Joseph MacDonald is a man who believes in omens. So he thought it prophetic when he arrived in Louisville in June, 2007 to interview for the Executive Director position at Waterfront Park Place, and the first thing he noticed as he approached downtown from the airport was the luxury high rise itself. The coincidence was enough to convince MacDonald that he had made the right decision to consider leaving New York City, because the edifice standing before him rivaled anything in that storied metropolis.

"Waterfront Park Place is over seventy percent glass," MacDonald said. "The first time I saw it, I thought it was one of the most spectacular buildings I'd ever seen. I thought to myself, 'Where is this building going to be in 50, 75 years from now? It's still going to be progressive and cool.' The way it spirals up; it reminds me of Emerald City in the Wizard of Oz."

After nearly two years of living in and running the more than 200,000 square-foot building, MacDonald is still mesmerized by Waterfront Park Place, 222 E. Witherspoon Street. The luxury high rise is a community unto itself, featuring office, commercial and residential space. The building's 81 private residences range in size from 1,200 to more than 8,000 square feet, and cost from $350,000 to well over seven figures. Each condo has at least one private balcony and many also include private terraces and views of the Ohio River. Waterfront Park Place residents especially enjoy the location's proximity to downtown attractions like the Kentucky Center, Actor's Theatre and the Muhammad Ali Center.

"It's powerful to note that we are not only selling luxury condos, we are also selling this luxurious, urban life," MacDonald said. "In a traditional real estate transaction, a deal is made and you never see the realtor again. In our case, a deal is made and you enter a community. It's providing an opportunity for people who are at that point in their lives where they deserve this kind of millionaire's life, so to speak."

MacDonald was interviewed for the job at Waterfront Park Place because of his close friendship with Eleanor Bingham Miller, the building's main investor. The two met in the summer of 2006, when Bingham Miller was a guest at the luxury resort in Arizona where MacDonald managed leadership and adventure programs. They stayed in touch after MacDonald moved to a luxury branding and leadership consulting job in New York City. After it became apparent to Bingham Miller that she needed someone to manage and lead the final sales stretch run at Waterfront Park Place full-time, she asked MacDonald to proofread the job description for her.

"Out of nowhere I got this email and it was my dream job," he remembered. MacDonald applied for the position and it was his in less than two weeks. Then, he had to convince his wife that this was the right move for their family, which includes 9-year-old twins, Noah and Joey. Barbara and the boys stayed in the family's house in Tucson because she didn't want to deal with stressful, urban life in New York City. Barbara, who works as a freelance journalist and photographer, admits she was skeptical about moving into a downtown condo in a new city, but then she saw where they would be living.

"I wasn't sure what to think until we came out here for a visit," Barbara said. "My first weekend out here was Labor Day weekend – there were so many things going on across the street at the park and the weather was great. That's when we decided that this would be a good thing for us. At the airport with my teary eyes, I asked Joseph to find a way to move us to Louisville."

The MacDonald family shares a two-story condo with a shepherd mutt mix named Daphne. They have two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a laundry room and two balconies with a view of the city's magnificent skyline. The boys' room has an entire wall of glass, from floor to ceiling.

"This actually offers us more space than our house in Arizona," Barbara said. "I've been to hotels like this, but I've never lived in a condo like this or even spent time in one."

Joseph and Barbara enjoy walking to Actors Theatre to see a play or going to Stevie Rays Blues Bar to listen to music. The boys often go to games at Slugger Field with their dad and they are regulars at the Frazier International History Museum and the Louisville Science Center.

"There is really a lot to do, even for families with younger children," Barbara said. "And I've never been a fan of traffic, so it's nice to have it all right here, where you can just take a carriage ride and not even have to get in your car. When we were in Tucson, we didn't do much of that because we were living in the suburbs of the desert. If you're not familiar with a downtown, it's really easy just to avoid it. We missed out on a lot of culture we could have been exposed to."

Although the boys miss their friends from the public school they attended in Tucson, Noah and Joey enjoy attending a Catholic institution, St. Leonard School on Zorn Avenue.

"It's close," Noah said. "It takes us about five minutes to get there in the car. And the school is smaller than our school in Tucson, so we know everybody in our school now."

Joey said initially their classmates didn't believe it when he and Noah talked about living in Waterfront Park Place. It all sounded a little too much like "The Suite Life of Zack and Cody", a Disney Channel sitcom about twins living in a luxury hotel. But after the first sleepover at the condo, everyone knew they were telling the truth.

"When kids see it, they are like, 'Whoa,'" Joey said. "They think it's great. We have a pool and a game room with a pool table."

One unexpected bonus for the MacDonalds is the international flavor of Waterfront Park Place. The building has tenants from India, Pakistan, England and Sweden. Some of the building residents get together once a month in an activity room for a family-friendly movie night. Almost all the kids wear their pajamas.

"It's a wonderful community because people come from so many different places and experiences," Barbara said. "We have senior residents all the way down to small children. It's the variety, I guess, that makes it so interesting – being able to expose [our children] to different kinds of people."

Joseph said he thinks it's great that his family has taken to their new home just as he imaged they would. "I didn't even consider the move as a gamble," he said. "I knew it was risky, but we never spoke about failure. It was always about wonderful possibility."