This
Article was so blatantly absurd that we have included our comments in
bold
Saturday,
October 20, 2007
Marina Rebirth
Project a key piece of RiverPark Place development
NUMBER OF SLIPS 150 PRICE OF SLIPS $35,000 TO $65,000
Larry Bailey, a Palmyra, Ind., businessman, is paying $130,000 to buy two of the larger boat slips at the RiverPark Place marina being built across from Towhead Island just upriver from Waterfront Park.
But Bailey thinks the two adjacent slips, which he needs for his large houseboat, will be worth the hefty price.
"I checked out all the slips up and down the river, and I believe this will be the best harbor for at least 300 miles around. I think I will be there for a long time," Bailey said, adding that he plans to dock his 84-foot-long, three-level houseboat at the marina and make the spot home.
The fact is this area is
not suitable for use as a safe haven most of the year and the design makes
it even less so. The river is simply too violent and unpredictable at that
location and the debris buildup and silting will be massive. I hope
Mr. Bailey also owns a helicopter. He is going to need it. During a major
flood, road access is impossible with the nearest dry land a half mile
away. Although it is illegal to build residential developments in areas
where road access for emergency vehicles in time of flood is impossible,
MSD granted Poe Companies a variance. It is our opinion that those who buy into this thing will
eventually be terrorized by the Ohio. Especially the boaters...
The marina is a key component of RiverPark Place, a huge condominium and commercial development under construction off River Road just downriver from Eva Bandman Park. It is being developed by the Poe Cos.
"The marina is very important" to RiverPark Place, said Mike Kimmel, deputy director of the Waterfront Development Corp. The agency oversees riverside projects and assembled the RiverPark Place land for Poe.
"You probably don't need the slips to have a great development," Kimmel said of RiverPark Place. "But the marina makes it a beautiful place. People will be able to walk along a promenade and see the boats in the harbor."
This is a telling
statement... We have long asserted that this marina design was conceived
as window dressing for the condominiums and that the operational and
navigational safety considerations were totally overlooked.
Steve Poe, head of the development company, said the marina will cost about $6 million to build.
He said 43 of the 150 slips are already under contract to buyers. The slips are going for $35,000 to $65,000, depending on size, but the buyers can resell them.
The fact is, the slips have not been selling well at all...
The 40 or so that are
mentioned were bought blind in the pre construction push at the beginning.
We have long maintained that this design makes the upriver facing slips and
dangerously long fairways totally unserviceable and the pattern of reservations
seem to validate this.
Shortly after this article
appeared, we checked the Riverpark website to see where the sold slips
were located. To our surprise, every upriver facing slip in the most
controversial areas were now marked
as sold. This official site now shows more than 100 "sold"
slips. It is obvious they have now removed a large potion of the slips from the market to manipulate potential buyers
into buying slips in areas that are a adjacent to those few reserved. We doubt the upriver facing slips will ever be built.
The RiverPark slip owners also will pay a year-round maintenance and service fee, including for periodic dredging, of $70 per slip.
The $70 maintenance fee is absurdly understated. When
pressed on this issue during regulatory consultations in 2006, the project manager for this project
admitted that regular dredging will costs $50-75,000 a year,
that's $30-50 per month for each owner if the slips sell out, which they never will at the prices asked. That leaves less than $40 per slip per month for maintenance...
I'm sure the hidden costs are going to raise the stated figure to at least double that and assessments after a
flooding events will be excessive and those after a major event will
likely bankrupt any marina
(Dockominium) association. We have long said the lack of foresight and research in the
formulation of this design is a disaster for the boaters.
The new marina is replacing the old Louisville Municipal Boat Harbor, which was built in the 1930s as a federal Works Progress Administration project designed to create jobs during the Depression.
WDC and Poe Companies have quashed any preservation
measures and minimized the historical and cultural importance of our Louisville
Municipal Harbor. Go to our Home Page. It
will lead you to the truth about this historic facility.
A boat harbor association rented the old marina from the city, starting in the early 1950s and ending when the harbor closed in 2005. The more than 100 slips rented for $1,200 to $1,500 each per year.
WDC brusquely evicted the LHA and then
closed the harbor. The actual membership fee was $850 - 1500 per year
depending on the size of your vessel. There were 145
slips and until the threat of development began to scare boaters away,
there was a two to three year waiting list.
Kimmel said that although no special deal was put on the table for them, all the boaters who had slips at the old municipal harbor were offered first choice on the RiverPark Place marina slips. Only a handful bought one, Poe officials said.
The new slips "are really expensive. Few could afford them," said Bert Ribeiro, a member of the old harbor association, who now keeps his boat at a marina on Harrods Creek.
The RiverPark Place marina, he said, "is driving a lot of people who have done this activity (boating) their whole lives completely off the river. I would not say there was bitterness, but there was disappointment" among the association members, Ribeiro said.
Poe could not be reached yesterday for comment on Ribeiro's assertion.
But Bailey contended that Poe and waterfront officials didn't shun the association members. "Before any construction started, they sent us a letter, inviting us to sit down with them and giving us the first opportunity to rent a slip," he said.
Mr. Bailey is mistaken. WDC
evicted the Association by mail and would not return their phone calls and
there was never a rental option. The letter mentioned was a
marketing tool that was not materially different from the pre-construction
pitch sent to non-boaters. Since no offer
was made to specifically compensate the displaced boaters, it was a hollow
gesture.
Bailey was one of the very few members of the association to buy a RiverPark Place slip. He was a member of the old association for 13 years, paying about $1,500 annually for one of its slips.
