COVINGTON - One of Madison Avenue's most dreary empty storefronts has been transformed into one of Covington's most stylish buildings.

The Wedding Mall at 630 Madison Ave. will open Feb. 3, with space for 16 wedding vendors' shops. Already, eight vendors have rented spaces in the building that will have marble floors, murals on the ceilings and chandeliers.

Even before its opening, the building's façade - with the whimsical pizazz of an ultra-trendy wedding cake - has lifted the image of Madison's 600 block.

It's a big upgrade for the long-vacant, dirty structure whose only sign that humans had touched it in recent years had been the display of student artwork in the windows.

"It's basically going to be a mini-mall," said Jessica Kern, director of The Madison Wedding District, the group of companies that includes the mall. It will be open 20 hours a week, Friday through Monday.

Renting so far are a floral and wedding events company, a custom invitations store, two disc jockeys, a photography company, a video company, a tuxedo rental shop and a Fabulous Furs satellite showroom. A café selling light lunches and pastries will be on the first floor.

"To me, it was one of the worst eyesores in downtown Covington," said Kathie Hickey, director of Renaissance Covington, an organization that looks to revitalize local businesses. "I felt that from the first time I came to the city. I looked at that, and said, 'Oh, my gosh.' It's sitting right behind your city hall, where so much commerce is transacted."

A WEDDING EMPIRE

Covington developer Jim Salyers, who operates The Madison Event Center at 700 Madison Ave. and the Madison Wedding Connection at 740 Madison Ave., bought The Wedding Mall space partly for sentimental reasons.

"When I was 13, I got my first job, and it was in the building that houses The Wedding Mall," said Donna Salyers, Jim Salyers' wife. She operates Donna Salyers' Fabulous Furs at 20 W. 11th St. and Donna Salyers' Fabulous Bridal Boutique, at 601 Madison Ave.

"It's my husband's mission to fill Madison Avenue between Sixth and Eighth" streets, she said. "He wants to fill all these buildings, and make it a vibrant community."

BEAUTY AND THE BEHOLDERS

"It's beautiful, absolutely beautiful," said photographer Dan Beach of Beach Photography about the wedding mall building Thursday afternoon, as he washed the windows of his own shop, at 5 E. Eighth St.

Beach Photography recently moved from Scott Boulevard, after the landlord sold the building.

The new photography shop is strategically located across Eighth Street from an entrance to the Wedding Connection, where brides, grooms and friends gather 5:30-7:30 p.m. the first Wednesday of each month for complimentary hors d'oeuvres, drinks and a bridal show with about 50 wedding vendors.

Not far up Madison Avenue, the Fabulous Bridal Boutique opened Nov. 4 and is kicking into a higher gear as brides focus their attention on their upcoming weddings.

"We have 19 appointments for Friday, Saturday and Sunday," Tricia Schweitzer, general manager of Fabulous Bridal, said Thursday. The store occupies about 8,000 square feet on the lower three floors, with room to expand into the fourth story, now occupied by offices. It has separate areas for veils and accessories, bridesmaids' dresses and includes a men's area with ESPN on the television, beer in the refrigerator and tuxedos and designer ties.

It also features some wedding-dress lines that it carries exclusively from the Kentucky/Tennessee line to Cleveland, Schweitzer said.

STYLISH AND MODERN

The Wedding Mall's new facade had trouble sneaking past Covington's Urban Design Review Board, said Ashley Tongret, the city's Historic Preservation Officer.

At the first board meeting, the vote was locked at 4-4. It took a second meeting, and two members abstaining, to allow the 4-2 vote that approved the face-lift.

"There was concern over retaining the original windows that were up on the second floor," Hickey said. "But the owners had calculated that they were not going to use that second floor for any kind of space, and those windows were in extremely poor condition."

Now the building, with a completely new roof, has a façade covering the upstairs windows.

"The windows are still there, but they're behind that façade," decorated by stylish black awnings, Hickey said. "So it's kind of what you might call a 'reversible condition.' If they ever wanted to go back at some point, and do all the repair work to those windows, they can."

E-mail mrutledge@nky.com

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