Jul 20, 2016

Construction has begun on a road diet project along New Albany‘s Spring Street. The redesign covers an eight-block, .8-mile stretch of Spring between Vincennes Street and Beharrell Avenue.

The project goals include increasing user safety and reducing traffic speeds. Spring Street through New Albany here is among the most dangerous corridors in Southern Indiana, according to the Kentuckiana Regional Planning & Development Agency’s (KIPDA) “High Crash Segments” study. Spring from Woodrow Avenue to Silver Street ranked second most crash-ridden while Spring from Silver to Vincennes ranked number 17.

Only two months ago, Chloe Allen was killed by a motorist while walking at Spring and Vincennes streets. Then only weeks later, another motorist struck another pedestrian at the same intersection.

Several years ago, noted urban planner Jeff Speck of Speck & Associates was hired to study New Albany’s overall street grid and make recommendations, including along this stretch of Spring Street. In his December 2014 report, Speck looked at just this corridor, analyzing existing conditions and suggesting improvements.

Spring Street is more than 50 feet wide and, according to Speck’s study, already carries a lot of traffic. The four-lane street sees roughly 23,000 cars daily between Silver and Beharrell, where it transitions into a highway-like Ohio River Scenic Byway. This causes “excessive” traffic speeds, according to Speck, and “treacherous” pedestrian conditions. From Silver to Vincennes, traffic drops significantly to 16,000 to 18,000 vehicles a day, but speeds remain high.

Among his recommendations, Speck called for a 4-to-3 road diet, where a center turning lane is added. “The introduction of a 3-lane configuration will result in a street that is considerably safer,” he wrote. And fortunately, that’s among the changes taking shape in the corridor now.

02-new-albany-spring-street-changes-louisville

03-new-albany-spring-street-changes-louisville

According to the above rendering of Thomas Street looking west from the City of New Albany, two 11-foot travel lanes flank an 11-foot turn lane. Buffered bike lanes are also planned along the curb here with green paint increasing the visibility of a conflict where motorists and cyclists cross paths. To the west, the bike lane becomes a door-zone lane with the buffer on the wrong side of a row of parallel-parked cars.

05-new-albany-spring-street-changes-louisville

04-new-albany-spring-street-changes-louisville

The above rendering shows Spring Street at Silver Street looking east, where a new left-turn lane is being added. “The new signal will also be able to determine if there are longer queue lines for certain lanes, and then adjust the timing of its signal to help get drivers to their destinations quicker,” according to the City of New Albany.

For pedestrians, the project adds ADA-accessible ramps at intersections. Traffic signals will also include walk indicators, but it’s unclear whether they will be automatic or require an pushing a beg button. Speck’s recommendations had called for additional crosswalks with pedestrian refuges built in the turning lanes, but those are not included in the current plan.

Besides these safety improvements, the Spring Street project aims to maintain traffic along the corridor at current levels. “There is a growing concern that New Albany streets will be used as a ‘pass-through’ for those wishing to avoid the toll,” the city writes. The Sherman–Minton Bridge will be the only un-tolled Interstate highway bridge following the Ohio River Bridges Project, and an influx of speeding motorists could eliminate the project’s safety benefits.

The bulk of the $811,000 project was funded with federal grants under the Highway Safety Improvement Program and administered by the Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT).

Crews began working on the westbound lanes on Monday, July 11 and after about a month will switch to the other side, according to the City of New Albany. The entire project is expected to be complete by October 1.

The homeownership model is a failed wealth-creation strategy

Policy

By Branden Klayko -

Jul 20, 2016

0

It’s an article of faith in some quarters—well, most quarters—that in the United States, owning a home ought to be a surefire way to build wealth. Whether it’s presidents, anti-poverty groups, foundations, or realtors, we’re always being told that that homeownership is the foundation of the American dream, and a key way secure one’s financial future.

For a long time, it certainly worked out that way for a lot of households. Real home prices in the US outstripped inflation by a wide margin. Home equity rose. If you bought a house in the 1960s, pretty much anywhere in the U.S., it was worth a lot more two or three decades later. Collectively, and after adjusting for inflation, the real value of home equity owned by U.S. households increased from 1 trillion in 1960 to 2 trillion in 1975 to 8 trillion before finally peaking at more than 14 trillion in 2006.

