Louisville Downtown Partnership (LDP)

Economic Development: ddc is the primary organization responsible for providing the strategic vision for Downtown Louisville's growth and Development. While numerous other private and public organizations are necessary for the successful implementation of this vision, ddc leads the process through close collaboration with the community and its partners. There are three primary pillars that define ddc's strategic approach for Downtown's future success: 1) activating Downtown through reinforcing and supporting its districts and anchors, expanding Downtown's attractions, and showcasing Louisville's creativity; 2) reinforcing Downtown as a residential neighborhood by incentivizing the conversion of older office buildings into residences, encouraging residential infill of vacant parcels, and expanding amenities that attract new residents; and 3) enhancing the public realm by prioritizing Downtown's streets for pedestrians, transforming barriers into seams, activating and connecting underutilized spaces, and reimagining Downtown's open spaces.in 2023, ddc devoted significant time and resources supporting the economic Development of Downtown in support of our businesses, developers, property owners, and other stakeholders, including:- Downtown strategy: with the generous support of the gheens foundation and the james graham brown foundation, ddc continued Development of the next Downtown strategy with over 70 stakeholder meetings and conversations with individuals, businesses, community leaders, and national experts. The Downtown strategy is the ten-year roadmap for Downtown's focus of future Development and revitalization which will be released in early 2024 and subsequently adopted by Louisville metro council as Downtown Louisville's neighborhood plan.- annual Downtown economic impact report: in early 2023, ddc released its second annual Downtown economic impact report which empirically shows the critical importance of a strong Downtown to the health and vibrancy of the entire county and larger metropolitan area. This report provides baseline data for discussions with governmental and economic leaders about the importance of sustained public and private investment in the greater Downtown area.- Louisville medical & education district (loumed): ddc expanded its collaboration with loumed, a Partnership between norton healthcare, the university of Louisville, university of Louisville health, and jefferson community & technical college focuses on improving the safety, environmental landscape, and experience for the partners' patients, workers, and visitors throughout the district's 20 blocks in the Downtown core. - business support: ddc continued its support of its Downtown retailers and restaurants, including: 1) the expansion of small business resources, including convening periodic small business roundtables, to support Downtown's new and existing businesses, 2) hosting a small business saturday vendor fair, 3) promoting the new Downtown small business loan product through the Downtown commercial loan fund, which originated its first loan that provides flexible financing to assist new businesses opening in Downtown, and 4) continuing roundtable gatherings of brokers, property managers, and major Downtown employers to develop solutions to the challenges facing Downtown.- public safety: ddc works closely with the Louisville metro police department (lmpd) in order to enhance the safety of Downtown and to address public perceptions about the same, including participation in the lmpd first division advisory council and frequent coordination with lmpd's dedicated Downtown area patrol. As manager of Downtown's business improvement district (bid), ddc worked with Louisville tourism, humana, and Louisville metro government to provide new funding for a major expansion of the bid's hospitality & safety ambassador program, which provides a friendly safety presence on the streets of Downtown. With the support of these partners, ddc was able to double the number of ambassadors provided by the program (from 18 to 36) and to expand their hours of operations to midnight every day of the week.- Development facilitation: ddc is the primary source of market and demographic research data which helps developers make sound investment decisions in Downtown and its edge neighborhoods. In 2023, public and private investment continued to grow with 24 Development projects underway, totaling $599 million, and 37 projects announced, totaling $850 million. To further facilitate Downtown Development, ddc administers two loan funds which provide critical gap financing for commercial and housing projects in Downtown and its edge neighborhoods.- professional collaboration: ddc works closely with a variety of partners to share best practices and seek unique solutions to the complex issues encountered by downtowns across the nation. This includes fostering deep relationships with organizations such as Louisville metro government's economic Development and community services departments, greater Louisville inc. (gli) the metro chamber of commerce, Louisville tourism, waterfront Development Corporation, leadership Louisville, the nulu business association (nba), the Louisville independent business alliance (liba), the international Downtown association (ida), the health enterprise network (hen), urban land institute (uli), the Kentucky chamber, and many others.- 2023 grants/allocations to others: $3,125 to gli in support of the community marketing project.

