February 2, 2004

 

Land Deal Eyed for Towhead Island

 

SHAFER SHELDON

Courier-Journal

 

Owner offers trade to acquire downriver site

Nugent Sand Co. officials have offered to trade Towhead Island to the Louisville metro government in exchange for 20 acres the company leases down the Ohio River at Jefferson Riverport International.

The swap probably will go forward "if it's good for both parties," said Larry McFall, president of the city-county Riverport Authority, owner of the land Nugent wants, which is outside the floodwall.

The swap "is an interesting concept, but it needs to be explored more fully," said Jay Blanton, spokesman for Metro Mayor Jerry Abramson.

The proposal was made recently by Steve Schoening, a Nugent vice president, through the Waterfront Development Corp.

The 10-acre Towhead Island, near the Big Four Bridge, "is a beautiful wildlife asset. It ought to be retained as a nature preserve," said David Karem, president of the waterfront corporation.

In early 2002, after the Louisville aldermen balked, then-Mayor Dave Armstrong shelved a proposed deal for the city to acquire the island for 10 acres of developable land along the shore opposite Towhead Island.

Armstrong saw a need for public ownership to protect the island from development and to retain it as an environmental classroom. But the aldermen did not see much sense in swapping prime riverside land suitable for construction for an uninhabited, forested island prone to flooding. The riverside land Armstrong offered is now part of a target area where waterfront officials expect 200 to 600 apartments and condominiums to be built in a development called the Village at Towhead.

"We hope that now that we have a merged government, we might be more likely to work out a trade," Schoening said Friday. "It seems logical that the island should be a part" of the planned Village at Towhead development.

The island "would make a wonderful picture window for the whole" project, Karem said Friday.

Schoening's offer is an alternative to another proposal .

Late last year, Schoening applied to the Army Corps of Engineers for a permit to dock a floating home in the channel off Towhead Island.

Waterfront officials and Abramson wrote letters to the corps opposing the project, primarily fearing that the floating home might interfere with vessels using the channel.

Supporters of the University of Louisville women's rowing team, which has its home base on the shore across from Towhead Island and uses the channel, also expressed concerns about a possible channel obstruction.

On Jan. 20, Schoening withdrew the application for what he called the "boat house."

He said Friday that in order "to avoid a train wreck of litigation," he had asked Karem to help pursue the swap of the island for the Riverport land.

McFall, Karem and city officials declined to disclose the full terms of the proposal. They plan to make what they called a counteroffer to Schoening soon.

Nugent has six years left on an initial 10-year, renewable lease for the 20 acres at Riverport. McFall said Nugent pays $100,000 a year under the lease to Riverport, a former county agency that now reports to Abramson. McFall estimated the value of the 20 acres at $1 million.

After it signed the Riverport lease, Nugent put in a large slip and initially used the site to load and unload sand and gravel barges. In recent months, however, the operation has ceased and Nugent now simply stores materials at the site, McFall said.

Two years ago the city hired an appraiser who set the value of Towhead Island at $796,000. But that value included lease payments of about $100,000 a year that American Commercial Marine Services pays Nugent for the right to store barges on the north side of the island. The lease that Nugent has with American Commercial has about 15 years to run.

Schoening acknowledged Friday that Nugent's proposal for the land swap includes Nugent's retaining a narrow strip along the north side of Towhead Island - and the annual income from the barge-storage lease.

The Riverport Authority board would have to approve the deal. A final decision would likely be up to Abramson.