Downtown Louisville Home Owners Welcome New Waterfront Development

While Louisville’s downtown skyline has been beautiful for decades, the waterfront area downtown has left something to be desired. But recent years have seen quite a bit of development on the waterfront, and Waterfront Park now serves as the backdrop to fun events and festivals enticing locals and visitors alike. Now, downtown Louisville home owners are welcoming a new waterfront development that’s merely the tip of an iceburg of exciting new growth: the RiverPark Place Marina, which officially opened May 18.

The 149-slip marina, at a cost of $7 million, has become the largest marina along nearby sections of the Ohio River. Its floating docks cover a half-mile of the river’s edge and offers berths that are 40 to 100 feet long. Lead developer, Steve Poe, plans to sell roughly 30 of the boat slips at $40,000 to $80,000 each, and about half have already been claimed. The remaining slips will be leased for $2,700 to $5,950 per year, and approximately 30 have signed leases.

The marina won’t be by itself for long though. An entire RiverPark Place development is planned to include lofts, luxury condos, penthouses, 100,000 square feet of retail space, 400,000 square feet of office space, 7 restaurants, a marina store, and a fitness center. Construction has begun one of the partment complexes which will contain 167 units that should be ready to occupy in January of 2012. In order to raise living quarters above the Ohio River’s 100-year flood plain, the building will include four residential levels over a parking structure.

Also open now is a ¾-mile-long portion of the River Walk through the RiverPark Place area that, once completed, will connect Waterfront Park’s eastern edge with Eva Bandman Park which is upstream across Beargrass Creek. Between the existing Waterfront Park and Belvedere and the new RiverPark Place development that is now starting to take shape, Louisville’s riverfront will have the potential to become as popular as those in larger waterfront cities. But only time will tell what benefits the finished product will bring. For now though, downtown Louisville homeowners have a new marina to welcome and enjoy.