Marina will open soon
Work under way on apartments by river by Sheldon S. Shafer • The Courier Journal • March 11, 2012 After years of delays, work is nearing completion on RiverPark Place Marina, a 149-slip facility that will be a centerpiece of the RiverPark Place development just upriver from Waterfront Park along the Ohio River. Boats should begin pulling into the $7 million marina in early April, said Steve Poe, the lead partner in RiverPark Place. And construction is well under way — with most of the foundation in place — on a 167-unit, $25 million apartment building along River Road. The units at RiverPark Place are due to be ready for residents in early 2013, Poe said. The building will include four levels of housing on top of a parking structure, elevating the residences above the river’s 100-year flood plain. As many as 2,000 more dwellings are expected to be developed at RiverPark Place over the next decade or so, Poe said. Along with the marina and the 167 apartments, phase one of the development will include completion in four to six weeks of a 12- to 16-foot-wide asphalt and concrete promenade about 3,500 feet in length along the river’s edge next to the marina. It will connect with the existing walkway that runs the entire length of Waterfront Park to the west and a shorter shared-use path for walkers, bikers and joggers linking with Eva Bandman Park just upriver. Mike Kimmel, deputy director of the Waterfront Development Corp., which oversees Waterfront Park and negotiated the development agreement with Poe on RiverPark Place, said, “The marina is going to be...Continue Reading »
Officials Mark Resumption of Work on RiverPark Place
By: Sheldon Shafer • The Courier Journal • December 5, 2011 Twenty-two years after plans were first announced and more than three years after the most recent round of work was shelved, officials marked the resumption of construction Monday on the massive RiverPark Place project just upriver from Waterfront Park. Rain sent a planned ground-breaking for a 166-apartment building indoors. The housing is to go near where work on a 150-slip marina is well under way. The marina is expected to be ready for boaters in April — about the same time as a 3,000-foot extension of a 16-foot wide, asphalt and concrete promenade is completed through the development site. The pathway will link Waterfront Park to the west with Beargrass Creek and Eva Bandman Park to the east. “This has been a long-anticipated project,” Mayor Greg Fischer said of RiverPark Place. “It will be a fantastic place to live and a great boost for us economically….I think it will quickly become one of the hotspots of the city.” Fischer, along with Steve Poe, the lead developer of RiverPark Place, and David Karem, president of the Waterfront Development Corp., which manages Waterfront Park, presided at a news conference at the soon-to-open RiverPark Place sales office at 1250 River Road, just across from the development area. Plans for developing the prime riverfront parcel, about 40 acres, date to the late 1980s, when a previous investment group first proposed a mixed-use project called FallsHarbor. It never materialized after many years of trying, and the Poe-led group, called River Partners LLC, was granted development rights by the waterfront agency in 2004. Poe...Continue Reading »
RiverPark Place Begins Construction on Waterfront Development
By: Devin Katayama • WFPL news • December 5, 2011 Developers are breaking ground on Louisville’s RiverPark Place project after years of delay. Project leaders say the development of the mixed-use community will roll out in phases over the next decade and will depend on market demand. On Monday, Mayor Greg Fischer joined developer Steve Poe (pictured) who announced the first phase of the revitalized waterfront project located north of NuLu or the East Market District. “I think this is quickly going to become one of the hot spots in the city,” said Fischer. Construction has now begun on 150 boat slips expected to be finished by next April and 166 apartments expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2013. The cost of phase one is $25 million. The decision to proceed with the project is based on new financial partnerships as well as interest in Louisville’s downtown area from renters, said Poe. “In the Louisville market I believe that the occupancy rate right now is around 96.5 percent for upscale apartments,” he said. Poe is close. Downtown’s rental occupancy is around 93 percent, which is higher than it’s been in nearly a decade, according to data from Louisville Downtown Management District. Condo sales have not had the same consistency, which may be why Poe said he’ll likely test the condo market later next year. “We think ultimately sometime next summer we’ll probably test the condo market to see if that’s coming back and then we may start condo building the following year,” Poe said. The 40-acre project includes a mixed-use community of retail stores, restaurants and office space, which...Continue Reading »
Waterfront project now underway
