New project plan, little city planning

CentrePointe or not, design rules urgent

As best we can tell, CentrePointe is back in the news only because permission to build in Lexington's courthouse area is good for a year and the developer's permit runs out early next month.

There has been no announcement that financing is in place for the ambitious project, now a faux pasture, in the heart of downtown.

In submitting the new, scaled-down plans, developer Dudley Webb publicly confirmed for the first time that the financing he had first sought has fallen through.

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Revised CentrePointe proposal wins approval of design review board
Revised CentrePointe proposal wins approval of design review board

A controversial proposal to build a 25-story building in downtown Lexington cleared another regulatory hurdle Wednesday, but there's still no money to build the long-stalled CentrePointe project.
The Courthouse Area Design Review Board unanimously approved a new design for the project, which includes an upscale hotel, 63 condominiums, ground-floor retail space and 50,000 square feet of office space.
Attorney Darby Turner, who represents The Webb Companies and developer Dudley Webb, acknowledged that financing has not been secured for the project but said he had met with two large banks recently, and both had shown interest.
Letters to the Editor (CentrePointe): July 6
Letters to the Editor (CentrePointe): July 6

Toon on target
Kudos to Joel Pett on his June 11 "counterpointe" to pretension cartoon. What a winner.
Marion Gregory Graves
Dudley Webb submits scaled-down version of CentrePointe
Dudley Webb submits scaled-down version of CentrePointe

Developer Dudley Webb submitted a redesigned, vastly scaled-down version of his long-delayed CentrePointe project to Lexington's Courthouse Area Design Review Board on Wednesday.
Webb's new design takes the CentrePointe project from 498 feet and 35 stories to the equivalent of 25 stories, or just under 288 feet — about 58 percent of its previous height. The building would be about the same height as nearby Kincaid Towers, which houses Central Bank.
The new CentrePointe application follows two years of controversy surrounding the block bounded by Main, Vine, Upper and Limestone streets in downtown Lexington.
Experts say even a scaled-down CentrePointe is unlikely, unneeded
Experts say even a scaled-down CentrePointe is unlikely, unneeded

As developer Dudley Webb seeks design approval this week for a scaled-down version of CentrePointe, independent experts say it remains nearly impossible to secure financing for a large luxury hotel-condominium project.
Even if money were available, they say, Lexington has no need for more hotel rooms downtown, and the city's condominium market remains stagnant.
Financing is "very difficult because, around the country, we have many projects in default," said Don Mullineaux, professor of the DuPont endowed chair in banking and financial services at the University of Kentucky. "That makes banks very reluctant to look at new projects when ones they own are under water in terms of the borrower being able to pay them back."
Tom Eblen: CentrePointe project no closer to reality
Tom Eblen: CentrePointe project no closer to reality

It has taken me three weeks to get around to writing about the proposed new design for the stalled CentrePointe project downtown.
What's the pointe? The chances of the old or new designs being built any time soon are right up there with pigs flying.
The only reason a new design was made public June 9 is that developer Dudley Webb's city permission to build expires July 8. He must go before the Courthouse Area Design Review Board at 2 p.m. Wednesday in the council chambers to seek new permission.

That's been pretty obvious for some time, certainly since Webb said the project's anonymous international backer had died without a will. Still, it's good to have it on the record.

Webb says the developers will now pursue more conventional financing.

The unveiling of drawings of the proposed 25-story hotel-condo-apartment-retail-office building will set off a new round of opinions and emotions about its appearance and fit in downtown.

None of that can bring back what's been lost, of course.

It's been almost two years since the CentrePointe site was cleared by demolishing a block of historic buildings, including the 180-year-old Morton's Row and the century-old building that was home to the Dame, a popular music venue.

Since then the Urban County Council has approved an ordinance making it harder to tear down old buildings. No demolition permit can be issued until all the administrative appeals have been exhausted. Had that ordinance been in place two years ago, the plans to raze the historic block could have been fought all the way to the Planning Commission.

On the broader question of what we want downtown to be, how it should look and feel, scant progress has been made in the last two years.

Had there been follow-through on the downtown master plan's recommendation to adopt design guidelines, and a robust review process, the decisions about CentrePointe would be easier. We wouldn't be arguing over the design of a new drugstore at Main and Vine. Investors would have a clearer picture of what to expect when they consider a downtown project.

The council's planning committee recently authorized creation of a task force to study design guidelines and other downtown planning issues.

The task force should include a cross section of interests to be sure there's broad buy-in for the ideas. It will also require some funding and professional staff.

More than ever, lively downtowns are needed to attract the kind of people who drive economic growth. In Lexington, creating compatible new housing and businesses in the city's core is critical to saving a signature rural landscape.

It's important work that can't wait much longer and that will require strong leadership and vision.