Because of this record, we’re told that promoting more widespread homeownership is an effective way to lift low-income families out of poverty, and to help racial and ethnic minorities—who’ve long had lower than average rates of homeownership, to build wealth.

The implication is that the 40 percent or so of American households that don’t now own homes would be better off, all things equal, if they were able to buy a home. But as the standard investment disclaimer goes, “past performance is no guarantee of future results.” That warning is especially true for low income households and minorities who are now renters.

Why Homeownership is Risky for Low Income Households

Housing can be a good investment if you buy at the right time, buy in the right place, get a fair deal on financing, and aren’t excessively vulnerable to market swings. Unfortunately the market for home-ownership is structured in such a way as to assure that low-income and minority buyers meet none of these conditions. For these Americans, there’s no guarantee that homeownership builds wealth; in fact, tends to be a risky proposition that often produces financial hardship.

First, you have to buy at the right time. The old adage is to buy low and sell high.Jordan Rappaport of the Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank estimates that buying has outperformed renting on a financial basis only about half the time since the 1970s; so those who buy during the “wrong” half stand to be worse off. And low-income and minority buyers tend to be disproportionately drawn into the market at these “wrong” times.

That’s because the best time to buy, from a wealth-building perspective, is when housing prices are low and growing sluggishly. But generally, such times coincide with limited credit availability: home lenders ration credit according to credit score, and only the “best” borrowers have access to home loans when prices are low.

As the experience of the last housing bubble showed, low-income and minority buyers came into the market most strongly as lending standards were relaxed, relatively late in the cycle. Those who bought in 2001 (when the market was depressed) fared very differently that those who bought in 2006 (at the height of the bubble). Easy credit nominally made homes more affordable, but also drew ever more borrowers into the market to bid up the prices of homes until the bubble popped. Because of this inherent quality of the credit cycle, the poorest borrowers are drawn into the market at the worst time to buy—when prices are at their highest.

Second, you have to buy in the right place. Opportunities for home appreciation vary enormously, not only by region of the country, but by neighborhood within metro areas. Ethnic minorities tend to buy in neighborhoods that have lower rates of home price appreciation. Zillow’s Skylar Olsen analyzed the data on home price trends by race and ethnicity. They show that Black and Hispanic households experienced bigger declines in home values as the housing bubble collapsed, and a slower rebound as it recovered, leaving them worse off that the typical white homeowner. And that’s not a result of Black and Hispanic buyers being poor judges of neighborhood quality: In segregated housing markets, the behavior of whites to avoid Black and Hispanic neighborhoods means that it’s much more difficult for those communities to see consistently rising home values.

Indexed home values, 2000–2013. (Zillow)

Third, you have to get a good deal on credit. The evidence is that low income borrowers and ethnic minorities pay, on average, higher interest rates. A 2006 study for HUD found that after controlling for household, property and loan characteristics, black households pay interest rates that are 21 to 42 basis points higher than whites, and hispanics pay rates than are 13 to 15 basis points higher. Federally guaranteed home mortgages must pay fees based on their riskiness, as measured by the mortgage’s loan-to-value ratio and the borrower’s credit score. Because minority buyers tend to have lower down payments and worse credit scores, it’s estimated that they pay guarantee fees that are 50 percent higher on average than white buyers. In addition, we know that low income and minority borrowers were the targets of predatory lenders. If you pay more for your mortgage, that raises the cost and lowers the returns to homeownership.

Finally, in order to build wealth with housing, you have to have the ability to weather economic cycles. Low income and minority families often have limited financial resources beyond the equity in their homes and therefore are poorly positioned to cope with financial setbacks—loss of a job, a major medical expense or home repair—and missing mortgage payments can quickly push them into default. And highly leveraged home buyers (who get 90% or greater mortgages) are vulnerable to lose their entire investment in the face of even a modest decline in home prices. As Atif Mian and Amir Sufi have documented, conventional US mortgage loans are a risky, one-sided bet for borrowers.

