Louisville City Wire

Louisville Metro Government today issued a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) seeking development teams to repurpose several city-owned sites downtown with the goal of making downtown Louisville an active, vibrant, unique and green 24/7 neighborhood, business district and tourist destination.

“Downtown is the epicenter of our growing city, and while we’ve seen significant investment over the last decade, we still have many more opportunities to enhance downtown. By opening these properties up to developers, we are taking underused assets and creating opportunities for our local economy and businesses to benefit from 24/7 activity downtown and to build upon the tremendous planned investments in public safety and infrastructure that Louisville Metro Government is making downtown,” said Mayor Craig Greenberg.

The three different sites identified in the RFQ create an opportunity for public-private partnership with uses that include affordable and market-rate housing, hospitality, arts and entertainment, distilling/bourbon, commercial, grocery and/or mixed-use projects. The opportunity sites are as follows:

1. Louisville Civic Center, which includes four distinct sites – the Fiscal Court Building (531 Court Place), the former headquarters for the Louisville Metro Police Department (225 S. 7th St.), the Market Street Parking Garage (536 W. Market St.) and the surface parking lots on the south side of Market Street between Sixth and Seventh streets. Metro is in the process of demolishing the former LMPD headquarters.
2. Main Street/Washington Street, which includes the vacant lot at the northeast corner of West Washington and North Seventh streets, the surface parking lot at the northwest corner of West Washington and North Seventh streets, and the two lots at 615-621 W. Main St. Together, these sites total 4.24 acres and are commonly referred to as the Museum Plaza parcel and the ReSurfaced lots.
3. The Mudd Lot located at the southeast corner of Jefferson and Ninth streets. The lot is 2.97 acres and is currently used for employee parking for Louisville Metro.

Downtown Louisville currently boasts 24 hotels and 10 distillery and tasting experiences, with more under development, and over the last decade, downtown has experienced billions of dollars in investment, including landmark projects such as the Omni Hotel and a soccer district anchored by the Lynn Family Stadium and major renovation projects at the Kentucky International Convention Center and the Galt House Hotel. Additionally, downtown Louisville is home to critical business, art and entertainment venues with an estimated 19 million visitors who came to Louisville in 2019.

“Downtown will benefit from the reactivation of these sites, which in turn benefits the entire city,” said Rebecca Fleischaker, executive director of Louisville Downtown Partnership. “We are fortunate that the city can offer such a significant amount of property for redevelopment, and we look forward to seeing these properties add investment, energy and vitality to our Downtown.”

Metro Government anticipates working with several development teams on these development opportunities and will choose the teams based on their qualifications, ability to complete the proposed work and their development approach. The deadline for applications is June 23, and the Department for Economic Development will evaluate all applications received by the deadline. 

Request for Qualifications

The Department of Economic Development will host a pre-submission meeting for interested development teams to ask questions of staff about the RFQ at 1:30 p.m. on May 24 in the first-floor conference room of the Metro Development Center, 444 S. 5th St. Those who cannot attend in person may join the meeting virtually using the below link:

https://louisvilleky.webex.com/louisvilleky/j.php?MTID=m5d661cc558ec04e3041ba125751dc98c

Access code: 2313 713 7692

Password: 8q29Wv7nxfj

About the Department of Economic Development

Since 2014, Louisville Metro Government’s Economic Development team has competed for and won projects representing more than $10.4 billion of investment and 38,000 new jobs. As a result, the Department has been named a Top Ten Economic Development Organization eight times by Site Selection Magazine, the leading trade publication for economic development, and the city of Louisville ranked No. 1 in the Ohio River Corridor for economic development. By operating within the same organization as the city’s real estate development, land use and planning and design functions, the Department of Economic Development offers concierge service to companies looking to grow their business or to locate new operations, in addition to providing support for entrepreneurs through its small business and METCO loan programs.

Learn more about the city’s economic development initiatives at louisvilleky.gov/government/economic-development.

Original source can be found here.