UPDATE: The city commission unanimously voted to approve the contract with Pepper Construction at their meeting on March 11, 2025.–LINK nky editorial, March 11, 2025
The Covington City Commission is poised to vote on the final construction contract for the new city hall, which is slated to be built on the 600 block of Scott Street at the former site of the Emergency Shelter of Northern Kentucky.
“We’re finally there,” said City Manager Ken Smith at Tuesday’s commission meeting. “Tonight’s contract will be the completion – outside of the furniture and fixtures and the IT – it should take care of everything.”
The city broke ground on the new Covington city hall in October, and the commission approved a building contract with Pepper Construction that same month. October’s contract allowed the city to pay up to $6 million to Pepper Construction for structural and foundational work.
The new contract presented on Tuesday, for which the commission will cast a final vote next week, would allow a maximum budget of about $18 million for the remaining construction. The total maximum price for both phases of the construction would be $23,861,967 if approved, according to city documents.
“We’ve been working with the design team at Brandstetter Carrol and Elevar, with our owner’s agent JSL and Pepper Construction to further refine the design for the remainder of the building, to ensure that it would come in on budget and be the best building for us going forward,” said Director of Special Projects Elizabeth Wetzel.
The city is financing the project through the issuance of general obligation bonds, which are common forms of municipal debt. These debt instruments were secured in conjunction with an even broader restructuring of the city’s overall debt load, aimed at controlling short-term cash flow. The commission approved the bond issuance in October, as well.
The bonds have a 30-year term, meaning the city is scheduled to pay off the bonds’ principal and interest by 2054. City documents presented to the commission last year project the total payoff amount for the bonds, including interest, to be about $52.6 million.
City Finance Director Steve Webb told LINK nky last summer that new tax revenue generated at the Central Riverfront Development would be more than enough to pay off the city’s debt.
“In a matter of years, that’ll be millions and millions of dollars added to the tax base, from payroll tax, net profit tax, property tax, insurance license fees,” Webb said. “That’s why we do this. This is an investment in that.”
Wetzel emphasized on Tuesday that the project would fall within the budget set out by the bond issuance.
“It is on track to be within the budget of the original bond anticipation note that the commission approved back in October,” Wetzel said.
The commission discussed the matter little on Tuesday. The contract proposal had not appeared on the meeting’s agenda, instead being walked on at the last minute at the city manager’s request. As a result, the commission placed the contract on next week’s regular agenda, meaning they will engage in more discussion on the contract before casting a final vote.
The contract predicts construction completion in the summer of 2026, with inspections and other final measures extending into the following August.
The commission will vote to approve or deny the contract on March 11. You can read the contract, complete with construction timelines, details on required materials and architectural renderings below.