Even if they could afford
it, none of the more knowledgeable
boaters would risk their vessels in this questionable design. Most of the
other wealthy Association members who did buy have other
slips available elsewhere.
The RiverPark Place marina, Bailey said, "is going to be a great location because of all the activity" at RiverPark Place and Waterfront Park.
John Hinshaw, Poe's project manager, said work on the new marina started last spring. About 2,500 linear feet of steel sheet piling forming the sea wall has been installed, and a concrete cap, which will serve as a pier or sidewalk along the marina, is going in.
Excavation work, which will take about two months and include cutting out as much as 60 feet of the riverbank to enlarge the harbor area, is expected to start soon, Hinshaw said.
Other work will include removal of a man-made island that served as a breakwater between the channel along Towhead Island and the old boat harbor. Its removal will allow more maneuvering room for boats at the marina, Kimmel said.
We vehemently objected to the removal of the Harbor
Island on the grounds of navigational safety. The U S Coast guard was also
opposed to this design and called for public hearings. WDC used it's political
influence to quash these hearings, so none were held. They knew public airing of
our official
comment and additional
information submitted to the developers through the USACE on this design
could result in their design being rejected.
The installation of the slips and supporting facilities will complete the marina, probably next spring, Hinshaw said.
The developers have been promising completion since
2006. When the marketing campaign began last year and boaters
were asked for down payments for slips, completion
was slated for Spring 2007. It is now slated for 2008.
Poe said the developers are taking special care to ensure that the marina will not interfere with the rowing channel used by the University of Louisville team, which operates out of a center just downriver from RiverPark Place.
The evidence showing the
dangers this design will present to the U of L rowers is clear. Without
the separation offered by the Harbor Island, there is no way for a vessel
to loiter before entering the channel so the athletes can pass safely. It
is only a matter of time till there is a tragedy.
Of the 43 slips under contract, about 15 of the buyers also have signed contracts to buy a RiverPark Place condo, said Shannon Haste, RiverPark Place director of sales.
The initial phase at the 42-acre site will include the first of two, 16-story condo towers, with a total of around 150 condos selling for $129,000 to $1.5 million.
"The marina adds a lot" to RiverPark Place, Poe said. "It will create energy, with all the people going by, coming and going up and down the river."
The frequent collisions and
damaged vessels caused by this poor design will surely "create
energy"... mostly resulting in splintered fiberglass.
Reporter Sheldon S. Shafer can be reached at (502) 582-7089.
PUBLISHED COMMENTS
Posted: Sat Oct 20, 2007 6:41 am
I do wish these developers well... but they have
to know that their price for a slip is about double the market on the
river... even at Captain's Quarters, which has the most expensive slips on
the river.
Many people have been disappointed by Riverpark Place's sales tactics...
or lack thereof. My wife and I attended their condo open house a few
months ago, and it seems that all their salespeople wanted to do was to
eat lunch. We had to ask for one of them to give us some information, and
all they did was to point to the various demo units without getting up
from their chairs. No printed info was available... we finally asked for
it at the front desk on the way out, where some salespeople were standing
around talking with each other. Somebody had to scavenge around to find
some info. Nobody bothered to get our names. The units seem decent... and
the location is great. But it's a lot to pay for a view of Jeffboat.
I've talked with many others who've had the same sales experience. There
were a lot of very confused prospective buyers walking around at that open
house
Posted: Sat Oct 20, 2007 6:27 pm
The Courier and the developers have worked hard to paint the most favorable picture of this marina design despite the many serious navigational safety problems uncovered during the various regulatory investigations. The Coast Guard was opposed to it and called for public hearings that thanks to Waterfront Development Corporations aggressive political pressure, were never held. Although
Mr. Shafer has been aware of these issues for many months, he has not or has not been allowed to print any pertinent criticism. One wonders if the editors or owners at the CJ have a business interest in it.
The fact is this area is not suitable for use as a safe haven most of the
year. The river is simply too violent and unpredictable at that location
and the winter debris buildup will be massive. I hope Mr. Bailey also owns
a helicopter. He is going to need it. During a major flood, road access is
impossible with the nearest dry land a half mile away. Although it is
illegal to build residential developments in areas where road access for
emergency vehicles in time of flood is impossible, MSD granted Mr. Poe a
variance. Everyone who buys into this thing will eventually be terrorized
by the Ohio. Especially the boaters...
The $70 maintenance fee is absurdly understated. The project manager for this project estimated that regular dredging will costs $50-75,000 a year,
that's $30-50 per month for each owner if the place sells out, which it never will at the prices asked. That leaves less than $40 per slip per month for maintenance...
I'm sure the hidden costs are going to raise the stated figure to at least double that and assessments after a major flood will be excessive and probably bankrupt the marina
(dockominium) association.
BTW the developers NEVER offered to sit down with the Louisville Harbor Association. Waterfront Development Corporation simply evicted them and would not return their phone calls. Just as all of the other CJ articles on this development, this is all hype and half truths
For the "rest of the story" check out www.louisvilleboatharbor.com
Posted: Sat Oct 20, 2007 5:05 pm
That's terrible and ridiculous! What type of sales people are they?! I wonder what they know that the public doesn't know. I'm surprised Mr. Poe hasn't done something about that! One of the key things to real-estate is to create a demand and commitment before the product even exists... How far off is this project from completion?!
Posted: Sat Oct 20, 2007 3:04 pm
A guy I know who has his rather large boat stored in Harrods Creek, says it costs him about 55 dollars of fuel just to get his boat out to the Ohio River, so this location would be of a long term benefit for those with larger boats who
don't want to idle in a no wake zone for 45 minutes.