Take a look at Covington’s OneNKY Center as it reaches 70% completion

The Northern Kentucky Port Authority announced that construction on Covington’s OneNKY Center is 70% complete.

The OneNKY Center is located at 209 Greenup St. in Covington at the foot of the historic John A. Roebling Suspension Bridge. Construction on the outside of the 47,000 square foot Class A office building is essentially complete, with the ‘OneNKY Center’ nameplate now adorning the exterior. The building’s signature blue-tinted glass windows have been installed.

Inside, construction teams are busy putting up walls, flooring, lighting, and additional features. Hemmer Construction, based in Fort Mitchell, serves as the main contractor for the project. As the construction phase nears completion, Covington-based development and construction manager Corporex will step in to finalize customized office buildouts and other communal areas.

“Hemmer did the base building and the common area, and then Corporex is doing the tenant improvement fit out so we are in that transition period where both are on site right now, and Hemmer is moving off of the project because their work is complete,” NKY Port Authority Executive Director Christine Russell told LINK nky during a tour of the site. “Corporex is going full steam ahead on the tenant suites.”

Upon completion, the OneNKY Center will house 10 of Northern Kentucky’s regional growth organizations, including the Northern Kentucky Bar Association, The Catalytic Fund, EducateNKY, Horizon Community Funds, LifeSciKY, meetNKY, Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce, OneNKY Alliance, Thomas More University Division of External Affairs and BE NKY Growth Partnership.

In total, the building will have nine tenant offices in addition to a life sciences laboratory. The Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce is retaining its Fort Mitchell office.

As of now, OneNKY Center stakeholders are eyeing a fall opening date if the project remains on schedule.

“We have a grand opening date of Sept. 12,” BE NKY VP of Marketing & Communications Cheryl Besl said.

meetNKY is the only organization with its headquarters on the first floor. Besides meetNKY, the first floor will feature a lobby, presentation room, storage room, kitchenette, conference and board room.

Offices for the Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce are on the third floor, along with Thomas More University Division of External Affairs and the Northern Kentucky Bar Association. The fourth floor will house the offices of BE NKY, OneNKY Alliance, EducateNKY, Horizon Community Funds and The Catalytic Fund. Organizations on the third and fourth floors will have access to open-air balconies.

The second floor will house LifeSciKY, formerly known as the Covington Life Sciences Lab. The 15,000-square-foot biotech lab and startup incubator will provide laboratory space to up-and-coming biotech companies. Although construction progress on the laboratory is behind the other floors, Russell said the goal is for it to open in September at the same time as the other tenants.

“The entire second floor is LifeSciKY, which is the new name of the Covington Life Science Laboratory,” Russell said. “Construction hasn’t started. Obviously, they are far more complex design than your average office space.”

Besl said several of the organizations chose to work with different companies regarding the interior design of their office spaces. Some organizations chose Phoenix Architecture, the architect of the OneNKY Center, to design their space, while others tapped SHP Architecture and Design and Platte Architecture + Design.

“Every tenant had the option to work with the design company that they wanted to,” she said.