Hope still alive for hotel, shops on bridge

NEWPORT – Keeping the Purple People Bridge purple won't come cheap.

That's why the pedestrian bridge's owners still hold out hope the $100 million development announced in 2012 to put a hotel, retail and restaurant development on the 143-year-old span will become a reality.

It's been 15 years since the Purple People Bridge was last painted. It would cost at least $1 million to repaint it, said Wally Pagan, president of the Newport Southbank Bridge Co., which owns the bridge.

The bridge is in good shape, so new paint can wait a few more years, Pagan said.

"We have had a bid of $1 million," Pagan said. "When we bid it out, we didn't have the money to pay for it, so we began searching for a developer."

That's where a hotel and retail shops come in. The bridge owner announced in 2012 an agreement with Hyde Park-based shopping center developer DW Real Estate Holdings to build a 160,000-square-foot entertainment complex on the bridge.

Officials with DW Real Estate Holdings couldn't be reached for comment. But Pagan said that, although nothing has been announced since 2012, the developers are still working on financing the project.

Old bridges in Italy and England with shops lining the spans served as inspiration for this project.

The idea intrigued the Kentucky General Assembly enough to allocate $650,000 for an engineering study on the bridge. That study, completed in March 2014, found the bridge could support buildings on the span if $1 million worth of repairs were made.

Pagan said he still meets with the developers and believes the project will come to fruition.

"With the engineering study now done, we have to pursue financing it," he said.

No business like the pedestrian bridge business

Running a pedestrian bridge doesn't generate enough profit to pay for the painting itself, even though the bridge company estimates 300,000 to 400,000 people cross the span each year.

So the bridge owners look for various ways to bring in money. Events are booked throughout the year on the bridge, mostly February through November.

Charity walks/runs, weddings and corporate events bring in about $90,000 a year. Insurance and electricity costs take up most of that money, Pagan said.

Organizations looking to raise money see the bridge as a major draw, said Deana Sowders, spokeswoman for nonprofit charity Brighton Center. The charity helps individuals and families reach self-sufficiency through family support services, education, employment and leadership.

The Brighton Center hosts Wine Over Water on the bridge, a wine-tasting event that draws 500 to 1,000 people annually.

"Having a fundraiser on a bridge in the middle of a river allows us to get exposure that we wouldn't have otherwise," Sowders said. "For us, it is an asset."

Purple People Bridge Climb, we hardly knew ye

Bridge operators have proposed permanent attractions on the bridge, such as zip lines, to provide a steady income, but they haven't pursued them.

The first attempt at building a permanent attraction on the bridge didn't last. The Purple People Bridge Climb didn't attract the crowds as anticipated and closed in 2007 after a year in business.

The bridge climb put a catwalk on the superstructure so people could walk on top. It attracted 10,000 people instead of the 40,000 operators expected in the first year.

"We never got the space shuttle off the launching pad," Dennis Speigel, managing member of the Purple People Bridge Climb, said at the time of the closing. "We fired the engines, but it just kept hanging in there, didn't get into orbit."

The catwalk for the bridge climb sits unused atop the bridge, but hasn't been maintained, Pagan said.

Bridge has lived up to expectations

While the wait for development to take shape continues, the bridge will still operate as a vital link between Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky, Pagan said. The bridge has lived up to expectations for surrounding businesses since it opened as a pedestrian bridge in 2003.

It previously was the L&N Railroad Bridge before $4 million in renovations left it to foot traffic.

The Purple People Bridge has been invaluable to Newport on the Levee, where the bridge lets off in Kentucky, said Harold Dull, general manager of the entertainment and dining complex.

"We see a significant amount of foot traffic coming across that bridge and into the Levee," Dull said.

The City of Newport hopes to soon improve the Festival Park around the bridge with additional ramps and aesthetic changes, said City Manager Tom Fromme.

"Even without the development, if we take it to the next level and promote the bridge as a truly regional asset between the City of Newport and Cincinnati, it promotes development on both sides of the bridge," Fromme said.