As Patrick Bayer, Fernando Ferreira, and Stephen Ross have demonstrated, minority homebuyers are drawn into the market relatively late in the credit cycle, have limited financial resources on which to draw in the event of economic problems and are disproportionately more likely to default on their loans, even after controlling for differences in credit scores, down payments, and neighborhood characteristics. As a result, they conclude:

“Our study raises serious concerns about homeownership as a vehicle for reducing racial wealth disparities. …Homeownership may be especially risky for households with a low initial level of wealth (savings) or fewer family resources on which to draw when hit with an adverse economic shock.“

If you buy at the wrong time, if you buy in the wrong place, if you pay too much for for the money you borrow and don’t have the financial wherewithal to weather economic turbulence, chances are that home ownership could turn out to be a wealth-destroying, not a wealth-building, proposition. It clearly was in the aftermath of the collapse of the housing bubble.

[This article has been cross-posted from Portland, Oregon–based City Observatory, a think tank dedicated to data-driven analysis of cities and the policies that shape them. Top image by Dan Moyle / Flickr.]

Traffic fatalities rising fast nationally—especially pedestrian and cyclist deaths

By Branden Klayko -

Jul 20, 2016

2

Percentage Change in Estimated Fatalities in 2015 From Reported 2014 Fatality Counts, by NHTSA Region. (Courtesy NHTSA)

Traffic fatalities in America hit a seven-year high in 2015, with pedestrians and cyclists accounting for a disproportionate share of the alarming increase, according to preliminary data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Last year, 35,200 people were killed in traffic — a 7.7 percent increase over 2014 and the worst death toll since 2008. The number of people killed while walking or biking is rising even faster.

Pedestrian deaths shot up 10 percent last year and bicyclist deaths 13 percent — more than other types of victims, according to NHTSA. The agency did not break down these categories by number.

Driving increased in 2015 too, but by 3.5 percent — not enough to explain the rising death toll.

Last year pedestrian and cyclist deaths increased more than overall traffic deaths. (Courtesy NHTSA)

People walking or biking have accounted for a growing share of total traffic deaths since 2007, and there is little agreement about the underlying causes. In addition to the usual rush to blame victims by invoking “distracted walking,” theories include increases in biking and walking overall, driver distraction, and low gas prices promoting more “marginal” drivers like teenagers, who are more crash prone. (The NHTSA report says crashes involving young drivers — ages 15 to 20 — increased 10 percent in 2015.)

One thing is clear, however: The United States is falling further behind other nations that have sustained impressive reductions in traffic fatalities. While countries like the UK, Japan, and Germany achieve rapid improvements in street safety, America has failed to keep people safe on the streets.

Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx, for his part, rejected the idea that traffic deaths are to be expected or tolerated. “Every American should be able to drive, ride or walk to their destination safely, every time,” he said.

But the NHTSA’s statement on the findings illustrates the agency’s institutional limitations when it comes to addressing street safety. In response to the increase in traffic deaths, the NHTSA says it will promote some car technology solutions like automatic braking. But the agency doesn’t mention systemic threats to people walking and biking, like streets designed for excessive motorist speeds.

[This article has been cross-posted from our partner, Streetsblog.]

Nucleus Building 2 gets architecture right, but should ditch this anti-urban driveway

By Branden Klayko -

Jul 19, 2016

3

Tomorrow, Wednesday, July 20, the Downtown Development Review Overlay (DDRO) Committee will examine a proposal for a new mixed-use office building proposed for the corner of Market Street and Preston Street on the Nucleus block—sorry, the JD Nichols Campus for Innovation & Entrepreneurship block. We previously looked at the structure’s design, by Cincinnati-based BHDP Architecture, over here.

Rendering of Nucleus Building 2. (Courtesy BHDP)

The quite good-looking design from the University of Louisville Foundation and NTS Development, so far named rather anonymously Nucleus Building 2, calls for over 325,000 square feet of space including two ground level retail spots and a rooftop restaurant on the 11th floor. There’s a lot we like about this structure and we think the committee will, too.

Situation on the ground

Detail of how the building meets the ground. (BHDP)

First of all, it’s important to note that the reconfigured East Market Street shown here is part of the current Market Street Master Plan concept that will reshape the entire corridor—except for one small part. The overall streetscape—including that central median—won’t be evaluated by the DDRO committee and we’ll look more closely at the entire stretch later.

