The Kenton County Fiscal Court made headway this week on the development of a prospective parking garage, set to be built on the premises of the Kenton County Government Center in Covington.
The court approved a fee proposal Tuesday submitted by Gresham Smith, a Blue Ash-based architecture firm, to design a parking garage for their Covington property at 1840 Simon Kenton Way. The execution of the contract is contingent on approval from the county attorney. The proposal highlights the contract’s cost as $1.4 million.
“This is for the parking structure in the back of the building,” Kenton County Judge/Executive Kris Knochelmann said during the meeting.
Gresham Smith submitted a conceptual design proposal in March that said the garage would be located adjacent to the existing office building.
That same conceptual design proposal considered making the garage capable of accommodating up to 250 vehicles, as well as constructing a weather-protected connector between the parking garage and the government center.
The proposal outlines three main components of the project: building a new parking structure, reconfiguring the west site access and parking, and redeveloping the site’s north pedestrian/vehicle corridor. As of now, there are no completed architectural designs or renderings.
The Kenton County Government Center site currently includes a parking lot with over 100 spaces. County employees can also park in offsite spaces underneath the I-75 overpass. However, once construction begins on the Brent Spence Corridor Project, county employees who use the spaces underneath I-75 will be displaced. A new garage would allow the county to consolidate onsite parking.
The construction process is expected to begin on Dec. 30 and last through March 2025, according to the timeline included within the proposal.
Gresham Smith would lead the project’s architectural design, interior design, structural engineering, landscape architecture, graphics and wayfinding, and construction inspecting.
A variety of external contractors are also included within the proposal. Brandstetter Carroll would handle civil engineering services and surveying services. Elevar Design Group would provide mechanical, plumbing, and electrical engineering services. Both firms are based in Cincinnati.
Atlanta-based Newcomb & Boyd will handle security design while environmental engineering firm Geotechnology will be in charge of geotechnical engineering and testing services. Geotechnology has a presence in Erlanger, Cincinnati and Lexington.
In March, the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet gave the county $100,000 to conduct a feasibility study to identify whether the property was a viable location to build a new parking structure. Gresham Smith was also the contractor awarded the bid for the feasibility study.
