Covington-based Corporex unveiled their new Ovation Experience Center in Newport Tuesday. The price tag for the Ovation project is $1 billion. The Ovation Experience Center is located at 101 E. 4th Street in Newport.
Guests and media learned about the construction underway at the Homewood Suites by Hilton Newport-Cincinnati. The 132-room hotel was built on top of a 550-space parking platform at Ovation and is the final piece of Phase Two of the project.
The hotel will be located adjacent to the PromoWest Pavilion concert venue and across from the Class-A office building. The hotel will feature a plaza-level restaurant with a bar and a rooftop that will overlook the unique views of the riverfront and Cincinnati skyline.
“Clearly this is a unique development,” said Heather Harris, senior VP of Marketing and Sales for Corporex. “It was important for us to build this space that has similar views and perspectives.”
Ovation is a 25-acre mixed-use development sitting at the confluence of the Ohio and Licking Rivers. The new community will include 500,000 square feet of Class A office space, 1,000 luxury residential units, 524 hotel rooms and 250,000 square feet of retail and entertainment spaces which includes the Ovation Membership Ovation.
“We began parts of it over 10 years ago,” said Tom Banta, Chief Real Estate Officer at Corporex. “It’s been a long road to get here. It’s taken a lot of work with the state building a new road through here and working with the state legislature, the city and the county to get the financing that goes into place to make all this possible.”
Though it’s been challenging, Corporex has made the most of their time.
“If anyone questions what we can get done in a timely manner, 10 weeks ago we didn’t have a building permit for this and it was a parking garage. In 10 weeks, we built the Experience Center,” Banta said.
If an observer looks at an aerial of Ovation, the site is bigger than The Banks in Cincinnati. Ovation encompasses more total property and acreage than the land in between the two stadiums on the other side of the Ohio River. Ovation will engage the Ohio River in a more direct manner.
“We’re doing that because when you sell 1,000 units in stages, people don’t want to live in a construction zone as you do phases. We decided to get all the garages done, all the deep foundations done, all the footings done and then build the vertical on top,” Banta said.
Phase One of the project was the music venue and parking garage. Phase Two is the 100,000 square foot office building with the Homewood Suites hotel. Phase Three, a 16,000 car parking garage, is under construction right now. It will have two levels and a plaza on top.
“We didn’t want to disconnect the street level development from the city street grid. Where Columbia used to be, that will actually be a gradual road that goes up on top. That’ll get you to the top of the plaza and you can drive right down Main St. So unlike Newport on the Levee or some of the other developments, you’ll be able to get on top of the plaza and drop people off,” Banta said. “There will be restaurants up there. Once on top, you can come down and turn into the parking garage and park your car. You’ll also be able to turn into the street level parking at various points down the way.”
Three separate buildings are being built along the Licking River levee. The three buildings will have 88 residential units on four levels and 36,000 feet of street level space for restaurants. What’s unique about the setup is people will be able to drop a guest off at the front door. Customers will be treated to views of the Ohio River.
The residential units will feature balconies on both sides, one facing Main St., and the other facing the Ohio River. All the residential units are roughly the same size with some slight variances in between the units. Each unit is approximately 1,800 square feet. They feature two bedrooms and two bathrooms. Some units will include special features such as a powder room.
The interior on the plaza will feature an area called Illumination Square, roughly about half the size of Fountain Square in Cincinnati.
“We’ve got an acronym called CASA,” Banta said. “We use it in every decision we make about Ovation. CASA is an acronym for color, architecture, sound and art. In every decision we make, we’re taking that into consideration. All the buildings have places built in for murals. We intend to have lighting throughout. Obviously sound, music, is a big part of this overall development with the AEG Theater.”
The Ovation Spa is the unofficial name for an office building that will feature a fitness center with a weight room. There will be a pool with southern exposure on the deck that overlooks the roundabouts. There will also be a bar/restaurant that can serve indoors and outdoors right on the plaza for the people who populate Ovation, whether it be residents or office tenets.
Each unit has secure parking in the parking garage underneath. Residents will pull into the public garage, pull up to a secured section, hit the garage door opener and pull up into a separate section of the garage where they can park their car. From there, residents will have an elevator that will take them up directly to their unit.
“We don’t have anything in Cincinnati that engages the river the way this development does,” Banta said.
There are eight different floor plans that vary slightly. As a resident comes up the elevator and arrives in the unit, they’ll have a card access that’ll only go to their unit. When they come in, there’s an entry unit that will only go to their foyer. Then they can enter the unit itself.
“It’s very private, very secure, but it has the convenience of an elevator that takes you right to your unit,” Banta said.
Corporex has built a preferred buyers list. They are currently in the process of adding names to the list. Between March 1 and March 15, Corporex will be collecting contracts from people who want to buy. The units are priced under $1 million on average. Some units are priced slightly higher.
