Louisville, KY (WDRB News) --It is one of the last blocks along Main Street that needs fixing up. The 100 block of West Main, known as Whiskey Row.
The new owners of Whiskey Row say two of the five buildings they purchased several months ago are in worse shape than they could have ever imagined.
Main Street Revitalization, the investor group led by Steve Wilson and Laura Lee Brown, purchased the five buildings from investor Todd Blue this past August. After engineers inspected the buildings it was determined that not much can be saved in two of the buildings.
"These wood interior structures for the most part are beyond repair, other than the Main Street facades and the brick party walls, the original material is not salvageable," says attorney Craig Greenberg, a member of the development team.
Greenberg gave members of the media a tour of the buildings Tuesday afternoon to show us a first hand look at just how bad the damage is from years of neglect. Going inside you are not sure just how long these buildings will be left standing.
"If it was raining today," says Greenberg, "you would hear water fall, we've been in there before when it has been raining and it sounds like you are standing next to Niagara Falls, so there are big leaks in these buildings."
Nevertheless, Greenberg says the Main Street facades on all of the buildings will be restored just as preservationists had hoped. That includes stabilizing the facades of two of the buildings still owned by Blue.
Greenberg says just to keep the buildings from falling down, will cost significantly more than the one and a half million dollar forgivable loan developers obtained from the city to buy the historic structures.
"Our group has made significant efforts and invested significant amounts of money to preserve these buildings to their historical elements and keep all of the Main Street facades intact," adds Greenberg.
Restoration work is expected to begin next month and be completed by June. And then the development team will decide what to do with the buildings.
It is expected to be at least two years before they will be ready for new occupants.
