LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Waterfront Park is celebrating its 20th anniversary. The gateway to Louisville that was once a scrapyard has become the heart of downtown.
“The truckers, when they would come over the bridge, they used to call this ‘Junk Town,’" said former Louisville Mayor Jerry Abramson, who was still in office when crews broke ground on Waterfront Park. “Because they would see this front door, and it was nothing but junk.”
Fast forward twenty years, and Abramson still says Waterfront Park is the park of his dreams.
"We've been dreaming for years and years in this community to take back our waterfront." Abramson said in 1998.
“We had been dreaming about this park and taking down all these piles of scrap and metals and sand,” Abramson said at the 20th anniversary celebration on Friday.
Thunder Over Louisville and the Forecastle Festivals are fixtures at Waterfront Park. More than 150 organized events each year at the park attract major crowds and major development to the downtown Louisville area.
“Well over $1 billion or $1.5 billion of new development is taking place,” Waterfront Development Corporation President David Karem said. “Much of it is attributed to Waterfront Park here.”
Karem said the KFC Yum! Center and Louisville Slugger Field never would have considered landing downtown if it wasn’t for the view of the park.
“I can guarantee you that high-rise wouldn't be here, Yum! arena wouldn't be here, the 100 block of Main Street wouldn't be here,” Karem said. “Humana would never have gone into that building or redone the entire building if it was across from a scrap yard.”
On a major milestone anniversary, the future looks bright. Construction on Phase 4 of the park has just begun. It will be on a 22-acre site between Ninth and 15th Streets. The project is expected to cost $35 million with a goal to become a catalyst for change in west Louisville the way it was for downtown.
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