Louisville development "sticky" (Lexington, St. Matthews: stores, moving, warehouse)

[censusdata]

I haven't seen any new developments at Liberty Green in a while, maybe existing buildings are being finished but no new ground breakings

[Peter1948]

Originally Posted by censusdata

I haven't seen any new developments at Liberty Green in a while, maybe existing buildings are being finished but no new ground breakings

Nope, there are new foundations on the east end of it. That development has went up fast. I am most excited to see the "edge" at Liberty Green start. I think downtown Louisville is still growing at lightening pace, even though some of the mega projects like center city, capital plaza tower, east main towers, Nucleus research park, iron quarter, and museum plaza, and the embassy suites have not been moving fast.

You tend to forget about "little" projects like this:
Broken Sidewalk . » Ice House Lofts Moving Ahead As Apartments

These types of things are too numerous to count.

It are these types of smaller projects, including plans to fix up a large church, that are setting the stage for an incredible downtown when the economy settles and the mega projects can begin. http://brokensidewalk.com/

Even if only half the mega projects get built, Louisville will still have one of the better downtowns in its size range , and the reason is not the mega projects, but rather, the slow but sure infill and rehabs you rarely hear about. Did you know condos are going in on the top of Artspace on Broadway. Did you know the Seelbach is under massive renovation? Did you know Z's fusion opened and the Green Building on east market will anounce 732 social, an upscale trendy restaurant, opening soon?
How about whiskey row lofts? How about the new osheas on main currently under construction? There are so many projects its insane. How come you never talk progress on little known develpments like this in Old Louisville?

Central Park Lofts

As you see, the list can go on and on, and I think the development flurry in Louisville's central city is impressive. Now if we can only get the mega projects going. The way I see it, the big projects rank like this in importance (note this only included the CBD). Besides the arena and Liberty Green, which are the largest and most expensive projects being built right now, these are the stalled or slow moving mega projects projects worth several billion dollars alone for downtown:

1) Nucleus Research Park. The reason is obvious and it has to do with the sheer number of high tech jobs it will create
2) Center City. We desperately need more retail downtown
3) Museum Plaza. This is more of our crown jewel, our bragging rights, but may not be as important to street life and activity downtown as we may think
4) Iron Quarter. it would define a separate district downtown, the arena district, and finally give needed retail to the developing residential district in east downtown
5) River Park Place. (technically just outside the CBD but effectively a part of it due to it being cut off bu I-71) Another seemingly unexplained failure by Poe Companies. It is not dead in the water yet, but it is so important for luring some of the east suburban type residents very near downtown in a lifestyle community
6) Capital Plaza. This would create another signature skyscraper and add much needed Class A office space in a downtown that is running out of it
7) East Main Towers. same as above
8) Embassy Suites. We need more walkable upscale downtown hotel rooms to compete for national events at the convention center and arena.

Did I leave out any mega projects? (over 100 million apiece)? I probably did, but those are the list i can think of off the top of my head, and this includes ONLY the 101 sqaure block central business district.

[JefferyT]

During a recent visit we took a spin through Norton Commons. Very impressive degree of build-out so far. They are even building mixed use, which shows pretty good follow-through on the plan.

[bw87a]

^^ i agree. I just took my girlfriend, who is from the north Dallas area, to Norton Commons and she actually really enjoyed the whole concept. As did I as well. I'm very interested in seeing how well it will actually be built out.

[Peter1948]

Originally Posted by bw87a

^^ i agree. I just took my girlfriend, who is from the north Dallas area, to Norton Commons and she actually really enjoyed the whole concept. As did I as well. I'm very interested in seeing how well it will actually be built out.

I think it robs the city personally. I would rather see money spent rehabbing homes in areas adjacent to downtown like Sobro and Phoenix Hill.

[censusdata]

I was in town yesterday. There are two huge cranes over the arena site - you can see them coming from Indiana down I-65 all the way from Eastern Blvd. It is quite a site.

On a smaller note I was loitering in the U of L student center and there are plans for "Student Center West" - a large food court with a gym and study places. It will be a 2 story extension of University Tower that will be nearly flush with 3rd Street and Brandeis Street. It is supposed to be open for the spring 2010 semester

[Peter1948]

Originally Posted by censusdata

I was in town yesterday. There are two huge cranes over the arena site - you can see them coming from Indiana down I-65 all the way from Eastern Blvd. It is quite a site.

On a smaller note I was loitering in the U of L student center and there are plans for "Student Center West" - a large food court with a gym and study places. It will be a 2 story extension of University Tower that will be nearly flush with 3rd Street and Brandeis Street. It is supposed to be open for the spring 2010 semester

the arena site had 3 tower cranes up actually. Not sure when you were here. There are also several smaller cranes. Downtown now has 6 tower cranes up. Not bad in this economy. If center city, ironquarter, and museum plaza ever got rolling, that amount would triple.

[JefferyT]

This is in Phoenix Hill, Shelby & Broadway. Probably one of the best bits of infill that I've seen, and I've posted it elsewhere as a good example of fitting new stuff into an old neighborhood.







...just down the block from St Martin of Tours. Cool streetscape.




I was really suprised to hear this was public housing, built as a mitigation to the loss of Clarksdale. Considering that this was public housing the architect did great job here.

[Money Saver]

Nice pics, you must have used a good camera.












www.iwantdeals.info

[Peter1948]

Anyone heard anything about the possibilty of TJ Maxx downtown? Yes, its just TJ Maxx, but any large retailer downtown would be welcome. Business First had an article about them scouting locations for their 7th area store.