Building 2 does make one significant urban design gesture, though: a driveway-slash-parking lot. It erodes the improvements of the master plan so far as to make them useless or even dangerous.

The driveway is so bad because the rest of the design is so good. And it’s a superfluous amenity that promotes driving Downtown. It’s not needed and should be removed.

Let’s examine at the whole block first.

Looking at the 300 block’s overall site plan, you can see a lot is proposed on the street alone. This is one of those blocks of Market that widens out might have once had either a building or a park in the middle. A slender landscaped median is marked in the center of the street and wide, tree-lined sidewalks in front of the Nucleus buildings are shown.

Zooming in, you can see a light beige stripe running roughly parallel the street. That’s a bike lane. Not just any bike lane, either—a quite fancy curb-separated protected bike lane. That would be a first for Louisville. You can also see that the two-lane driveway takes away two-thirds of the sidewalk and serves the sole use of valet parking.

What’s also clear is that the driveway will make the bike lane more dangerous and generally useless. The wide curb radius will allow motorists to turn into the drive at rapid speeds, putting them in direct conflict with cyclists. And as anyone who has seen such a large valet stand knows, cars will very often be parked blocking the bike lane. The point of the two lanes is to have one be parking, after all. It’s even shown that way in the renderings, with a parked car blocking the bike lane. The driveway is essentially a pull-up parking lot.

As an alternative, Building 2 could easily add a dedicated drop-off / valet area on the parallel parking lane, even cutting into the sidewalk a single lane as a similar dedicated food truck spot does to the west. Such a change could also add six large trees wiped out by the drive.

The driveway is just too destructive to the urban fabric of Downtown Louisville. It erodes the sidewalk, promotes driving, makes cycling dangerous, removes street trees, and isn’t even needed.

Attend the meeting

If you’d like to attend the DDRO committee meeting on the 350 East Market Street structure (16DDRO1011), head on over to the Old Jail Auditorium, 514 West Liberty Street, Wednesday at 8:30a.m. It’s the only project on the agenda, so the excitement should pick up pretty quick.

We urge the committee to praise the building’s architecture, but question its urban design. There’s no need for more parking lots and driveways in Downtown Louisville.

Louisville Grows to begin construction on its Healthy House headquarters

By Branden Klayko -

Jul 19, 2016

3

One of the most ambitious of Gill Holland‘s development goals for the Portland neighborhood is the 21st Century Shotgun Project, in which he enlisted top architects from across the country to reinterpret Louisville’s classic shotgun houses in a modern way. Similar to Brad Pitt’s Make It Right Foundation work in New Orleans, the plan is to construct these modern houses in vacant lots in the Portland neighborhood.

Among those participating are California’s (fer) Studio, designers of The Green Building and Rabbit Hole Distillery locally, and wHY, architects behind the new Speed Art Museum and plans for redoing Louisville Stoneware. Holland hopes for a mix of national and local architects working on the project.

This week, work will get underway on the first of those shotgun houses as construction begins on the so-called Healthy House at 1641 Portland Avenue. The structure, more community space than dwelling, will house classrooms and offices for the nonprofit Louisville Grows.

We spoke with Valerie Magnuson, executive director of Louisville Grows, about the Healthy House in early June ahead of the project’s Development Review Committee meeting, which cleared the way for construction to begin.

The Healthy House site is now a vacant lot. (Via Google)

The Healthy House has been years in the making. Louisville Grows purchased two vacant parcels—one facing Portland and one facing Nelligan avenues—for $1,000 from the Louisville & Jefferson County Landbank Authority in 2014. The original design concept was born in the San Francisco offices of architecture firm MKThink and has now been refined and prepped for construction by Louisville’s Arrasmith Judd Rapp Chovan (AJRC).

MKThink's original concept. (MKThink) — MKThink’s original concept. (MKThink)

In 2014, MKThink held an in-office charrette to design the Healthy House, later refining the concept with Louisville Grows. “The landscape and materials lead the charge,” Mark Miller, founder of MKThink, told Broken Sidewalk in 2014. Like a traditional shotgun, “the building was inspired by the parameters of the lot—long, low, and narrow,” but Miller sought to maximize the natural daylighting by adding surface area and a courtyard around a large tree. The ambitious plans called for a live–work house with offices, community space, and apartments for Louisville Grows interns.

