LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A $3.2 million project will soon be in the works in the Russell neighborhood. The Louisville Urban League has outgrown their current building and has developed a way to help expand while helping the community.
“We have grown exponentially, our staff can no longer fit in our headquarters and so this is an opportunity for us to expand our campus, to have more space, office space and we’d like to renovate this building so it’s more of a coworking space,” Dr. Kish Cumi Price, president/ceo of the Louisville Urban League said.
The new mixed use facility will include office space as well as 8 affordable, 2-bedroom apartments.
“What we’re really looking forward to is the opportunity for the residents to have direct access to our staff and to our services,” Price said. “To see what that will really look like to be able to provide wrap around support in any way.”
The developer on the project, Kevin Dunlap, also serves as the executive director of REBOUND Inc. They formed the nonprofit in 1993 to increase community development and neighborhood revitalization.
“So we had issued in our strategic plan that collectively across the board in Louisville we’d like to encourage more growth in this area and have three thousand new homes added, affordable homes added to the scope and this is just 8 of those but it is still progress,” Price said.
Although prices are not yet set for the units, Dr. Price is taking the community’s needs into consideration.
“Really looking at the market, really trying to respond to the fact that we are in an affordable housing crisis and so of course this is only 8 units, but it is definitely going to change the trajectory of families who have the opportunity to reside in these,” Price said.
The new space will allow the Urban League to continue serving the community, which it has done since 1921.
“This is the work that we do, you know jobs, just as education, health, housing and now Black business, this is an opportunity to build in all of those areas,” Price said.
The Louisville Urban League is looking to break ground in the first quarter of 2023 with the construction phase being a 6 month build out.