Louisville’s Waterside at RiverPark Place luxury apartment community, a $25 million development with 167 units, just completed in early 2013, was recently 100-percent leased. According to Nicki Sibley, marketing manager for Poe Companies LLC, which developed it, “it was one of the fastest lease-ups in our company’s history.” Its success means another building will be built on the property.
A big reason for the community being a big hit was the presence of RiverPark Marina, which “jumpstarted” the whole RiverPark Place development, according to local business magazine Business First.
The 40-acre mixed-use community was the vision of Steve Poe, president and chief executive officer of Poe Companies LLC. It is the culmination of nine years of effort and planning, through a two-year permitting process and a temporarily stalled economy after the recession hit.
In 2013, the $10 million marina won the “Best Retail or Restaurant Project” category of Business First’s Commercial Real Estate Award program. It has 149 floating slips with electricity, water, cable and Internet access. Restrooms, showers and laundry are available in a floating store. It is built to withstand 100-year floods; docks include a hydraulic system that can adjust to water level differences of 35 feet.
The development has plans that include condos, office, retail and restaurants, and the 3,500 feet of walking paths completed with the marina allow RiverPark Place residents to walk to downtown Louisville, only a mile and a half away. The paths also connect to next-door Waterfront Park, rated one of the country’s top 10 parks in 2006 by the Urban Land Institute. It is included in a special Smithsonian Institution exhibit on urban waterways and parks that opened last year, along with the waterfronts of Shanghai, London, Los Angeles, Pittsburgh and Charleston, S.C.
David Karem, president of Louisville’s Waterfront Development Corporation, told local media last year, when the exhibit was announced, “The conscious decision to provide a quality urban green space while leaving development around the park in the hands of the private sector is another valuable lesson that has borne fruit, resulting in a proliferation of housing, restaurants, galleries and other businesses that have sprung to life in the Waterfront District.”
RiverPark Marina
1501 River Road
Louisville, KY 40206
(502) 292-4620
Hours: Corporate office – 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday; Dock Shop – 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday and Friday, and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday (seasonally)
Credit Cards: Visa, MC, Discover
Fuel: Does not offer fuel
Transient Dockage: Transient space is available. Weeknights $50; Friday/Saturday $99.
Monitors: Does not monitor VHF
Water Depth: Averages six feet
Amenities: Floating docks; Trex decking; handicap accessible docks; cable, electric and water at every slip; pump station; laundry services; ice machine; showers and restrooms; dock shop; gated docks; walking distance from downtown Louisville; connected to Waterfront Park with walking/biking paths
Getting There By Water: At mile 602.3 in the McAlpine Pool
Getting There By Land: From I-71 take the Zorn Avenue exit 2; head north on Zorn Avenue; turn left onto River Road; RiverPark Place is two miles ahead on the right
