Falls Harbor group may be dumped
City complains developers are taking too long
Saying 10 years is long enough, the city is on the verge of terminating its deal with partners that have failed to turn a derelict stretch of Louisville's riverfront into the long-sought FallsHarbor condominium project.
Officials from the city and the Waterfront Development Corp. say they're ready to find a new firm to build FallsHarbor, envisioned as the residential centerpiece of a rejuvenated riverfront.
The officials say the three local investors and their Chicago partner are in default of the latest FallsHarbor agreement, which they signed last spring. The city has given the investors until late March to show why their right to develop the project - granted in 1989 - should not be terminated.
FallsHarbor is planned for a key tract of land on River Road, upriver from Waterfront Park and on the shore opposite Towhead Island.
``We have seen no recent sign of progress from the developers,'' said Mike Kimmel, deputy waterfront director.
City officials said the partners failed to meet numerous requirements that they pledged to complete by the end of 1998, such as submitting a master plan for the project, obtaining a construction loan and setting out a final budget, as well as getting needed permits and licenses.
The agreement also required the first phase of construction to be completed no later than Aug. 15, 2000. That's likely not feasible since the developers have said it would take two years to complete the phase, once building begins.
In a stern letter that thenMayor Jerry Abramson sent last December to the FallsHarbor partners, Abramson said their failure to get the project under way ``is one of the great disappointments in my 13 years as mayor. I still continue to believe that the site is one of the most attractive for mixed-use development in the city . . . and I cannot understand why you have failed to develop it as promised.''
At a waterfront corporation board meeting last week, waterfront president David Karem said Abramson had wanted to ``pull the plug'' on the partners. Kimmel said city officials hope to meet with the partners soon.
Kimmel, however, said he was ``skeptical'' the partners could keep the venture afloat and noted several other companies submitted bids before the city awarded the development rights to the original FallsHarbor group a decade ago.
Architect Bill Weyland, one of the local partners, said last week that ``we'll sure try'' to persuade the city not to revoke his group's rights. But he noted the partners remain unable to obtain financing for the project, whose first phase is supposed to feature about 70 condominiums or apartments overlooking the river.
``We continue to try to make a successful project work down there. . . . It is not easy to do,'' Weyland said. ``We have cooperated every step of the way. We tried to do everything we can. I don't think you could find anyone who could do any better.''
In a Jan. 8 letter to Mayor Dave Armstrong, Steven Gouletas, an official with Invsco Group Ltd., the Chicago partner in FallsHarbor, accused the city of trying to ``micro-manage'' the project.
He said the city and waterfront officials had ended up discussing ``which trees and brush should be kept and the options of removing some of the land at the top of the ridge so people on the first floor . . . would have a better view.''
He also said the city caused delays by demanding plan and design changes.
Kimmel said the city is merely trying to manage how a key piece of the riverfront is redeveloped.
Weyland said the relocation and widening of River Road past the project site has yet to be completed, causing problems for the project. But Kimmel said that the River Road work is now scheduled to be done by year's end and that its completion was never specifically tied to the agreement.
In his letter, Gouletas said the partners are still committed to FallsHarbor. The company declined to elaborate. He said they have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on design, interest on loans, archaeological digging, soil testing, legal fees and studies.
The FallsHarbor project has hit one stumbling block after another. Three of the six original partners abandoned it several years ago, and the three remaining ones signed on with Invsco more than a year ago. The main delay was caused by extensive environmental-related testing required by the Army Corps of Engineers and other agencies after Native American artifacts were found.
Kimmel noted that the project has been redesigned numerous times. He said the original plan called for 200 dwellings, 200 boat slips and a 200seat restaurant - with long-range plans for many hundreds of high-rise units, extensive recreational development, a large marina and restaurants and commercial outlets just up from Waterfront Park.
Kimmel said the city has scaled down the demands to fewer than 75 units. It has made the restaurant and boat slips optional in the first phase.