IRS Site Redevelopment

In 2018, the City of Covington, Kentucky sought out a team to guide a strategic planning process for the creation of a Master Plan as part of an economic development initiative. Ripe for redevelopment, a recently closed 23-acre Internal Revenue Service (IRS) processing site in downtown was acquired by the City and Economic Development Authority. Adjacent to the Ohio River with views of Cincinnati, the site offers a once-in-a-century opportunity for Covington to create a new mixed-use development along its riverfront. .

As part of a multi-disciplinary team led by Cooper Carry, DaVinci Development helped to create a vision to entice developers and companies to consider Covington as their new home. Serving as the economic development strategy and public engagement consultant, DaVinci provided a national, objective developer's perspective to assure market-based reality checks that included financial and market benchmarking. In addition, DaVinci Development created a robust strategy to help Covington explore temporary uses to activate the site before and during construction.

In March 2020, the Covington Board of Commissioners authorized the City to borrow necessary funds to purchase the former IRS parcel, demolish the existing buildings, and prepare the site for private development. The City's Mayor Meyer noted, "It would be difficult to exaggerate the magnitude of this opportunity. The size and value of this site and its potential for development awards Covington the chance to reshape the very identity and economics of the city long into its future." (Northern Kentucky Tribune, June 26, 2020). The project has now received more than $47 million in federal and state funding to bring the project to fruition. Today, Covington is actively seeking developers to bring the first four parcels of this exciting plan to life.

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