Nonprofit using $555,000 loan to turn vacant west Louisville buildings into retail, affordable housing

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- A nonprofit focused on revitalizing portions of west Louisville through commercial development received a $555,000 loan from the Louisville Affordable Housing Trust Fund to transform two properties in the Russell neighborhood.

Each two-story building will have affordable housing residential units on the top floor — rent will be $800 per month or less — and retail options on street level.

To Sherelle Gore, who grew up in the Russell neighborhood and now runs a business — Gore's Smokeout BBQ — on 18th Street, the news brings hope to her home.

"I remember what was there because I grew up in this neighborhood," Gore said Tuesday. "It was a barber shop there so it would be nice just to see it be a blooming business again.

The community development nonprofit OneWest received the loan, a group that Gore worked with in the past through its retail accelerator program when she and her husband opened the restaurant a few months ago.

The money will specifically fund projects at these two sites:

526 S. 18th Street
- The 2,360-square-foot building will be renovated to include street-level commercial space with into two residential units upstairs
1731 W. Broadway
- This part of the historic Royal Theater property will be transformed into two ground-floor commercial spaces with residential units above each

"Since we've been here, they have redone and repaved the streets, put new lighting outside, (and) the sidewalks have been don," Gore said. "It brings a little hope, a little happiness, to the community."

Evon Smith, CEO of OneWest, said they're committed to making the Russell neighborhood a viable place to live and run a business.

"If there's an area where it is vacant, abandoned and it's an environmentally unsafe, those are things that we can rectify to make those spaces plausible and optional for these businesses that would like to be in the area," Smith said Tuesday. "... We have a number of small businesses in the community that have been looking for space. So we have retailers that could locate there (and) we have artists that could have space in those areas."

Still, while the area is slowly developing, Gore said more needs to be done.

"We still need grocery stores," she said. "We still need other shopping options. Just things that basic communities have, we still need those in our community."

The area is now slated to get a new coffee shop, something Gore said is a start to what she hopes will be a long-term commitment to Russell so others can succeed in business like she did.

"I definitely see the success in it and I am very proud of it and it is something that my kids can be proud of, my family is proud of," she said.

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