Louisville projects funded in Kentucky state budget

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- The Louisville Arena Authority would gain $12 million to make up for debt repayment funds for the KFC Yum! Center it didn’t receive during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Waterfront Park stands to get $10 million to advance its plan to expand westward.

And the Louisville Zoo would use $10 million to launch its $30 million “Kentucky trails habitat" on undeveloped Zoo property.

The two-year state spending plan approved Wednesday by the Kentucky legislature includes those and other Louisville projects and now awaits action by Gov. Andy Beshear.

Even though the Republican-controlled General Assembly holds sway over state spending, it agreed to fund Waterfront Park at the same level Beshear proposed last fall. The Waterfront Development Corp. is planning a 22-acre expansion between 10th and 14th streets as the park's fourth phase.

The state funds would give waterfront officials $22 million of their $50 million goal, said Deborah Bilitski, the corporation’s president and executive director. The money raised thus far includes Metro government and private funds.

“The support that we receive from our city and state governments are very catalytic in our fundraising efforts throughout the community,” she said.

The state budget tapped federal coronavirus relief funds to aid the arena authority, which counts on sales tax revenue from a tax increment financing district downtown to help pay off its construction debt.

The Yum! Center’s debt obligations largely come from fixed sources such as annual payments from the University of Louisville and a Metro government contribution of $10.8 million in the current fiscal year.

But the TIF district is the largest source of that revenue. And with hotels, restaurants and other shops closed during the pandemic’s first year, the district generated none of the $13.2 million in projected sales tax money during 2020.

The arena authority asked for the American Rescue Plan Act funds to offset that, said Leslie Geoghegan, the arena authority chairwoman.

“The whole reason that we asked for this ARPA money was tied back to losses we incurred, specially with the TIF, during Covid,” Geoghegan said. She said the state-approved funds would be used solely to help reduce debt on the arena bonds.

The budget requires a Louisville Metro government match. Mayor Greg Fischer's administration didn't have details Thursday on how the city funds would be used.

Elsewhere, the budget includes $1.5 million in state funds for the Waterfront Botanical Gardens to build a construction access road and install a new pipe system to ease flooding.

Kasey Maier, the gardens’ president and CEO, said the access road would carry construction crews to the site of a new Japanese gardens expected to break ground this summer, keeping them off the site’s main driveway.

“Right now we really just have one driveway in, but we have lots of visitors and programs and events all the time,” she said.

Built on a landfill in the Ohio River and Beargrass Creek floodplains, the property has had some drainage issues, Maier said. The state-funded work should manage runoff onto Frankfort Avenue.

Both projects should begin later this year, she said.

The zoo's $30 million "Kentucky trails" initiative would provide "up-close encounters" with native state animals such as bison, elk and bear and have a safari ride, event space and the Kentucky Conservation Center, spokeswoman Kyle Shepherd said in an email.

It is envisioned on 20 acres of zoo property not now open to the public. The zoo would still need to raise the remaining $20 million, Shepherd said.