Downtown Development

LOUISVILLE WANTS TO ACCOMPLISH what new york has with its lincoln center: a seamless pedestrian flow connecting city attractions to shopping and dining.

The 62-story, $490 million Museum Plaza skyscraper has created quite a stir in Louisville, and beyond.

A recent headline in The Wall Street Journal, focusing on both Museum Plaza and the downtown arena, reads: “Two Projects Show It’s Not a One-Horse Town.”

“ … High–profile projects like Museum Plaza are expected to raise awareness of the city …” the Journal wrote.

This is but one example of the spotlight shining on what many civic and business leaders see as a remarkable revitalization.

“We are building an iconic building on the Louisville skyline that will reflect Louisville’s and Kentucky’s emergence in the new century,” said Craig Greenberg, an attorney and a partner in the Museum Plaza project. “Through architecture, we can make a significant statement about the whole community and the state. Museum Plaza will continue to strengthen the downtown revitalization efforts already under way.”

Museum Plaza is the fruit of pioneering work by civic leaders and private developers, who invested millions of dollars and formed a unified creative vision to transform the look of the city, Greenberg said.

“We are just building upon the successes of what people like Mayor (Jerry) Abramson and Barry Alberts (executive director of Downtown Development Corp.; see page 22) have spearheaded over the past decade in downtown Louisville,” he said.

Museum Plaza required the support not only of Abramson and Alberts, but also state government and the Louisville Metro Congressional delegation: The state approved a tax-incremental financing law so the plaza could be built, and the delegation streamlined regulatory matters.

The intention was not to build a mixed-use building that would stand apart from its environs, but to integrate Museum Plaza with what Alberts calls “activity generators”: The Muhammad Ali Center, the Louisville Slugger Museum and Factory, the Kentucky Center for the Arts and the arena, among others.

Alberts said Louisville wants to accomplish what New York has with its Lincoln Center: a seamless pedestrian flow connecting city attractions to shopping and dining. “We want to take the people and energy of Museum Plaza and make it good for the rest of the city,” he said, and therefore setting it apart from other Midwestern cities.

Like Museum Plaza, the estimated $254 million arena will be paid for through the collection of state and local taxpayer dollars coming out of a new, tax-incremental financing district, a six-mile area that will surround the arena. Those taxes will be turned over to the Arena Authority, which will then use them to pay down the municipal bonds issued for arena’s construction.

Jim Host, chairman of the Arena Authority, said the arena came to fruition through public-private sector partnerships. “Since Day One, it has been a very energized process,” he said.

Host, who owns his own public relations firm in Lexington, said the arena finishes what the waterfront project began. “It will create great energy at night in downtown Louisville,” he said.

Interactive video sculpture installation at Museum Plaza sales office, 707 Main St.

CITY OFFICIALS AND PLAZA DEVELOPERS are working hand in glove to turn the four-block area east of fourth street and west of eighth street into a “public podium” with a view of the ohio river.

The arena’s sleek design features large expanses of glass and a dramatic curving roofline that adds contemporary flair to the building.

Civic boosters have called the arena “a jewel in the architectural crown for this community.”

The same can be said of Center City. The project, which could cost up to $400 million, is being developed by Baltimore-based Cordish Co., which operates Fourth Street Live!

Blake Cordish, a Cordish vice president, said Louisville has the civic leadership needed to make Center City a reality.

“It took vision, sophistication and leadership on the part of the mayor, Barry Alberts and Bruce Traughber (director of the Louisville’s Economic Development Department),” Cordish said. “They compose one of the best teams in the country. One of the major factors involved with our decision to invest an additional $250 million in Louisville is our confidence in the existing leadership.”

“Partnership is the key word,” he added.

Cordish said his company is “bullish on the (positive) direction of downtown Louisville, and our increasing investment there is probably the best sign of that confidence.”