One major problem became a sticking point with the design: budget. “The estimate to construct their design came back around $355,000,” Magnuson said. Holland’s vision for the shotgun project was to keep the homes under $200,000 each to promote replicability. That’s when Bill Receveur, president of Realm Construction, the house’s contractor, recommended AJRC.

The Healthy House site. (Map via Google)

While the design has evolved and had to be scaled back, the main goals of the Healthy House have remained constant: to promote the sustainability and health of the occupants and the larger community.

“We want the Healthy House to be a demonstration home where people can come and see in person different green improvements that they can make to their own home or different ways they can garden with a green roof or beehives on the roof,” Magnuson explained.

Rendering of the Healthy House. (Courtesy Louisville Grows)

The Healthy House shoulders up to the sidewalk, elevated slightly above a wide concrete stoop. This gives it a distinctly urban presence on Portland Avenue. And that’s appropriate for a structure with such a bold vision. “The side that’s facing east is going to have a living wall,” Magnuson said, “which will be a green billboard for the Healthy House to attract attention.”

Formally, the house is arranged like a traditional camelback shotgun, with a single-story front volume popping up to two stories in the back. J.M. Chovan, a senior architect at AJRC, said the house is clad in two colors of Hardyboard siding running both vertically and horizontally.

Inside, a front room contains a classroom and flexible use space that can be opened up to the larger community for meetings and classes. “We’re going to be offering garden education and citizen forestry classes in the space,” Magnuson said. “We’re also planning on doing a couple different dinners there.” Up above, a green roof dotted with beehives offers another educational opportunity.

A breezeway serving as a gallery flanks an interior demonstration courtyard and leads to a community kitchen in the back. “We’re going to have classes on fermentation, canning, food processing, etc.,” Magnuson said. “And also have a space where growers from our training farm can come and process surplus produce.”

A section showing the Healthy House's camelback form. (AJRC) — A section showing the Healthy House’s camelback form. (AJRC)

Upstairs in the camelback is office space for six people. On the back roof, Louisville Grows will be heating its own water with solar panels. Around the house, rain barrels and cisterns will catch rainwater runoff. And, of course, there will be gardens.

“It’s been difficult to stay under budget and also have all of the green design elements that we want to feature in the Healthy House,” Magnuson said. Louisville Grows and Chovan have spent a lot of time tweaking the design to get the most out of the budget, including seeking donations and sponsors for some components. The Healthy House has been funded by philanthropist Christina Lee Brown and the Owsley Brown II Family Foundation.

The Healthy House site on Portland Avenue. (Via Google)

Now, that hard work has paid off. The Healthy House is set prepping for foundation work to begin on Wednesday. Realm Construction has already installed silt fencing on the site in preparation for work to begin.

“Once we break ground, they’ve said it will take roughly three months and we’ll be able to move into the Healthy House,” Magnuson said. “I feel nervous about saying it because the joke is that it’s always three months away.” In that short three months, Louisville Grows plans to host a formal grand opening for the house.

The Healthy House site in the larger context. (Via Google)

By the end of the year, the Healthy House will join a nexus forming in these blocks of Portland Avenue. Down the street, the Tim Faulkner Gallery has been active for several years including a retail space for McQuixote Books & Coffee. This year, Holland’s Portland Investment Initiative (PII) acquired the messy Portland Recycling Center. Within a couple blocks, community gardens have come to life, including the colorful Dyescape, a demonstration garden for the nonprofit Anchal Project at Portland Avenue and 17th Street. Numerous individuals have purchased historic structures and have been fixing them up.

And the Healthy House will add a jolt of new construction, serving as a green beacon for the entire city. “I also live in Portland and I’d like to have a green roof,” Magnuson said. “Just seeing it in person, and actually being involved in the installation through volunteer opportunities will really be some of the best part of having this Healthy House. We can do tours and say, what do these green improvements look like on that scale?”

Small signs of construction on Kindred’s headquarters expansion

Construction

By Branden Klayko -

Jul 19, 2016

0

06-kindred-construction-louisville-july2016 — (Courtesy Tipster)

It’s been a slow start to construction at Kindred Healthcare‘s office park addition to Fourth Street. When we last peeked in back in April, the former site of Theater Square was a muddy mess.