River Park Place – WDRB Fox in the Morning Dec. 6 2011 By: Bill Francis • WDRB News • December 5, 2011 It has been a long time coming, but construction is finally underway on a private development along Louisville’s waterfront. RiverPark Place is finally being built. For decades city leaders have talked about re-developing the area along the Ohio River at Towhead Island just east of Waterfront Park. The 2008 recession put the project on hold. Even on a dreary day like Monday in Louisville, dredging work is underway. By spring there will be a marina with room for 150 boat slips. The first phase of the project will also include 166 upscale apartments. “Apartment occupancy in Louisville is currently at ninety-six-and-a-half percent,” says RiverPark Place developer Steve Poe, “so building good quality rental housing in the downtown area makes a lot of sense right now and we are able to obtain financing on those types of projects.” Poe has partnered with an Indianapolis investment company to get the project moving again. He says the one to three bedroom apartments will rent between $750 and $1,300 a month. They will be ready for occupancy during the first quarter of 2013. Poe says if the market continues to improve, then a second phase of the project will move forward. “We’ll build condos in the future,” he says, “this project is 40 acres so it will take ten to twelve years to build.” Poe says right now developers will focus on rental housing, and as the market continues to come back as projected, and demand returns, they plan to move...Continue Reading »
Mayor: RiverPark Place Future Looks Bright
Construction Begins On Long-Delayed Project River Park Place – WLKY News at 530 Dec. 5 2011 By: Lexi Scheen • WLKY News • December 5, 2011 LOUISVILLE, Ky. — It’s been seven years in the making, but a major construction project in downtown Louisville is finally breaking ground.The site at RiverPark Place looks like a bare construction site, but the ground has been broken on what Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer and developers say is going to be a 40-acre multimillion dollar mixed-use community near downtown and the new Big Four Bridge. “This is how cities grow and this is how great cities grow,” Fischer said. A new marina with 150 state of the art boat slips as well as 166 upscale loft apartments at RiverPark Place are finally under construction. The project also includes a 3,000-foot promenade connecting Waterfront Park to Beargrass Creek. “The marina and promenade will be open hopefully April 1 of next year, and hopefully we’ll have the first apartments ready to live in during the first quarter of 2013,” said developer Steve Poe. The plan originated in 2004 with $38 million worth of deposits on condos and boat slips. It was put on hold in 2008 because of the economy. Now, according to the Downtown Management District, almost 70 percent of the central business district’s condos have sold and most of those that haven’t are being rented. RiverPark Place is starting with apartments ranging in price from $750 to $1,300 a month. Originally, the project was to start with condos and we’ve changed that to build apartments so that we can build product that the...Continue Reading »
Work begins on Poe Companies’ RiverPark Place development
By Kevin Eigelbach • The Courier Journal • December 2, 2011 The long-delayed RiverPark Place development has come to life in recent weeks, with developer Poe Companies LLC starting work on a 149-slip marina just south of Towhead Island on the Ohio River. On Dec. 5, the company plans to break ground on a 166-unit apartment complex adjacent to the marina, a project that will include elevators and under-building parking, president and CEO Steve Poe said. The marina and apartment complex represent $25 million in new investment, not including the $16 million the company already has spent on the project for permits, plans and site development, Poe said. “The timing is perfect for new upscale apartments in the city, especially at this location,” he said. As Business First reported in its Nov. 25 issue, occupancy rates for Louisville apartments are as high as they have been in years, and the market for sales of apartment complexes is more active than it has been since the 1980s. Poe Cos. is acting as general contractor for the RiverPark Place project and is developing the property with local and out-of-town partners. Funding is being provided by Chicago-based BMO Harris Bank, Poe said. Part of master plan created years ago The RiverPark project is part of a master development plan originally created in the 1980s for the property’s owner, the non-profit Waterfront Development Corp. The site struck city officials as a natural place for a residential marina development close to downtown, said Waterfront Development Corp. executive director David Karem. With Towhead Island forming a natural breakwater, the site had served for many years...Continue Reading »
Poe group to resume work on RiverPark Place marina
