LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Louisville Downtown Partnership (LDP) hosted their State of Downtown address on Thursday focusing on revitalization efforts, creating residential neighborhoods and much more as top priorities for the future of the city.
The organization showed through statistics that the area continues to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.
"I'm happy to tell you that the state of downtown is strong," Rebecca Fleischaker, the executive director of LDP, said. "Property values are up. Tourism numbers are up. Events are up and investment is up."
In the graphs LDP showed the audience of downtown business owners, they showed how visitation has slowed but went on to highlight how it's improving.
Mayor Craig Greenberg took to the podium and said 2020 was a tough year for the area.
Scott Love with Local Initiative Support Corporation (LISC) said he hopes more investments go into the surrounding area his office is located.
"I'm hoping to hear new investments downtown," Love said. "Perhaps that looks like restaurants, perhaps that looks like retail, perhaps that looks like more affordable housing downtown. Housing in general downtown and then the amenities to support that development."
Greenberg went on to address some of the issues the public sees when commuting to work like the homeless population.
"We should do everything we can to provide those individuals with help and support to get them on a new path in life," Greenberg said. "And similarly for everyone who's not homeless they also have the expectation of safe and healthy streets to go about their daily life."
The mayor also talked about development projects on both 4th Street and 9th Street.
Rob Stephens with the Transit Authority of River City (TARC) said their downtown office could benefit from it.
"There's Broadway all the way and there's the reimagining of 9th Street corridor along there." Stephens said. "We're at the intersection of that infrastructure improvement I really believe that will kind of bring us synergy to help transportation."
LDP said tourism is important, especially in the bourbon and retail industries, but want to continue investing in making it comfortable for the locals as well.
"And it's a part of our ask to the state is to help us convert these vacant units that need a little bit of help to get over the financing finish line to become a reality," Greenberg said.
Love said he hopes to see nice amenities being added in future investments to draw people like tourists and conventioneers into the downtown area.
"A place for folks in particularly West Louisville that they can come and enjoy the amenities downtown," Love said. "So a nice mix of both but whatever way it goes, providing jobs for the community I think it's going to be critically important."
Investments that look to bring downtown back to a pre-pandemic lifestyle.
Another investment mayor Greenberg mentioned is prioritizing the streets for foot traffic by adding new routes to several destinations. He wants to make Waterfront Park more accessible to the rest of downtown.
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