The Kenton County Planning Commission approved a concept development plan for a large mixed-used development in Fort Mitchell on Thursday. The development site is located at the former location of the Drawbridge Inn in Fort Mitchell, which closed in 2012 after 42 years of operation.
The plans includes a seven-story senior living facility, which has served as the primary feature of the development, even before Thursday’s approval, as well as a medical office, business center, restaurants and retail spaces. The plan also includes signage, lighting, parking, landscaping and other essentials.
“This site has laid fallow for quite some time, for one reason or another,” said Commissioner Jeff Bethell, who represents Fort Mitchell on the Planning Commission. “Fortunately, it’s starting to move at this point, and I think it’ll be great not just for Fort Mitchell but for Northern Kentucky.”
The city reached an agreement with developer Buttermilk Pike Development Company in May. The land is roughly 26 acres in size and is located on the southeast side of the I-71/75 interchange with Buttermilk Pike. The plan calls for nine buildings, 1101 parking spaces—including two parking garages—and a decorative retaining wall on the north end of the development, highlighted in yellow in the map above. The plan also calls for about 80 trees spread out along the streets.
The planning commission approved zoning for the site in December when it voted to instate a new mixed-use zone called an MU 2 zone. Fort Mitchell proposed the new zone, and the planning commission unanimously approved it. The zone allows for a broad range of developmental uses, including residential, commercial, industrial, lodging and recreational uses, among others.
The city also secured tax increment financing, or TIF, for the area. TIF districts are a way for cities to attract developers to their areas by rerouting tax revenue into the district. Once a city establishes a TIF district, a portion of the property taxes collected in the area are redirected from general community services and instead injected into the development of the TIF district over a period of time. This can be a way of speeding up infrastructure development on the land and can reduce costs for the developers.
Multiple attempts at developing the land have occurred over the years, but this most recent development has been in the works for at least two years, based on statements from Greg Berling, a developer from Buttermilk Pike Development Company, who spoke at the zoning meeting in December.
The main attraction for the development is a large, senior-living facility called the Ormsby, which takes its name from Union Major General Ormsby MacKnight Mitchel, the man after whom the city of Fort Mitchell is named. The facility already has a website touting it as a kind of luxury senior living center. The center’s health services will be operated in partnership with St. Elizabeth Healthcare.
“It’s a premier, extremely high-end project,” said Jay Bayer of Bayer Becker, the engineering firm behind the designs.
The residences will consist of 67 one-bedroom units, 136 two-bedroom units and 48 beds in the health center. A medical facility, business center and restaurants will be distributed throughout the remaining lots, all of which stand between one and two stories. Business tenants for the other lots have not yet been secured.
There was some discussion among the commissioners about potentially reducing parking, a conversation that led to the Commission Vice Chair Paul Darpel quipping that he “never thought a planning commission would sit there and tell a developer they need less parking.”
This comment prompted laughter from the other commissioners.
“It seems like a pretty good plan,” Darpel said later on in the discussion. “I think it’s well thought out.”
The commission then unanimously voted to affirm the concept plan. The plan will now return to the Fort Mitchell City Council for final approval and potential revisions.
The next meeting of the Kenton County Planning Commission will take place on Sept. 5, starting on 6:15 p.m. at the Kenton County Government Center on Simon Kenton Way in Covington.