Imagine: Your 3-story townhome in a historic building steps away from all the entertainment options in Downtown Covington and Cincinnati. It has the character of a building from the 1870s but all the sleek modern design you could handle, including a private parking garage that can be opened up to extend your kitchen and entertaining space.
That fantasy may soon be real if the Boone Block Lofts come to fruition and after a vote Tuesday by the Covington City Commission, the development is a step closer.
“This project, to me, is perhaps the most important one that the Catalytic Fund has worked on to date,” said Jeanne Schroer, president of the organization that helps structure financing and provides gap loans for high impact development deals in Northern Kentucky’s River Cities. That’s a big statement since the Catalytic Fund has been part of the Mutual Building, The Hotel Covington, the Market Lofts, Pike Star Lofts, and Newport’s Scholar House.Â
Schroer said in her presentation Tuesday that the Catalytic Fund chooses to support and work on projects with a strategic reason for doing so and the Boone Block building, an 1872 structure that has been mostly vacant for years aside from its corner retail spot known as Dick’s Liquors, is an important location. Fourth Street & Scott Boulevard is part of the Roebling Point entertainment area and with Cincinnati’s The Banks rocking across the river where GE and other large companies are moving employees, this eyesore could soon be the prettiest girl in the room.
“It’s a major historic contributing structure and right now there is a marginal use and I believe that use is discouraging investment in this area which has high potential,” Schroer said. “We believe the project potential is excellent because the condition is good, the architecture is appealing, and the location is spectacular.”
The redevelopment of the building has the potential to be stunning, if conceptual renderings shown by Schroer are any indication. Take a look at what the exterior could look like:
And now for a peek at the conceptual interiors:
While those are just conceptual drawings, they demonstrate what the developers hope to do. Orleans Development, the group behind the Market Lofts and Pike Star among other downtown developments, will partner with the Depenbrock family which owns the Boone Block Building and which operates Dick’s Liquors.Â
“It was important for us to take over the current liquor store as a defensive move,” said Shannon Depenbrock, whose family operates other nearby liquor stores. The rest of the massive building that was also home to the law offices of Kentucky Governors John W. Stevenson and William Goebel and Speaker of the US House of Representatives John G. Carlisle, was used as storage. “We no longer need the warehouse space. … We want to make it beautiful for Covington. I am a Covington resident and am very proud of our city. My whole family, we really want to see this building become a cornerstone and bring it back to the life it once had.”
The city commission unanimously approved a $350,000 forgivable loan. The City will receive 1/3 of the net proceeds from unit sales in excess of the total project cost (if available) up to $175,000. Schroer estimated an increase in property taxes collected at the site of $175,000 over twenty years. The loan will be paid out in installments of $43,500 quarterly starting in July.Â
So, is there a market for homebuyers here? Schroer says, yes. Covington may be losing ground currently to surrounding urban communities in the quest to land young professional homebuyers or more affluent empty nesters but not because it is an undesirable place. “It’s not because people don’t want to live here, it’s because we don’t have this kind of housing in this middle price range,” Schroer said. “Many people want ready-to-go, move-in ready units.”
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