LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- The plans call for a 169-room hotel, meeting space and restaurant with a rooftop pool, a project that would rise 10 stories above Interstate 64 in downtown Louisville.
A key part of building the Dream Hotel on West Main Street involves razing a series of mostly vacant buildings that date to the 1800s and keeping only their facades. Many of the windows in front of the buildings have been boarded up for years.
The boarded up windows along 811 W. Main St.
But a Metro Louisville planning report has recommended against the demolition, concluding that there is no justification for tearing down the buildings between 811 and 823 W. Main St.
“The level of demolition only retains the facades of these six 19th century historic commercial buildings, which is not a best practice in Historic Preservation and should only be considered in the most extreme circumstances,” historic preservation specialist Katherine Groskreutz wrote in a report dated Jan. 12.
She noted that the buildings are “contributing structures” to the West Main Street Historic Preservation District and the West Main Street National Register District.
"The proposed demolition of a substantial amount of these structures will severely diminish the historic fabric of each building and will adversely impact their historic integrity,” Groskreutz wrote. “Thus, the buildings will no longer be contributing to the Preservation District or the National Register District.”
However, those in support of the hotel say change is needed to bring more tourism to that end of Main Street.
"We're excited about the development, we're excited about bringing more activity and opportunities down on this end of Main Street," said Don Shaw, who works next to the proposed hotel. "I think it's definitely an area that's been underserved for a long time with all these empty spaces."
The buildings are owned by C & P Real Estate LLC and the Owsley Brown Frazier Historic Arms Museum Foundation. The Frazier foundation owns the two westernmost parcels envisioned for the project -- 821 and 823 W. Main -- but the Frazier History Museum is not part of the plan.
The project’s applicant is Alex Marks of Royal Investments LLC of Franklin, Tenn. Royal Investments, which works with the New York-based Dream Hotel Group, did not respond to an email seeking comment on Tuesday afternoon.
Andy Treinen, the president and CEO of the Frazier, also did not respond to email and phone messages.
In a filing with Metro government, Royal Investments said the project "redevelops buildings that have generally remained vacant for over 20 years. The buildings were originally constructed for river warehouses that are no longer viable — structurally or economically."
Part of the current facade along W. Main Street.
It argued that the proposal met design guidelines of the West Main Street district. Meanwhile, it cited a 2012 structural analysis that "concluded that the unreinforced brick walls, foundations, and existing wood joists would not be adequate for the live load for a commercial use."
The buildings at 811-813 West Main were built around 1865 and feature cast-iron storefronts. They were the former home of the Todd-Donigan Co.
The adjacent buildings at 815 West Main date from 1890, while those at 819-823 West Main were added around 1865.
The Dream Hotel approach for the buildings isn't unheard of. Developers of the failed Museum Plaza project in the mid-2000s had proposed saving the facades of buildings in the 600 block of West Main for their skyscraper plan.
The West Main Street Architectural Review Committee is scheduled to consider the demolition request at a meeting Wednesday.
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