The Northern Kentucky Port Authority and Kenton County are seeking a project manager to lead the development of Commonwealth Center for Biomedical Excellence on the former IRS site in Covington.
On Monday, July 29, both organizations posted a Request for Proposal, or RFP, on their websites to solicit bids from interested parties. The RFP is looking for consultants to provide project manager professional services for the development of the education complex. The consultant will function as an extension of staff, conceptual designer, and will lead stakeholder engagement throughout the duration of the project.
Bids for the contract are due on Monday, Aug. 19, according to a press release from Kenton County.
The Center for Biomedical Excellence will relocate Northern Kentucky University’s Salmon P. Chase College of Law and the University of Kentucky College of Medicine’s Northern Kentucky campus to the 23-acre IRS site in downtown Covington. Both are moving from NKU’s main campus in Highland Heights.
“This is the first step in what is a very exciting process for NKU and Northern Kentucky,” NKU President Cady Short-Thompson said in the release. “We are looking forward to seeing proposals from the industry that will help shape the future of Chase College of Law.”
Back in March, the Commonwealth of Kentucky announced $125 million in state funding for the project. Sen. Chris McDaniel (R-Ryland Heights), chair of the senate’s appropriation and revenue committee, helped secure funding for the project in House Bill 1 — the state’s biennial budget bill. The project’s total budget sits at $125 million.
Total funding for the project for the current fiscal year is $10 million which will be used for the consultant contract, other professional service agreements, and costs associated with the site’s acquisition, according to the RFP. The remaining $115 million will be unlocked in Fiscal Year 2026 and is expected to be used for hard construction activity.
In addition, the RFP states that an advisory committee is expected to be formed that will consist of key partners such as Kenton County, Salmon P. Chase College of Law and the University of Kentucky College of Medicine. The Port Authority is considered to be the owner of the project.
“The NKY Port brings unique real estate and development tools to the Commonwealth
Center for Biomedical Excellence and we are grateful to Senator McDaniel and
Judge/Executive Knochelmann for the opportunity to be a partner in the project,” Port Authority Executive Director Christine Russell said in the release. “The Commonwealth Center for Biomedical Excellence will be an important contributor to life sciences talent, where projected employment growth is 49%.”
The RFP outlines a prospective timeline which shows the project’s conceptual design process will take place from Nov. 1 to Jan. 31, 2025. After that, schematic design and preconstruction activities will commence during the spring and summer of 2025. Construction is set to kick off in late 2025 and will be completed in mid-2028 barring any setbacks.
The development of the Commonwealth Center for Biomedical Excellence is just one part of the broader Covington Central Riverfront Project that sets out to transform the now barren IRS site. As part of the project, the City of Covington subdivided the site into 16 individual parcels for different developers to bid on.
Covington already selected two developers for two different parcels of land: Fort Mitchell-based homebuilder Drees Homes and CCR-MN Developers, LLC — a recently formed development company consisting Silverman & Co., Messer Construction and architectural firm KZF Design.
