January 29, 2004

 

Icon to Build Village at River

 

SHELDON S. SHAFER

Courier Journal

 

600 dwellings possible near Towhead Island

 

Waterfront officials have recommended Icon Properties develop 30 acres across from Towhead Island, where up to 600 housing units are expected to be built over the next decade.

 

Louisville Metro Mayor Jerry Abramson said yesterday he will accept the Louisville development group.

The mix of apartments and condominiums on the shoreline target the area formerly known as Thruston Park. The site is adjacent to Phase II of Waterfront Park.

Preliminary plans also call for a large marina and restaurants and retail services to support the residences of what waterfront officials envision as a new community, tentatively to be called the Village at Towhead.

Icon members - including developer Steve Poe, accountant Nolen Allen and businessmen William Hysinger, Mike Ehrler and Clyde Ensor, all of Louisville - are also investors in the $115 million Marriott convention hotel under construction downtown.

On the Towhead project, they are being joined by well-known local architect K. Norman Berry and a Boston design firm with expertise in waterfront projects.

Abramson said Icon has a record of quality work and has the "personal commitment and the financial capability necessary to make the development of housing near Towhead Island a success."

City officials have long considered the site a potential jewel for an upscale development. But after five years of studies and negotiations with a partnership led by the Louis & Henry Group, city officials in 1999 shelved efforts to develop the key tract, then known as FallsHarbor.

Now, waterfront officials say, the time is ripe to revive the development, mainly because they believe the nearly $100 million investment in Waterfront Park has created a market for housing.

The site, off River Road above the Big Four Bridge, "is probably the best piece of property for housing in the city," Poe said yesterday.

"It is located next to one of the greatest park systems on a waterway in the country. It will be a place for young people who work downtown. They can rollerblade or bike to work. There will be affordable and market-rate units and high-end condominiums, all with great views up and down the river. It is a great location, with easy access" to interstates.

Six groups were interested by the Sept. 15 deadline. Icon was chosen after a series of interviews, and after the committee reviewed past projects and financial capability, said Mike Kimmel, spokesman for the Waterfront Development Corp .

David Karem, executive director of the waterfront agency, and Kimmel declined to release information on the other five groups.

Kimmel said the waterfront agency and developers will work together on a preliminary plan. It will be reviewed at public meetings with neighbors and other interested parties, then refined. The final design will be reviewed by the Louisville Metro Planning Commission and the waterfront board, Kimmel said.

Initial construction could come in 2005, Kimmel said.

The site has some serious environmental constraints. Because it is subject to flooding, any housing will be built atop at least one level of parking, Allen and Poe said.

T hey said they plan to leave as green space about seven acres identified in the FallsHarbor studies to contain some historic artifacts - bottles and other remnants dating to the early 1800s. That acreage was designated as a "no-dig" or archaeologically sensitive area by state historic-preservation officials.

Jim Segrest, president of the Butchertown Neighborhood Association, said residents intend to monitor the Towhead project closely. He said the planned mix of housing sounds "great," adding that if Berry is involved, "it is going to be a quality" project.

Segrest said he hopes the project will incorporate the history of the area near Towhead. A transportation service known as the Geiger Ferry operated from the end of Fulton Street cross river to Jeffersonville, Ind., from 1802 into the early 1830s. A commercial strip along Fulton supported the ferry service.

Update

Last we knew:

Six development groups were vying to develop 30 acres along the Ohio River near downtown Louisville.

The latest:

Waterfront officials have recommended a Louisville group - Icon Properties - develop the tract and Mayor Jerry Abramson said he'll accept the recommendation.

Why it's news:

The development would have up to 600 housing units in a variety of price ranges close to downtown.