enlisted Jeanne Schroer of the Catalytic Development Funding Corp. of Northern Kentucky to provide development services.

“My bigger role was earlier on helping them identify where might be a good site to relocate and matching that site with their requirements,” Schroer said.

The Catalytic Fund has been very successful in identifying new uses for urban sites in the region.

“The location is ideal because it is so accessible from the interstate, suburban residents can easily get to it as well as city residents,” Schroer said. “The other thing that is very difficult to find in an urban site is the ability to have surface parking. I studied the county’s space requirements and that site and building just happened to have the proper amount of space and a little bit extra for future expansion.”

Uses for that extra space were also a topic of discussion at Wednesday’s open house.

Pat Frew, executive director of the Covington Business Council, said putting a small business center on the site is one option.

“It could have limited hours, you could get volunteers from different business organizations, like the CBC, MainStrasse Village Association, Renaissance Covington and the Latonia Business Association to staff it,” Frew said. “Maybe even some bankers that are representing those groups could come in and answer some basic questions and help, if nothing else, give people direction.”

“The county gets the benefit of now looking at this wonderful structure and being able to have it be a canvas where we can build and provide better services for the county. It’s really the best of all worlds” Kenton County Judge/Executive Kris Knochelmann

The CBC has begun to look at ways to become a resource for some of its neighboring communities, and Frew said a business center could provide a venue for the region’s small business to connect with each other.

“I think there are a lot of opportunities if you are looking for alternatives besides the obligatory administrative offices for the county,” Frew said.

Gary Johnston, vice-president of the board of trustees for the Behringer-Crawford Museum strongly supports renovating the Bavarian building.

“For Covington and Kenton County, the loss of this building would be the loss of an architectural treasure and you can’t rebuild an architectural treasure,” Johnston said. “We would like to see a new auditorium for the area at the site, something that’s about a 250 to 350 capacity that’s kind of a multi-purpose venue. We would also like to do some kind of exhibit that highlights the history of Kenton County, Covington and Bavarian Brewery itself.”

It has not been determined what will happen to the current administration building, but all options, including possibly redevelopment as high-end residential, are being considered. Schroer said the Catalytic Fund will likely play a role in that process when the time comes.

Despite its age, those associated with the project say the Bavarian building has “good bones.”

Knochelmann said when considering the purchase of a very old building there are often concerns about problems such as asbestos or structural integrity, but that is not a concern.

“Every one of those things were addressed when Ken Lewis turned this into Brew Works, so those first major risks were borne by others,” Knochelmann said. “The county gets the benefit of now looking at this wonderful structure and being able to have it be a canvas where we can build and provide better services for the county. It’s really the best of all worlds.”

When Columbia Sussex owned the property, there were attempts to raze the buildings and redevelop the land, but Knochelmann said he could not imagine that happening.

“That’s not just a Kenton County landmark, it’s a Northern Kentucky landmark and we have an opportunity to redevelop it and we will do it right,” Knochelmann said. “We’re going to make sure that in two-to-three years, when you enter Northern Kentucky, you can say, ‘Yeah, that’s who we are.’”

The design phase is scheduled to begin in the spring, with construction expected to start later in 2017 and continue through the following year. The projected move-in date is late spring 2019.

Contact Mark Hansel at mark.hansel@nkytrib.com


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One Comment

  1. Tom Krpata says:

    This will become a “money pit”. Right from the start that overpaid $160,000 above what the Kenton County PVA office valued the building. As taxpayers we are looking at a 25 to 35 MILLION dollar boondoggle!

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