Mayor Craig Greenberg told city officials and business executives attending Thursday’s luncheon at the Marriott that “downtown is back,” though many projects and improvements are still in the works.
Greenberg’s comments at the annual State of Downtown event came on the heels of the economic impact report showing that the neighborhood is generating more tax revenue and attracting more conference attendees compared to the year before year. The report, compiled by the nonprofit Louisville Downtown Partnership, also shows that there are $1.6 billion worth of public and private projects announced for the area, up from just $600,000 a year before.
The mayor encouraged business leaders to keep promoting the transformation of downtown.
“Ignore what your friends who have not been to downtown Louisville since 2020 are saying,” Greenberg said, alluding to the time when many workers left offices during the pandemic and Louisville residents filled the streets for racial justice protests. “Try to overcome the Louisville tendency to focus on our challenges and not our strengths.”
One of the changes at the core of downtown’s revitalization, Greenberg said, is the increased presence of Louisville Metro Police officers and ambassadors, who help visitors navigate the area and keep streets and sidewalks clean.
While there’s still more work to be done, he said LMPD recently added three more officers to the downtown area and mounted patrols on the weekend. Police department leadership will also move into their new headquarters inside the old AT&T building on West Chestnut Street by the end of the summer, Greenberg announced.
“Downtown Louisville is the neighborhood where every local and every visitor should feel welcome, safe, energized and excited,” he said. “[It should be] the place where you want to work, not the place where you have to work.”
The total number of people working downtown dropped dramatically during the COVID-19 pandemic, leading some restaurants and small businesses to close their doors. The new economic impact report shows some positive trends, although the data lags behind.
The number of downtown workers increased from 53,125 in 2021 to 66,638 people in 2022, the year with the latest available data.
At Thursday’s luncheon, Rebecca Fleischaker, the Downtown Partnership’s executive director, encouraged business leaders to consider bringing their employees back into the office. She said even getting employees downtown one day a week could have a big impact.
“That would be life-changing for our small businesses who, by the way, locate in downtown to provide the services we expect,” she said.
Vacant downtown office space remains a challenge. According to the report, vacancy rates for Class A office space in the highest-quality buildings barely budged, essentially holding steady at around 27%. Overall vacancy rates for downtown office space saw a slight increase.
Short of getting people back to the office, Fleishaker said city leaders “need to double down” on improving the livability of the Central Business District, where currently housing and critical amenities like groceries are limited.
“This is our focus for the foreseeable future,” she said. “To have the right financial tools and incentives in place to help create more residential opportunity and pedestrian activity, either through converting old office buildings or getting more active uses on our surface parking lots, and we have a lot of those.”
The city already has some programs and developments in the works aimed at increasing the number of residents living downtown.
Late last year, Greenberg announced the city would give tax incentives to developers interested in turning vacant office buildings into residential units. And a number of proposed projects would add additional living space, including the 500,000-square-foot Slugger Stadium development that could have 225 housing units across four buildings.
The city is also investing in new green spaces downtown, like the Trager Microforest off West Muhammad Ali Boulevard and the LOUMED Commons near Chestnut and Floyd Streets.
The full 2024 downtown Louisville economic impact report is available here.
