Louisville apartment complex officially opens after 9-year, $200 million transformation

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- The newly renovated Beecher Terrace Apartments in Louisville's Russell neighborhood officially reopened Tuesday.

The mixed-income community has undergone a four-phase redevelopment plan that started back in 2016. Phase 4, the final stage of the $200 million multi-year project, is a mix of market-rate units and low-income units.

Louisville Metro Housing Authority received a $29 million Choice Neighborhoods Implementation Grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in 2016 to make the project a reality, creating a 620-unit live-work housing development for low-income residents, seniors and others.

"We need deeply affordable rental housing for families, for seniors (and) for people with disabilities," said Wendy Smith, deputy executive director of the Kentucky Housing Corporation. "And options like this demonstrate that affordable housing can be affordable and also really desirable. You drive around, and its just lovely."

Phase 3 was finished last October, and included 185 units as well as community spaces, a fitness center and an outdoor pool.

The original Beecher Terrace was built in 1939 in the Russell neighborhood, between Muhammad Ali Boulevard, 13th Street, Jefferson Street and 9th Street. It was long described as a severely distressed public housing development, driving the city to prioritize building it back up.

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Louisville apartment complex officially opens after 9-year, $200 million transformation