Riverfront development rights lost
Falls Harbor's project rejected in Louisville
SHELDON S. SHAFER, The Courier-JournalThe Falls Harbor investment group that for nearly a decade has tried to build housing at a strategic location on Louisville's riverfront has lost its rights to develop the project.
David Karem, president of the Waterfront Development Corp., which oversees riverfront projects for the city, notified the Falls Harbor group in a letter July 19 that its rights have been terminated.
``Your redesign of the project to make it affordable to you has moved the project so far from the original plans . . . that there is absolutely no hope that it could be approved,'' Karem wrote.
New proposals to develop the city-owned land opposite Towhead Island, upriver from the Big Four Bridge, may eventually be solicited, Karem added, at which time the Falls Harbor group could submit another plan. Until then, the city won't entertain any revised proposals from Falls Harbor.
Falls Harbor's latest round of troubles began at a board meeting last month in which the corporation's directors were highly critical of the Falls Harbor group's design for 80 proposed condominiums. The board unanimously rejected the design, which called for low rise, row house-style housing with brick and vinyl siding.
Board members said the design was too suburban and inappropriate for an urban, riverside setting that they believe can be the centerpiece of Louisville's redeveloped waterfront.
The Falls Harbor group submitted a subsequent design that the developers believed answered all objections. Bill Weyland, one of Falls Harbor's local architect-developers, said the revised plan had about 140 condominiums and that the design featured brick exteriors. He said the housing was moved closer to the river.
The group had hoped to meet with waterfront officials to explain the revised plans but instead received the termination notice, Weyland said. ``We still want to meet. It would be a mistake to give up on a project so critical,'' he added.
But Karem said in an interview that the group had exhausted its chances. He noted that it had missed deadlines called for in development agreements with the city and that it had never been able to submit an acceptable design.
City officials had selected the Falls Harbor group over several competing development companies almost 10 years earlier because it originally proposed to build posh, high-rise multifamily housing.
Falls Harbor partners said in June that they had spent more than $300,000 on the project. Over the years their efforts had been delayed by numerous environmental and archaeological studies required by the Army Corps of Engineers and other agencies. They also had trouble getting financing.
Karem said it might be prudent to let the property sit for some time. ``Every day that goes by, it becomes a more and more desirable spot,'' he said of the nearly 100-acre site.
Waterfront officials have said the property's value is growing with the recent completion of the $58 million first phase of nearby Waterfront Park and construction of Louisville Slugger Field.