SSP overall is mess although it's amusing to see people invest their emotions so deeply in construction projects they have nothing to do with directly.  In my opinion Signature Tower would have done more for Nashville than MP for Louisville.  It was a rare example of a design and purpose really fitting a city in an a solid old-fashioned way whereas MP was always and will always be trying too hard.  I've voiced my dislike for Nashville many times but I think they've had a few projects in the past few years that shored the place up and Signature Tower would have elevated the place to a level closer to the boasting of its boosters.  The Signature Tower would have fit Nashville's look well (it would have looked out-of-place in Louisville, Cincinnati, Columbus, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, etc.) but I don't see MP doing anything for anywhere.     

 

 

^is the Signature Tower project dead? Was it that really large tower that was proposed maybe two years ago?

 

JMeck,

 

I share your lack of like for Nashville. I spent two years there before leaving for Memphis before coming home to CLE. 

I don't know, but there hasn't been any activity at SSP on Signature Tower since January. And it was THE hotbed of activity not that long ago.

 

SSP is a mess. One thread for ALL of a city's developments? ...

REX no longer exists, so I'm interested to see where this project goes from here.

I don't know, but there hasn't been any activity at SSP on Signature Tower since January. And it was THE hotbed of activity not that long ago.

 

SSP is a mess. One thread for ALL of a city's developments? ...

 

Considering most cities on there have dozens of developments going on, I think it's better to keep the City Compilations section, and for "signature" developments to get their own threads.

REX no longer exists, so I'm interested to see where this project goes from here.

 

Really!  Well, from what I've read the developer has a no-build agreement with the city where he will backfill and excavation and restore the site (to grass, presumably).

 

This makes the second tower that failed at that location.  And the city lost a fun, high-camp faux riverboat Kingfish restuarant there (actually was a popular place for locals to take out-of-town guests).

 

The interesting thing about Kingfish is that they had oil paintings of the Cincinnati riverfront on the walls..

Wait, REX?

Any update on this?  Is the project on hold because of the financing issues?

Yes. The tower is being relocated as we speak, and other major utility upgrades are occurring, but no further work on the building has started.

 

The new arena is making progress. The costs of the project have declined, and work is ongoing on demolishing the old plant.

So, infrastructure work is on going for Museum Plaza, Correct? 

 

Any other updates? 

This is the latest (12 Oct) on SSC, from the Courier-Journal...

 

Museum Plaza construction on hold awaiting financing

Credit crisis suspends skyscraper progress

By Marcus Green, The Courier-Journal

 

Nearly a year ago, hundreds of people marked the start of construction on Museum Plaza with commemorative hardhats and free barbecue.  Today, the site at Eighth Street and River Road sits empty.  The party's not over, but it is on hold for the foreseeable future.

 

There are no plans to resume construction, and in the midst of an economic upheaval, project developers can't say when they will secure the money needed to build the 62-story, $490 million skyscraper -- Kentucky's tallest building and a radical addition to Louisville's skyline.

 

"We're just going to continue plugging away until we can get this project financed and make it a reality," attorney Craig Greenberg, one of Museum Plaza's four investors, said in a recent interview.  "And right now we just can't tell you how long that is."

 

More at http://www.courier-journal.com

All the hoopla, and the result is the removal of two high tension towers.  Yay.

 

After all the "irrational exuberance" it looks like this isn't the only project in Louisville going "on hiatus".

 

 

Wow, the C-J is a bit late to the game. That was announced a while back, that construction would be put on hold. They even removed the construction trailer months ago.

 

City Center seems to be going forward, and there are still multiple developments still set to go online within the next 6 months.

I guess this was reported earlier, but this just hit my inbox today...

 

Speed Bump for Museum Plaza

Louisville Art Museum to expand, art-related skyscraper on ice

The Architects Newspaper

11.05.2008

 

After nearly a decade of research and soul searching, the Speed Art Museum in Louisville, Kentucky has just announced an eclectic shortlist of firms for its planned expansion.  While the Speed finally moves ahead, the city’s most ambitious architectural project, the REX-designed Museum Plaza, has been put on indefinite hold.

 

The Speed, an encyclopedic collection that is also the state’s largest, sits on the campus of the University of Louisville, which is well outside of the downtown area.  The Speed and Museum Plaza have been intertwined from the start.  After the Speed decided not to expand downtown, museum governor Wilson, with his wife, Laura Lee Brown, heiress to a liquor fortune, and two partners, initiated the Museum Plaza project, a mixed-use 60-story tower that includes a 35,000-square-foot museum, which will host traveling contemporary art exhibitions, at its center. 

 

Ground was broken on Museum Plaza last year, and thus far a street has been closed, extensive utility and infrastructure work is underway, and several historic buildings have been demolished, though their facades have been retained, to make way for the building’s tilted entrance.  REX’s Joshua Prince-Ramus wrote in an email, “Owner, design team, and general contractor remain totally committed to the project.  We are waiting for the bond market to strengthen to secure the tax increment financing.  It is not a question of if the project will get built, but when.” 

 

Full article: http://www.archpaper.com/e-board_rev.asp?News_ID=2932

The Speed is a mess. They had a nice little sculpture court as part of a modernist addition in the 1970s but botched that by enclosing the court with a clerestory ceiling.  Yeah, natural light, but not the same.  Pretty weak collection, too (though everyone likes the English  manor room)

 

 

 

 

This project is back from the dead, reportedly with financing! Will post the article soon.

Yeah the Mayor will be talking about it Friday afternoon. I saw it on a Louisville tv station while im vacationing in French Lick Indiana.

