LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- It will cost an estimated $125 million to remake the Belvedere in downtown Louisville, according to planning documents that give the first publicly available price tag on one of Mayor Craig Greenberg’s key priorities.  

The cost projection comes as the city asks for the project to be included in a long-range plan adopted by the Kentuckiana Regional Planning and Development Agency, which guides transportation policy in five counties in Kentucky and southern Indiana.

The documents also show the redesigned Belvedere open to the public in 2045 — although such cost and completion estimates are often changed as projects are refined.

Greenberg highlighted the Belvedere plan in his State of the City address last week at the Kentucky Center, where he unveiled "first concepts" for the 51-year-old site at Main and Fifth streets above I-64 by the Ohio River. In his speech, he said the space would become "an iconic world class destination that will serve as Louisville's front yard and connector."

The mayor’s office later said there was no available cost estimate because the final design isn’t known. The KIPDA planning agency posted the Metro-sponsored project’s cost figure two days earlier.

Greenberg told WDRB News last Friday that a fundraising campaign is envisioned as part of the overall project financing.

He said former Olmsted Parks Conservancy president and CEO Layla George, a consultant working with Louisville-based architect KNBA, would be involved in that fundraising role along with community engagement and other aspects.

That work, he said, also includes "thinking about the long-term programming and maintenance and operation -- lots of different decisions that need to be thought through and made over the course of the coming years."

Thus far, Metro Council has allocated $10 million in bond funds in the current city budget. The city also expects to tap part of last year’s $100 million earmark by the Kentucky General Assembly for the work, although the exact amount isn’t known.

KIPDA — on whose board Greenberg represents Metro government — is seeking public feedback through Feb. 11 on the Belvedere and other projects in the long-range transportation plan. A virtual public meeting is planned for 5 p.m. Tuesday.

The meeting and planning documents can be accessed here: https://kipdatransportation.org/amendments/

Four comments on the Belvedere plan have been submitted as of Tuesday afternoon. None supports the plan outright but suggest other ways to use the money, such as tearing down the elevated stretch of I-64 nearby.

A grassroots plan called "8664" that advocated for freeway removal was floated during the planning stages of the Ohio River Bridges Project starting in the mid-2000s. Kentucky and Indiana officials declined to pursue the 8664 idea, favoring the $2.3 billion bridges project that added new bridges downtown and between Prospect and Utica, Ind.

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