Community leaders push to advance $85M west Louisville development project

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Community leaders held a meeting Friday urging Louisville Metro Government to advance a west end development project.

The property near the corner of 11th and Hill streets, once home to the Rhodia chemical plant, has been vacant since 1994, and the process to get to the point of development has taken years.

Metro Government, which bought the 17-acre site in 2002, selected Re:land Group in 2020 to eventually buy and redevelop the property for mixed-use and mixed-income housing. Metro Council allocated $10 million in coronavirus stimulus funds for property cleanup.

"We need you to close this deal. Immediately, no more delays," Kathleen Parks, with Park Hill-Algonquin's Community of Opportunity, said. "This is not an attack on the mayor. We just want to ensure that his promise will be kept. It's that simple."

Parks said phase one is ready. The first part of the plan includes the $85 million green-housing deal, which would deliver 233 passive-house apartments on 6.5 acres.

But only almost $80 million has been secured so far from tax-credit equity, solar credits, state bonds and local funds.

Two hurdles remain in the progress: