LOUISVILLE, Ky. — An eyesore sandwiched between the Original Highlands neighborhood and the Paristown Pointe neighborhood is one step closer to becoming a brand new housing complex, boutique hotel, parking garage and more. The current plan is to give the developer $20.3 million in tax credits to incentivize this project.
"The city morgue was in here and I would watch as they would bring people in that they had to do autopsies on," Shannon Musselman said, who owns an Air BnB in the Paristown Pointe neighborhood and has been watching this project closely.
The Urban Government Center at the corner of East Breckenridge Street and Barret Avenue has been vacant since 2016, when Louisville/Jefferson County government vacated the building due to health and safety concerns. From 1924 to 1987 it was the Kentucky Baptist Hospital.
"A lot of people were born in this hospital and came through this campus," Musselman said, who was born at the Kentucky Baptist Hospital.
Metro Council approved a rezoning in 2023 to redevelop this nine-acre property, but the plans have not materialized to this point. The new plan by city staff is to create a "tax increment financing district" which will reimburse the developer for 20 years as the property increases in value. The developer, Upper Paristown Preservation trust (UPPT), will be allowed to recoup 80% of its property taxes up until a cap of $20.3 million is hit.
On Tuesday, the Labor, Economic Development, and Appropriations Committee approved this plan. The clerk stopped reading the role when enough "yes" votes had been heard. Not a single "no" vote was heard in the crowd.
Musselman said the plans have changed behind closed doors since the February 2023 vote.
"None of those changes went to the public; those changes were done behind closed doors and handshakes," she said.
Jeff O'Brien, head of economic development for the city, acknowledged the plan has changed slightly but not substantially. He also said there have been two public hearings on the project and people have had time to make their voices heard.
"This development plan is largely and substantially similar to the plan that was approved," O'Brien said. "That's one of our gatekeeping issues."
When outlining the TIF agreements Tuesday, O'Brien said UPPT has to satisfy four out of six "uses" for the project. The developer will get to choose which four those are.
The six choices include two different apartment layouts, "cottage-style housing," a 100-room boutique hotel with five top floor condos, and 400 parking spaces.
"He's getting a golden platter of choices and he gets to decide," Musselman said about the developer Steve Smith. "We don't get our voice in that."
The "community benefits agreement" calls for incorporation of safe construction elements from the previous structure into walkways and other areas, a courtyard that "promotes public use" and a playground. The agreement was signed by Bates Memorial Baptist Church, Highlands Community Ministries and the Paristown Pointe Neighborhood Association. There has been much debate over who signed that agreement and who did not.
The majority of speakers at the meeting were against this specific TIF. Many said they do want some new development to go there, but they said this process had been flawed. One man said there was a plan several years ago without a TIF and he wanted to know where that went.
"They proposed something in 2020, it should be built right now, we shouldn't even be here today if that had happened," local architect Steve Wiser said to the committee.
Committee chair councilman Robin Engel asked O'Brien to give them a recent appraisal for this property. O'Brien said one was done in 2017 but he couldn't cite it immediately. The plan is to give UPPT the lot for a ceremonial $1 and Engel was frustrated they didn't have an appraisal to reference.
O'Brien committed to providing an appraisal before the full Metro Council votes on this on Sept. 19.
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