Since then, it’s dried up a bit and recently tipsters have begun spotting large pieces of construction equipment and handfuls of workers roaming the site.

Rendering of the new Kindred building. (Courtesy Kindred)

As a refresher, Kindred is building a box of an office building set far off Fourth Street behind a large plaza. The $36 million project, paid for with substantial public incentives, will add 142,000 square feet and around 500 new jobs to Fourth Street and Broadway. Plans also include around 7,000 square feet of restaurant space at the back of the park. The structure was designed by Louisville’s K. Norman Berry Associates.

Most notable in our tipster’s images is a shoring wall that’s been built just inside the construction fence. While the only equipment we could see in the photos is a collection of excavators and haulers, tipsters told Broken Sidewalk that a boring machine was spotted on the lot recently, perhaps working on test foundation work. Also visible are new mountains of dirt.

1 of 6

In the photos, you can see a couple workers milling around the back of the site, but no substantial activity. It looks like heavy construction is imminent, but we’ve still got some waiting to do.

According to the officials, once construction begins, the process is slated to take about 18 months before the building opens, pushing the anticipated fall 2017 opening well into 2018.

It’s been a busy week for tipsters along Fourth Street as we’ve heard from many of you about construction work at the McCrory’s Building, a giant crane at the Brown Hotel, and more. Thanks to all of you for sending what you’re seeing around Louisville.

If you’d like to join the ranks of Broken Sidewalk tipsters, use our anonymous tipline here or send an email to tips@brokensidewalk.com.

Bicycling for Louisville proposes alternative West Broadway configuration

By Branden Klayko -

Jul 19, 2016

2

Tonight is the first of two meetings to discuss proposed changes to the configuration of West Broadway between 22nd Street and Louis Coleman, Jr. Drive. Metro Louisville Public Works is prepared to restripe the stretch following a repaving and has put forward a design that would add a center turning lane while eliminating a parallel parking lane.

Now Chris Glasser, executive director of the nonprofit Bicycling for Louisville, has put offered an an alternative design that could recreate West Broadway as a multi-modal street in the image of a complete street proposed under the Move Louisville plan.

Bicycling for Louisville's West Broadway concept. (Courtesy B4L) — Bicycling for Louisville’s West Broadway concept. (Courtesy B4L)

The concept also calls for adding a center turning lane—two feet wider than the Metro plan. But instead of eliminating the parking lane, proposes a similar road diet treatment as was implemented on West Market Street and Grinstead Drive, where traffic counts are similar.

Rather than keeping two travel lanes in each direction, B4L proposes striping one travel lane in each direction flanked by a bike lane, buffer, and parking lane.

Glasser explained B4L’s proposal to Councilwoman Cheri Bryant Hamilton (D-5) and Public Works’ Dirk Gowin and Jeff Brown in a letter over the weekend. We caught up with Glasser to ask him about the details of B4L’s design.

“In terms of pedestrian safety, it’s important to keep on-street parking on both sides of the street,” Glasser told Broken Sidewalk in an email. “A row of parked cars is a protective layer for people on foot, and it has the effect of traffic calming.”

Glasser suggested looking at Bardstown Road as an example of how parked cars calm traffic. “If you want to see the difference in how a road feels with and without protective on-street, walk along Bardstown Road during rush hour and then after rush hour,” he said. “At 5:30p.m.—when all lanes are driving lanes—there will be a car driving 40 mph five feet from you. At 6:30p.m.—when on-street parking is allowed—cars will be going slower, probably closer to 30 mph, and you’ll have a protective 2-ton car between you.”

Extents of the West Broadway striping. (Montage by Broken Sidewalk)

“And If we want the road to be bike-friendly, which is a stated goal of the project, we have to have bike lanes be part of the road redesign,” he added. “It’s a must. A road with 10-15,000 cars per day won’t be safe for people on bikes without a dedicated facility.”

Gowin responded to the plan on Facebook, saying that any turn lane is a safety improvement and noting that the city planned to study such a concept in the longer term. “Metro is exploring a study of Broadway in its entirety as a premium transit corridor as recommended in Move [Louisville],” he wrote.

