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Levee project to raise retail tide in Newport, Ky.

By Edmund Mander

Newport on the Levee will feature a 20-screen AMC cinema and an IMAX theater.

Newport, Ky., is determined to keep up with the Joneses. As Cincinnati embarks on a $2.1 billion project to revitalize its waterfront (see story, page 27), tiny Newport, a city of 18,000 that sits on the opposite bank of the Ohio River, is doing the same, albeit on a smaller scale.

Newport’s waterfront is being transformed by Newport on the Levee, a $170 million, 408,000-square-foot, mixed-use family entertainment complex that includes an already built million-gallon aquarium, as well as shops, restaurants, offices and a hotel.

The project is being undertaken by Steiner + Associates, the Columbus, Ohio-based firm headed by Yaromir Steiner, a pioneer of the urban entertainment center concept. Steiner built CocoWalk and remodeled The Streets of Mayfair, both of which are in Miami, and developed Easton Town Center in Columbus, Ohio. More recently the firm completed Centro Ybor, an entertainment development in Tampa, Fla.

But Newport on the Levee, scheduled to open next fall, has an advantage over the company’s previous projects, in that it is located right in the city, according to Steiner. “It’s probably the most urban location we have,” he said. Consequently, its customers will be residents, office workers and tourists, rather than one group or the other. “Here we have everything.”

Newport on the Levee will feature a 20-screen AMC cinema and an IMAX large-screen theater; 20,000 square feet of retail, including a Barnes & Noble bookstore; a dozen or so restaurants; and 200,000 square feet of office space. The hotel, a Hilton, and another 20,000 square feet of retail will be opened in the second phase of the project.

The center will provide some much-needed retail and entertainment for residents of this blue-collar town, who at the moment do not have a movie theater, said Pat Wingo, Newport’s development director.

“It will be a real positive impact on the community,” she said. Newport on the Levee also will draw visitors from across the river, whether they be sports fans attending games in the new Cincinnati sports facilities or tourists, she added.

The $40 million Newport Aquarium, which opened in May 1999, attracted 1.25 million visitors in its first year, and its operators are determined to maintain the level of interest, having spent $1.5 million on new fish and exhibits since its opening. The facility has 60 tanks, including a 380,000-gallon shark tank, with visitors able to view the occupants through an 85-foot walk-through glass tunnel.

Another project planned for Newport’s waterfront is a 1,110-foot tower containing about 50 condominiums, with a restaurant on top.

For the longest time Newport struggled with its reputation as a center of illegal gambling and racketeering, Wingo said. But Newport on the Levee will help give it an image for somewhat more clean-cut, family-oriented entertainment.

By the same token, the investment in leisure and tourism in the area, such as a planned museum dedicated to the Underground Railroad slave escape routes across the water in Cincinnati, will help Newport on the Levee, Steiner said.

“It’s one of the best locations we have,” Steiner said. “All these things are very important to our success.”