Hotel Covington

Hotel Covington is an adaptive reuse of a building that had been previously occupied by State and City offices, but originally Coppin’s department store. The structure was the first high rise concrete building in the state and was constructed by a local merchant John R. Coppin.

The building was central to the business district in its day, with Mr. Coppin bringing fashion from across the globe to Covington. As with much of Main Street, downtown shopping lost its appeal with the development of suburban malls. It was abandoned in the 70’s. When redeveloped as office space in the 80’s, the open department store spaces were subdivided into office areas.

In 2012 local businessman Guy van Rooyen sought to redevelop and restore the building into a boutique hotel. After four years of hard work the building now offers 114 rooms, restaurant, bar, meeting and ballroom space, and urban courtyard. The project embraced the concept of “trans-locality” utilizing local architectural and interior design consultants, contractors and even art (all art in the hotel is original and created locally).

The project was funded through a variety of mechanisms including private investment, utility grants and rebates, State Construction and Operations Sales Tax rebates, IRB Bond Financing and relied heavily on State and Federal Historic Tax Credits.

Total project square footage is about 75,000 over 7 stories. 

Surprise! – the first-floor slopes nearly 2 feet from front door to side entrance – a discovery not made until early in the demolition phase.