COVINGTON — When North by Hotel Covington opens, guests will find a mix of new and old in the building that once housed the city's YMCA. The developers even kept part of the pool.
Management and assorted Northern Kentucky leaders will cut the ribbon on the $26.5 million redevelopment on Tuesday. Finishing touches were still being added on Monday.
You can see more of North by Hotel Covington here.
"We looked at these two historic buildings and we wanted to preserve the history and the integrity of the building," said General Manager Justin Ham."And how do we merge that together and modernize it with the interiors and the type of service?"
Hotel Covington, a project of the Salyers Group, opened next door on Madison Avenue in 2016. It opened in the 1910 Coppin's department store and former Covington City Hall building.
North, which once housed the YMCA and offices, was built in 1912. Now, it will feature 53 suites and loft-style hotel rooms and a 500-person ballroom. They have kitchens or kitchenettes and some have multiple bedrooms.
"There's just been a huge demand from some of our brides but we also have a huge relationship with Film Cincinnati," Ham said. "We're known to have a lot of different actors, some musicians, so we wanted to create a space with that in mind."
Knowledge Bar and Social Room on the first floor, just off the lobby, has been soft opening the past two weeks.
"People have been telling their friends, that's for sure," said Bar Lead Dana Hagedorn. "So every day it's busier and busier."
The bar features a signature cocktail, transferred from the Coppin's restaurant next door. The Liquid Knowledge is a take on the bourbon-based Kentucky mule drink. It also features light snacks the bar calls "snips," named for the fuzzy part of a horse's nose, Hagedorn said.
The theme runs throughout the space. Local legend is John Coppin won the money to buy the land for his department store by betting on a long-shot horse race at the Latonia track. That horse's name was Knowledge.
Now it's immortalized in a ceiling mural in the large social room at the bar that bares its name.
"We want them to be able to walk around the building and our staff to be able to tell the story of what happened here," Ham said.
Throughout the building, developers left remnants of the past.
The old YMCA track's wall painting remains in one hallway on the second floor. Rooms on the third floor are lofted because that space was once the gymnasium. And in the Lightwell ballroom, people in line for the bar may find themselves standing on top of a glass window into the corner of what once was the YMCA's pool.
The ballroom has already hosted about two dozens events.
And construction's not finished. There's a retail space on the corner, in what used to be the Gateway Bookstore. Revival Vintage Spirits and Bottle Shop has announced plans to open a new, larger space there.
Bookings for North by Hotel Covington officially start May 1.
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