Anyone who drives Buttermilk Pike toward I-71/75 has passed the same 26 acres of chain-link fence and cracked pavement for so long it stopped registering as a construction site and started reading as scenery. The Drawbridge Inn closed in 2012 after 42 years as Northern Kentucky's go-to hotel and convention center. The building came down in 2014. Since then, the lot has outlasted a change in mayors, more than one reworked site plan, and enough delay that most Fort Mitchell residents probably assumed nobody serious was ever going to build there.

The site's redevelopment involved a lawsuit between two competing hospital systems, followed by the relocation of a city street before construction could begin. Both matters have since been resolved. The redevelopment plans have changed since earlier coverage described restaurants and a hotel.

The Hospital Dispute and the Site Plan

In 2019, WVXU reported that Christ Hospital wanted to build an ambulatory surgical center on the Drawbridge site in the mid-2010s. St. Elizabeth Healthcare, its rival, challenged the plan, arguing the region didn't need another one. In June 2018, a Franklin County circuit judge agreed, ruling that Northern Kentucky already had nine outpatient surgery centers and that each was running under 50 percent capacity. The ruling ended Christ's surgical-center plan. The broader Gateway project later proceeded with a different plan.

Montgomery Inn's Fort Mitchell location, just off the same corridor, closed during that period. The restaurant cited declining sales and the stalled Gateway project as contributing factors.

St. Elizabeth later became the health partner on the site's eventual plan.

Royal Drive's Relocation

Royal Drive runs straight through the middle of the property, and its existing alignment did not fit the redevelopment plan. As part of the site's redevelopment, the road was removed, relocated, and rebuilt ahead of construction on either side of it.

In May 2026, LinkNKY reported that the closure went into effect on December 13, 2024. By this spring, the city reported that the roadway structure itself was complete and only final utility work remained, with Royal Drive expected to reopen within a month or two. Fort Mitchell City Administrator Edwin King said sewer and road improvements were finished and the project was on schedule, even after the delays that came before it.

Here's the sequence, compressed:

The timeline shows how redevelopment unfolded over the years. The legal dispute has been resolved, and Royal Drive has been relocated.

The Ormsby Moves Ahead; Retail Space Remains Available

If you remember the earlier renderings of this project, you probably pictured restaurants and a hotel filling in first, since that's what the 2019 and 2023 coverage of the site's plans described. That's not how it's playing out. The first structure to actually rise on the site is The Ormsby, a seven-story senior living community built in partnership between St. Elizabeth Healthcare and Dallas-based Greenbrier Development, led by Bellevue-based Brandicorp LLC. The community is restricted to residents 62 and older and will include 67 one-bedroom units, 136 two-bedroom units, and a 48-bed health center, named for Fort Mitchell's namesake, Maj. Gen. Ormsby MacKnight Mitchel.

According to a July 2026 LinkNKY report, Fort Mitchell's city council approved an interlocal agreement with the Kentucky Bond Development Corporation in late July to finance the Ormsby's construction through tax-exempt municipal bonds, a structure that lets the city sponsor the financing without carrying the debt itself.

Brandicorp's own leasing materials list roughly 10 acres along Buttermilk Pike as available for restaurant and retail tenants as of this spring.

What Changes on Buttermilk Pike This Fall

Vertical construction on the Ormsby is expected to begin this fall, according to the city's most recent update. That's the visible milestone most residents will actually notice: cranes, not just fencing.

There's a traffic piece worth knowing too. The site sits at a corridor carrying an average of 19,843 vehicles a day along Buttermilk Pike, and the state required a full traffic impact study because of its proximity to I-71/75. As a result, Kentucky's transportation cabinet plans a double-diamond interchange redesign to manage congestion once the site is generating regular traffic instead of sitting empty. If you've ever timed your commute to avoid the backup near that exit, this is the fix that's supposed to address it, though it will follow the building phase rather than precede it.

The July 2026 LinkNKY report also said Fort Mitchell's city council was scheduled to meet Aug. 17 at the Fort Mitchell City Building on Dixie Highway, in a meeting open to the public. The Gateway project has been a recurring line item at these meetings for more than a year now, one procedural vote at a time, each one a small sign that the thing behind the fence is finally becoming a place.

The Drawbridge Inn closed in 2012, and its building was demolished in 2014. The site's redevelopment involved a hospital dispute and relocation of Royal Drive. With those matters resolved, vertical construction on The Ormsby is expected this fall.

We've been tracking this corridor closely because it's the kind of change that reshapes how a neighborhood feels to live in, long before it shows up in any sale price. If you're curious how projects like the Fort Mitchell Gateway tend to ripple through a corridor over time, that's exactly the kind of local read Dwell Well Group keeps close tabs on. Request a Dwell Well Consultation anytime you want a grounded, neighborhood-level conversation about what's actually happening around you, not just what's for sale.