The future of Paristown development moves a step forward

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WAVE) – After nearly a decade of debate and failed projects, the old City Government Center site could finally be slated for demolition.

A Metro Council committee on Tuesday approved tax increment financing (TIF) for the property, bringing the current developer one step closer to starting construction.

“It’s too late. It’s time to do it,” said Joann Robinson, who lives and works in Paristown-Pointe.

For more than a decade, Robinson has worked across the street in an abandoned and decaying building that once housed the Louisville Municipal Government Center.

“With everything that’s happening in our city and the new investment, I believe Paristown-Pointe will have it all,” Robinson said.

Robinson has been following developments since proposals began to be hammered out nearly a decade ago. She supports the proposal now headed to the full Louisville Metro Council, which includes a plan to demolish the buildings and build a new space with apartments, a hotel, office space, shops and a parking garage.

To fund it, a Metro Council committee recently approved a 20-year, $20 million TIF. It still needs full council approval.

The development plans have changed hands three times over the years, before going to the current developer, Stephen Smith of the Upper Paristown Preservation Trust, a few years ago.

“The current state of affairs is largely consistent with what we were talking about seven years ago,” Smith said.

Smith has already developed retail and entertainment space in Paristown. He sees the next project as an expansion of what already exists. The new project will be worth $249 million.

The TIF ordinance submitted to the council vote states that “the high cost of site redevelopment expenditures necessary to implement the Project makes public incentives critical to financing the Project.”

However, the project was met with negative reaction from stakeholders in the neighbourhoods surrounding the property.

In June, an advisory panel at the Center for Urban Leadership published an editorial in the Courier-Journal saying the developer was ignoring the needs of the community.

Some neighbors we spoke to Thursday agree, saying they want the development to fit in with the neighborhood. One resident wants to see the buildings stay where they are and be renovated into a mixed-use area with a significant amount of low-income housing.

Under the current plan, 46 apartments would have to be designated as social housing and five additional units would have to be rented at a fixed rate.

A group of historians led by Steve Wiser says the plan has changed too much since it began in 2020.

Smith believes the opposition is in the minority.

“If you talk to the people who live across the street from that train wreck, and they’ve lived there for a long time, the building has been vacant for about a decade, it’s full of crime and homeless people, and people are there every day stealing copper wires from it,” Smith said. “It’s a safety issue and an environmental issue.”

Smith’s plan includes parking, security and infrastructure upgrades. The UPPT would ban independent liquor stores and short-term rentals.

For months, the Metro Council Labor, Economic Development, and Appropriations Committee held up the TIF proposal. On Sept. 10, six members voted in favor of it, sending it to the full council for approval.

The case could be taken up as early as next week.