New housing and Hy-Vee: Where do 3 previously announced Louisville developments stand?
With new commercial and residential developments announced each week across Jefferson County, you may have lost track of some projects announced a while ago.
From a repurposed West End candy factory to an anticipated arrival of a well-known grocery chain to the Louisville market, here's a look at three previously announced developments and where those projects stand.
Gateway on Broadway
1405 W. Broadway
A Russell neighborhood building whose past lives includes a candy factory, tobacco warehouse and military office is on the cusp of its next chapter.
Louisville-based affordable housing nonprofit The Housing Partnership Inc. has planned for years to repurpose 1405 W. Broadway, which has sat vacant for decades, into affordable senior housing.
“It’s been such a long-blighted building for the community,” said Andrew Hawes, president and CEO of The Housing Partnership.
The nonprofit bought the 1921 building with the assistance of OneWest for $1.1 million in late 2018 after two years of working with the prior owner on different plans for the building.
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The nonprofit was slowed by the pandemic, then hit by rising construction costs and interest rates, which elevated the project's previously announced pricetage to $48 million from $43 million.
Though the project was delayed as the developer worked to close the financial gap, the project is ready to move forward with funding from Louisville’s Affordable Housing Trust Fund, the American Rescue Plan, low-income housing tax credits, tax exempt bonds and historic rehabilitation tax credits.
Groundbreaking on the Gateway on Broadway senior apartments is set for July 21.
“We’ve been laser focused on this project for nearly five years,” Hawes said. “We’re extremely relieved and extremely happy to be moving forward.”
Residents are anticipated to move into the building in 2025 following an 18- to 24-month construction timeline.
Upper floors will include 116 apartments for seniors, 50 of which will be for households with incomes at or below 30% of area median income with the balance for households with incomes at or below 50%.
The first floor will be home to the nonprofit’s headquarters as well as the Broadway Community Resource Center, a hub for community development organizations that serve western Louisville neighborhoods.
On the National Register of Historic Places, the five-story building was originally used as a factory for the Frank A. Menne Candy Co. and later as a tobacco warehouse for the Axton-Fischer Co. As part of the adaptive reuse project, the building’s exterior would be preserved.
The project represents the largest creation of new residential units for the nonprofit as well as the most complicated and largest project financing plan.
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Distillery Commons
100 Distillery Commons
The mixed-use redevelopment of the Distillery Commons property in the Irish Hill neighborhood is still happening, though rising interest rates are delaying the project’s timetable.
Dan Dokovic, founder and managing principal of Bamboo Equity Partners, said his firm will seek state historic tax credits to help with elevated lending costs.
As the next round of funding allocations isn’t until summer 2024, construction isn’t anticipated to start until next year.
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“We’re excited to get it going, but we also want to make sure we’re very much prudent about what we’re doing,” he said.
Bamboo Equity Partners, which is based in Missouri, intends to convert the existing Distillery Commons retail and office hub into 124 residential units.
It also plans a structure at the site of a now-demolished bourbon barrel rickhouse at the corner of Lexington Road and Payne Street that was part of the once-sprawling bourbon distillery campus.
Developers sought demolition of the 1890s Nelson Distillery Warehouse last summer, citing its poor condition, though the plan faced pushback from residents and preservationists.
Ultimately, city inspectors found the building to be an imminent danger and the structure was leveled.
Bamboo plans a mixed-use structure with a first-floor restaurant and retail space and multiple floors of one- and two-bedroom apartments.
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Pursuit of historic tax credits will now help make the $60 million to $70 million project a reality, Dokovic said.
“It’s too bad that the economic forefront shifted, so we just have to shift as well,” he said.
Hy-Vee grocery
7405 Bardstown Road
A new supermarket with Midwestern roots is planned for Jefferson County, though a construction timeframe is still not announced.
Iowa-based Hy-Vee announced in February 2022 it would open one of its grocery stores in Louisville with plans to open this year.
The company announced at the time it had bought about 12 acres at the SouthPointe Commons retail and lifestyle center, 7405 Bardstown Road, and planned to build a 150,000-square-foot store. A deed just shy of $23 million shows the property was officially moved under the Hy-Vee name in March 2023.
A Hy-Vee spokeswoman told The Courier Journal there would be an update on the project later this summer.
Growth & development reporter Matthew Glowicki can be reached at mglowicki@courier-journal.com, 502-582-4000 or on Twitter @mattglo.
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Where Louisville's Hy-Vee, Distillery Commons, Gateway projects stand
