The parent company of Louisville’s professional soccer teams has signed a development agreement to turn a surface parking lot into a 200-unit apartment building.
The apartment complex, whose plans call for retail space on the first floor, will be developed by Denton Floyd Real Estate Group in partnership with LDG Development. The building will hold 128 one-bedroom and 72 two-bedroom luxury apartments, according to the developers.
Shane Uttich, who chairs the stadium district development committee, said at a press conference Tuesday the hope is that the building could spur additional development around the soccer stadium.
“We envision a vibrant new extension of downtown Louisville around Lynn Family Stadium,” Uttich said. “We couldn’t be more excited for what is yet to come.”
Plans for a sports and entertainment district in Butchertown have been years behind schedule.
A master plan for the 37 acres near the interstate contemplates housing, retail and restaurants surrounding the stadium, but that development has failed to materialize until now. The lack of development means local and state tax revenues dedicated to help funding the stadium construction have fallen far short of initial projects.
Uttich wouldn’t say what other types of projects may be in the works, but said the stadium district has faced “headwinds” in trying to bring the initial vision to life.
“This site has a fair amount of site constraints: overhead lines, railroad, floodplain, brownfield,” he said. “The market conditions of the last few years didn’t help anything.”
Uttich also noted that Lynn Family Stadium opened in 2020, just as COVID-19 became an international pandemic.
Mayor Craig Greenberg, who attended Tuesday’s announcement, said that some taxpayer dollars will be used to fund infrastructure upgrades for the project, including sidewalks, underground utilities and parking garage for use by tenants and the public.
The funding for these infrastructure upgrades will come from a $100 million appropriation from Kentucky General Assembly that Louisville received last year. Greenberg declined to say exactly how much of that funding will go toward supporting the apartment complex.
Like Uttich, Greenberg said he hopes the project can be a catalyst for the district.
“I am hopeful that in 10,15 years from now, these surface parking lots will have a thousand or more people living in it, that you will have places where people are coming every day to eat, to work, to stay overnight,” Greenberg said.
Stadium executives and the development team did not provide a timeline for when construction on the apartments will begin.