Among the Move Louisville plan’s priority projects is an ambitious Bus Rapid Transit route along Broadway that would require additional study, but in the meantime, we say make West Broadway multimodal with just a little paint.

Metro Louisville's West Broadway Proposal. (Courtesy Public Works) — Metro Louisville’s West Broadway Proposal. (Courtesy Public Works)

For comparison, here’s the Metro Louisville plan one more time.

If you’d like to support B4L’s multi-modal plan for West Broadway, attend one of two public meetings scheduled for the project. The first one’s tonight.

Tuesday, July 19 — Oak & Acorn Intergenerational Center, 631 South 28th Street, from 5:30 to 6:30p.m.
Wednesday, July 27 — Shawnee Library, 3912 West Broadway, from 5:30 to 6:30p.m.

You can also contact Dirk Gowin, Louisville Metro Public Works, at 502-574-5925 or Dirk.Gowin@louisvilleky.gov.

Construction at McCrory’s building aimed at attracting tenants to Fourth Street

By Branden Klayko -

Jul 18, 2016

1

It’s been almost eight years since we’ve peered into the empty storefronts of the old McCrory’s building at 544–548 South Fourth Street. Back in 2008, a club and then a restaurant fell through and nothing much has happened since.

But a tipster let us know that there’s hammering going on as crews install a new dividing wall to break up the building’s enormous 12,000-square-foot floor plates into more palatable portions. And indeed a building permit has been issued for the site, covering construction of non-loadbearing interior walls with a budget of around $35,000. Pablo Espinosa of Espinosa Construction is building out the renovation.

Peering inside the McCrory's Building in 2008. (Branden Klayko / Broken Sidewalk) — Peering inside the McCrory’s Building in 2008. (Branden Klayko / Broken Sidewalk)

Building owner Bob Khiani told Broken Sidewalk the work is in hopes of attracting new tenants to the building. Khiani is dividing a large 8,000-square-foot retail space into two smaller spaces of 3,800 and 4,500 square feet. Another approximately 4,000-square-foot space houses Kim’s Wig Store.

“I had a tenant lined up,” Khiani said, “but unfortunately they may have changed their minds.” He said a Mediterranean restaurant was looking at the space but has been quiet recently on whether they want to sign a lease.

“I went ahead and did it [built the partition] because it would make it easier to lease,” Khiani added. While he is not actively listing the retail space, which he’s seeking $12 per square foot for, Khiani is still getting calls from signs posted on the storefronts. “The day after tomorrow I have another appointment to show a restaurant,” he said. Still nothing has firmed up at the McCrory’s building for years.

Plans could be announced soon for a nightclub on the second floor, however. Khiani said he has signed a lease for that space but declined to comment on the venture. “They have to finish on their own end,” he said. “It’s not my duty to announce it.”

Besides the two ground floor spaces for lease and the planned nightclub upstairs, Khiani said he is also leasing a large basement space with another 12,000 square feet.

Jeffersonville going to bat for retail at Big Four Station hotel site

Development

By Branden Klayko -

Jul 18, 2016

6

This morning, we wrote that a three-story, 98-room hotel had broken ground last week in Jeffersonville. The $15 million Marriott TownePlace Suites, being developed by ARC and Dora Hospitality, is to be built across the street from Big Four Station park, where the popular pedestrian and cyclist bridge touches ground in Indiana.

In our report, we lamented that developers had eliminated a retail component from their plans, creating, effectively, a blank facade along the park. But today, Nathan Pruitt, Jeffersonville’s Director of Zoning & Planning, told Broken Sidewalk that retail should never have been dropped from the plan in the first place.

Rendering of the Jeffersonville TownPlace Suites sans retail. (Courtesy ARC / Dora Hospitality)

According to Pruitt, the project’s development plan had already been approved with a promise of about 1,200-square-feet of retail space—and the city is not prepared to see it go. It turns out developers brought construction documents to be approved by the city and a good catch caught the missing retail.

Jeffersonville is sending the project back to the Planning Commission on July 26 to discuss the matter. Among the possible outcomes, the commission could reject the revised development plan without retail, requiring a new compromise to be made, or the developer could go back to the original approved plan.

Given the hotel’s prominent site next to the park, this is welcome news for Jeffersonville.

[Top image courtesy City of Jeffersonville / Facebook.]