After four years of planning and two years of construction, the Hotel Covington welcomed its first guests on Tuesday.
The crowd sipped champagne on Madison Avenue under the morning sun in Covington to celebrate the 114-room hotel in the center of the city’s business district.
Models in 1940s garb stood in the windows as living relics of a bygone era when the building housed Coppin’s Department Store. The building later housed Covington City Hall.
“This is awesome,” said City Commissioner Chuck Eilerman as he stared at the new hotel. “Everything they do is fantastic.”
The building doesn’t look anything like the former city hall, with a posh lobby draped in fur blankets and fancy lighting. There’s also an upscale restaurant, dubbed Coppin’s Restaurant in homage to the department store that operated there from 1910 until the 1970s.