By Sheldon S. Shafer • sshafer@courier-journal.com • October 4, 2011 After more than three years of sitting idle waiting for the economy to turn around, work is resuming on the RiverPark Place housing and marina project off River Road just upriver from Waterfront Park. Financing has been secured to finish work on the 149-slip marina and construction will resume immediately, said lead partner Steve Poe. His group is developing the mixed-use project at the 40-acre site that city and waterfront officials have envisioned developing for two decades. “We still believe in the project,” Poe said. A new partner from Indiana is joining Poe’s group in the development. An Indianapolis-based, real estate investment and management company named REI plans to become a 50 percent stakeholder in the venture, Poe said. It intends to buy up the interest of Poe’s other longtime local partners — investor Mike Ehrler and his family; accountant Nolen Allen and his family; and the family of the late businessman Clyde Ensor. REI was a partner with Poe in the construction of the Louisville Downtown Marriott and also in the SpringHill Suites, also downtown. Poe’s group, River Partners LLC, shelved plans to develop RiverPark Place in early 2008 amid the recession that squeezed lending for large commercial projects. Much of the last year has been spent updating the Army Corps of Engineers construction permit and the developer agreement with the Waterfront Development Corp., which gives Poe’s group lease-purchase rights of the land at the project site. The project was shut down in early 2008 after the partners had invested $16 million, including about $7 million to start the...Continue Reading »
Developers Plan to Resume work on RiverPark Place Marina, Housing
By Sheldon S. Shafer • sshafer@courier-journal.com • November 2, 2010 The on-again-off-again RiverPark Place housing and marina project along the Ohio River is poised to resume construction in the spring after 21 12 years of inactivity, according to its backers, who say they’ve arranged new financing for it. City and waterfront officials have been pushing for development of the 40-acre riverside tract, opposite Towhead Island and just upriver from Waterfront Park, for two decades. But the latest effort – by River Partners LLC, headed by Louisville developer Steve Poe of the Poe Cos. – was shelved in early 2008, after the flagging housing market quashed plans for a $75 million bank loan for construction. The project shutdown came after the partners had invested $17 million, mostly for studies and construction of infrastructure, including a seawall, about half of the marina, pilings for elevated parking, water lines and sewers, as well as preliminary roadwork and grading, Poe said. Poe said the partners never stopped trying to restart the project, and he noted that, “The plans have not changed.” The new financing plan includes $6.5 million in federal New Market tax credits obtained recently through the non-profit Community Ventures of Lexington, he said, noting that investors who buy the credits will receive a tax break that will, in turn , generate about $1.7 million in capital that can be applied toward RiverPark Place’s development costs. Poe said the partners also have tentatively arranged for a $4.5 million conventional loan with a Louisville bank, which he declined to identify until the deal is signed. He predicted that would be within 90 days. Poe...Continue Reading »
RiverPark ready for building – Developer says major construction can start
By Sheldon S. Shafer The Courier-Journal The first of what eventually will be hundreds of new condominiums across from Towhead Island just downriver from Beargrass Creek should be ready for occupancy early next summer, according to its developers. Mike Miller, chief financial officer for the Poe Cos., which is the major partner for the planned RiverPark Place, said yesterday that preliminary work — including installation of utilities and other infrastructure — has been completed, so major construction can begin. A $10 million investment from the partners covered the preliminary work, he said, adding that National City Bank has agreed to be the lead lender on a $75 million loan sought to cover the remaining cost of the first phase of development. He declined to say how much of the loan National City will provide, but said the bank has agreed to line up other lenders to complete a syndication to provide the full $75 million construction loan. “We don’t see any issues in getting this (the loan) done,” Miller said. Bank officials confirmed the financing arrangement. The initial phase at the 42-acre site will include the first of two 16-story condo towers with about 15,000 square feet of commercial space on the ground floor and the first of four, five-story residential buildings. The two buildings will have a total of 150 condos, selling for $129,000 to $1.5 million for two tower penthouse units. The first phase also is to contain a 144-slip marina, selling for up to $60,000; it will be the largest on the Ohio River in this area. The partners opened a 10,000- square-foot sales office on...Continue Reading »