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Monday, Mar. 31, 2008

$250 million tower would reshape downtown

A massive $250 million construction project that would add a 40-story tower to downtown Lexington and reshape one of the best-recognized corners in town was announced on Tuesday. The developers, The Webb Companies, said the project would include a major four-star, 243-room hotel, 77 residential condominium units and 26,000 square feet of retail space. It also would have a 10,000-square-foot restaurant on the top floor. The 406-foot-tall glass-and-steel structure would be roughly as tall as the 30-story Lexington Financial Center, known affectionately as the "Big Blue building." It will have 10 more floors than the Financial Center because a hotel does not require the amount of infrastructure, such as duct work, between floors that an office building does. The building has a stair-stepped look, with the first street-level section at four stories, then sections of 12 and 13 stories, with the main tower in the center. Architects say this approach will help keep the street-level building in scale with nearby older buildings on Main Street. Developers said they plan to pursue "an aggressive schedule" to have the new building completed in time for the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games in fall 2010. However, on Tuesday afternoon, when the developers presented their project to the Urban County Council, councilman Dick DeCamp said of the timetable: "That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard." DeCamp said this will be a "landmark project, right in the center of our downtown." The city needs to go slow and give it a great deal of thought, he said. Councilman Jay McChord praised The Webb Companies for their "vision and willingness to take risks, especially in the downtown." The project's reach would extend beyond the block bounded by Vine, Main, Limestone and Upper, where it will be built. The project, known as CentrePointe, would require 1,100 parking spaces. About 650 of those will be in an underground parking garage on site. To accommodate the rest of the parking, the developer proposed taking land from Phoenix Park at Main and Limestone. Overall, the size of the park will be reduced by about one-third, said architect Charlie Barnhart. With that space, the developers will build two levels of underground parking, 15,000 square feet of ground-level retail and a four-level parking garage above ground. The remainder of Phoenix Park will be restored and include public art. Webb said Phoenix Park was built as a temporary park to dress up downtown as the city got ready to host the NCAA finals in 1985. He said he was committing $4 million to improve the park. People will get from the Phoenix Park garage to the hotel via a skywalk, Webb said later. On the north-facing wall of the new parking structure in the park, the developers plan to add a Jumbotron screen that would allow for showing outdoor movies and could be used during the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games, and for other events. The screens would be viewable from the courthouse plaza along Limestone. The proposed mixed-use project is expected to have a significant economic impact on the local economy, the developers said.

It will generate approximately 2,500 construction jobs annually, for two years. After it is completed, approximately 919 jobs will be generated annually.

Asked whether the city needs another hotel, Webb said it needs a high-end hotel. When the University of Kentucky and local law firms want to put guests in four-star hotels, they take them to Cincinnati, he said.

Success of the CentrePointe hotel project relies on Tax Increment Financing, which has been used to finance other mega-developments in the state, including Louisville's Museum Plaza project.

In general, the program allows developers to recoup large portions of their investment in mixed-use commercial, residential and retail projects by keeping the income and property taxes generated by the project over a 30-year period. TIF funds would be used to finance public infrastructure.