Mayor Dave Armstrong has told the group that has been trying for 10 years to develop the
Falls Harbor housing project on Louisville's riverfront that its rights to the project are being terminated.
However, the city and Waterfront Development Corp., which oversees riverfront projects, left the door open a crack for the
Falls Harbor investors to submit one last plan for the development.
If the waterfront officials find the revised plan acceptable, Armstrong might reconsider, Deputy Mayor Katy Schneider said yesterday.
The developers learned yesterday of Armstrong's decision to end the city's affiliation with the
Falls Harbor partners. He told the group in a letter that it was because the partners had missed a deadline for submitting an acceptable
Falls Harbor design and plan.
``We were shocked,'' Rick Kremer, a Louisville architect and Falls Harbor partner, said of Armstrong's notice. ``We stand to lose years of hard work - energy and money.''
Kremer and Larry Leis, another architect and partner, said the group had spent more than $1 million on studies, staff time and consultants since being granted development rights 10 years ago.
The other partners in the venture are local architect and developer Bill Weyland and Invsco Group Limited, a large Chicago-based real estate company.
Delays that have plagued the project include federally required environmental and archaeological studies, changes in the development partnership, difficulty in marketing the planned condominiums and lining up financing.
At last month's waterfront board meeting, the partners submitted what they believed was their last and best design for 80 condominiums in the proposed first phase of the target area - city-owned land along River Road between the old Big Four Bridge and Beargrass Creek next to Towhead Island.
The waterfront board, however, unanimously recommended that Armstrong not accept the design. Board members criticized proposed exteriors of vinyl siding and brick, atop a one-story parking deck in a
row house design. They viewed the design as too suburban and said they wanted a project that would be a centerpiece of riverfront development.
Armstrong's letter to the developers noted that the waterfront board found the plan unacceptable.
Yesterday, however, Waterfront President David Karem said that after talking with Schneider, the deputy mayor, he agreed to give the
Falls Harbor group one last chance to offer yet another revised plan, which is already completed.
If the staff likes it, waterfront board Chairman Charles McCarty will decide whether to submit it to the full board, Karem said. The board can then decide what, if any, new advice to give to Armstrong, who has the final decision on a
Falls Harbor developer.
Kremer and Leis were reluctant to discuss specifics of the new design yesterday. But they said they believe it meets all of the waterfront officials' demands. They said the revision includes more than the 80 condominiums called for in the last
Falls Harbor plan and that the exteriors would feature more masonry.
The new layout also is ``more financeable'' than the previous one, Kremer said. ``This is a very real deal. I think they will like it.''
If the Falls Harbor group loses its rights, Karem said, the city and waterfront agency could readvertise the site and seek new proposals from groups to develop it.
Or, he said, as some waterfront board members suggested last month, the city could simply let the land sit for a few years until some nearby projects are completed, including Louisville Slugger Field and the second phase of Waterfront Park.