Museum Plaza plans to drop some condos, add a second hotel

 

By Marcus Green • [email protected] • June 24, 2010

 

 

The long stalled Museum Plaza skyscraper project would replace about 90 condominiums with a second hotel, one of the complex's developers said in an interview Thursday.

 

Preliminary work on the 62-story project near Seventh and Main streets stopped in early 2008 amid financing difficulties.

 

Attorney Craig Greenberg, a partner in the development, said adding a second hotel may help make the project easier to finance, boost the city's hotel stock and generate additional tax revenue for local and state governments.

 

Asked when developers expect to secure funding and resume construction for the project, Greenberg said, "We hope to have some very good news about the progress on the financing, as well as the timing to get Museum Plaza back under construction" on Friday.

 

cont.

Dead. Officially.

 

Developers: Museum Plaza is Dead

 

"Museum Plaza will not be built.

 

Museum Plaza may be remembered by most as the story of a bold dream.  To those of us on the development team, Museum Plaza will be remembered as a seven year journey that reinforced the power of teamwork, tenacity, and innovation.  An iconic building will not be built, but we hope that we have laid a foundation for ourselves and others to realize the aspirations we pursued.

 

Through this process we have endured four years of the worst recession of our lifetime and the most challenging lending market ever. There are no signs of improvement in the near future. We were realistic, yet undaunted, as we pursued many financing options. A completed financing plan seemed within reach but even with all of the help from the public sector, in the end, we were not able to put together a sensible financing package. As much as our team wanted to make Museum Plaza a reality, as much as our team had already invested financially and emotionally in the project, we painfully decided that this project could not be built in this economy."

The people of Louisville should be relieved!  That thing was hideous.

yet another project where historic building are razed, (yes facades saved) and then replaced with nothing.  So effing stupid!

Foundation piling was actually causing some very strong vibrations in the foundations of all of the surrounding buildings. I am not for sure how they would have gone around that.

 

From the dramatic groundbreaking (dropping a shovel from a crane) to this...

I wasn't a fan of the building, but it would have been nice to see it get built.

Yup..now there is a big excavation site on the riverfront (not a particularly good site, either, due to I-64) with empty space behind two historic facades.  Yet is there not some provision that requires the developer to restore the site (ie backfill the excavation?).

 

 

Unlike most here I think MP would have been neat.  The escalator tubes and the skybox art musuem would have been cool to experience.

 

 

How does one spend 50 million at the drop of the bucket then abandon the project????

That is a relief. Now if someone can build something behind those facades, all will be well.

http://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/local/2014/04/17/latest-plan-museum-plaza-site-dies/7837539/

Latest plan for Museum Plaza site dies

Sheldon S. Shafer, The Courier-Journal; 5:28 p.m. EDT April 17, 2014

 

The latest plan to develop a prime downtown riverfront parcel — the same lot that was to hold the Museum Plaza project — appears dead.

 

The developer's lead investor said negotiations with the city over the plan for a $100 million project with about 300 apartments, commercial space, parking, a plaza and possibly a hotel have ended, because it wasn't ambitious enough for city officials.

 

The city insisted on at least a $200 million project at the strategic half-block at River Road and Seventh Street just west of the Muhammad Ali Center, said lawyer and former state Sen. Lacey Smith, lead investor in the West End Boys LLC group that had spent the last 15 months trying to put the project together.

 

I seem to remember this poster exclaiming "Groundbreaking on Monday!" but couldn't find it going back through this thread.  All of these threads that followed big projects in the years before the financial crisis are amusing to read. 

 

 

MP will be built!!

 

--------------------------------------------------------

Museum Plaza tax plan advances

State board OKs financing deal

By Marcus Green

The Courier-Journal

 

FRANKFORT, Ky. -- A state board yesterday gave unanimous approval to a tax plan for Louisville's Museum Plaza skyscraper complex, a key part of financing the $490 million project at Seventh Street and River Road.

 

The Kentucky Tax Increment Financing Commission agreed to let developers capture a portion of new taxes generated at the site to pay for public improvements such as a new park, street lighting, floodwalls and floodgates.

 

"It was a very important step," Craig Greenberg, a Louisville lawyer and one of four Museum Plaza investors, said after the meeting. The board voted 6-0 in favor, with University of Louisville business dean Charles Moyer abstaining. The U of L business school is a possible tenant at Museum Plaza.

 

Full article: http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071020/NEWS01/710200425

 

 

The latest plan died because city officials thought is was not ambitious enough. I am all for thinking big, but if someone is going to be able to put together the means to build a 100 million dollar development with hundreds of apartments/condos in the heart of the city, don't criticize it for not being ambitious enough. If there were 2 or 3 competing projects then it is a fair argument to make, but since this is the only one, take what you have. A more ambitious project is not on the table because it probably could not get financing. It may take a generation for a suitable project to come around that meets the ambitious needs of some city council clown.

 

also, as an example of holding out for the ambitious project, Fountain Square West comes to mind. What was once a 50 story tower turned into a 3 story department store. which was preceded by 3 years of a parking lot on that site.

Agreed.

 

Jake: I remember the groundbreaking - I attended. They dropped a massive shovel from a crane down into some turned earth. Construction actually was underway with partial demolition of three West Main buildings and earthwork, but then a lack of financing killed any further work on the project. That and the earthmoving was causing cracks to form in foundations of nearly every surrounding building.

Wow, I remember following this project a little bit.  Weren't some forumers referring to it as the "Jenga Tower"?

^ That might have been one of the more kind descriptions!