One of ddc's critical functions is telling Downtown's story and sharing the economic, cultural, and societal importance of Downtown for the entire city and also what people might have missed if they haven't come Downtown in a while. Working with our partners and generous donors, ddc undertook the following initiatives in 2023:- ddc-hosted events: ddc hosted numerous events in 2023 designed to bring more people onto the streets and back Downtown, including the launch of three new events: the Downtown drive-in, steins on main, and the Downtown silent disco. The Downtown drive-in introduced our new "cinebus" projection vehicle (a refurbished ambulance) with a series of free, outdoor movies shown at waterfront park throughout the summer. Bringing oktoberfest back Downtown, the first steins on main was a celebration of local breweries and Louisville's german heritage on west main street. The silent disco let people experience Downtown in a new and different way by listening to music while wearing wireless headphones on the big four lawn by the river. Ddc also continued its wildly popular food truck wednesday event, shutting down a block in the heart of Downtown and providing a fun atmosphere with live music and additional lunchtime dining options for our workers, guests, and residents. Continuing its Partnership with Louisville metro government, ddc brought cyclouvia back to main street for a second year, closing two miles of main street to motorized vehicles and let people bike, walk, or skate on the roadway while enjoying vendors and activities along the way. Ddc also continued its monthly south 4th night market which featured local vendors, food, and live music, culminating with a special holiday market at the end of the year.- ddc sponsored events: ddc provided financial and technical support to bring unique and diverse events in and around Downtown throughout the year. In 2023, these events included the nulu bock fest, the international food truck festival, the summer beer fest, derby diversity week, cinco de mayo fiesta, the Kentucky craft bash, the juneteenth festival at fourth street live!, the asian night market, nourish, the raare women collective, worldfest, play arts with reach, legacy week, the great chili cook off, the latin music awards, lights on main, santas of color coalition, nulufest, the hot brown showdown, hispanic heritage month, the 502 film wrap party, you decide Kentucky, and light up Louisville.- the baird urban sports park: sponsored by baird, ddc partnered with Louisville parks & recreation and the ymca to turn a vacant redevelopment site on historic west main street into a new sports park venue featuring pickleball courts and wiffle ball field. Ddc hosted spring and fall seasons of pickleball league play at the park, and also expanded open play hours to allow anyone to come enjoy the park. The park was also available for use as a unique event site in the heart of Downtown.- the bourbon district: ddc continued working with Louisville tourism, the Kentucky distillers' association, and local bourbon attractions to align the bourbon district with the broader bourbon renaissance occurring in Louisville and Kentucky as a whole. Ddc also provided advice and assistance to several distilleries looking to take advantage of new state law allowing distilleries to open satellite tasting rooms, which several planned in the coming years.- Downtown marketing & communications: ddc enhanced and expanded social media engagement, website content, press releases, and partnerships with stakeholders that support the vibrancy and growth of Downtown. This included sharing the positive momentum about Downtown and delivering important messaging and updates on Development activity, Downtown events, public space activations, new projects and businesses, and construction impacts. In 2023, ddc worked with Louisville public media to promote Downtown events and news. Ddc also created various social media campaigns through facebook meta and linkedin paid advertising to reach larger audiences which featured the promotion of ddc-hosted events, the holiday decorating contest for Downtown businesses and attractions, and the friends of Downtown fundraising campaign.- friends of Downtown: ddc expanded its friends of Downtown fundraising campaign as a way to connect with both businesses and individuals who support Downtown. Friends can help Downtown through donations to ddc, the gift of their time during volunteer events, or by amplifying what they love about Downtown through social media and other channels.- 2023 grants/allocations to others: $53,250 in sponsorships and in-kind donations for 26 unique and diverse events throughout Downtown Louisville.

Ddc engages in a variety of projects in collaboration with local and state government as well as private sector partners meant to increase the vitality and attractiveness of Downtown. In 2023, these projects and initiatives included:- cityspots: conceptualized by the 2022 bingham fellows cohort, cityspots are the transformation of under-utilized or forgotten spaces into welcoming places of urban surprise where people meet, eat, play, or relax, helping to spread vibrancy across Downtown. In 2023, ddc created two new cityspot locations with the support of many sponsors. The inaugural cityspot by metro hall transformed an oversized and under-programmed sidewalk into a new meeting place featuring patio furniture, flowerpots, and freshly painted pavement and crosswalks. The second cityspot was the bark park, which took a forgotten trolley station turnaround on south fourth street and turned it into a dog-friendly pocket park for everyone to enjoy. Two additional cityspots are planned for 2024.- management of the business improvement district (bid): through an agreement with the Louisville Downtown management district (ldmd), ddc administers and operates the Downtown Louisville bid that provides supplemental services to those provided by Louisville metro government within the boundaries of the district. These services include daily cleaning of the Downtown rights of way, safety and hospitality patrols, graffiti abatement, beautification programs, and public art projects. In 2023, the ambassador team cleared approx. 110,400 pounds of litter and debris from the sidewalks and alleys, cleaned up over 375 biohazardous materials, abated 1,251 graffiti tags and stickers, and had approx. 26,000 recorded interactions with guests and visitors as a result of enhanced hospitality engagement. In 2023, ddc directly funded an ambassador position to increase the size of the program.- clean collaborative: ddc continued its Partnership with Louisville metro's department of public works for the "clean collaborative" initiative to improve the community's cleanliness throughout the city. To help with areas of Downtown outside of the bid, public works extended its contract with ddc for an additional year to provide ambassador cleaning services in often neglected parts of the greater Downtown area. As part of this program, ddc's clean collaborative team of ambassadors cleared approx. 12,430 pounds of litter and debris in these areas.- beautification and art initiatives: ddc constantly focuses on expanding placemaking programs to improve the appearance and appeal of Downtown's streets. In 2023, these projects included a crosswalk art initiative that replaced traditional "zebra" stripe crosswalks at three intersections with designs created by local artists, the acquisition of three donated pianos for a future art installation, expanding Downtown's flowerpot program, and adding new artwork on forgotten doors as part of the existing alley gallery project. Ddc also launched a pilot project showcasing a new street gallery program that features the artwork of local artists on signal control boxes and improving the landscaping and appearance of Downtown in general. - pedestrian & vehicle wayfinding: confronted with a vehicle wayfinding system that was more than two decades old, ddc worked closely with Louisville tourism and Louisville metro government to finalize the design and installation of new signage for a Downtown wayfinding system to help those unfamiliar with Downtown navigate its streets. A new "welcome to Louisville" sign was also installed at a key expressway gateway to Downtown, including new landscaping, to replace a barren location.- lighting programs: a significant way to increase the appeal and vibrancy of Downtown is through engaging lighting. Ddc continued work on a multi-year project to install programmable, multi-colored led lighting underneath i-65 where it crosses the major streets that are the gateways between the cbd and the nulu neighborhood. These lights will create interesting and fun ways for the community to interact with these spaces as well as provide connectivity and feeling of safety. With design and engineering work completed, funding was secured for installation of the lights in the latter half of 2024. Ddc also began planning and design work for a series of string light installations in its historic shopping district along south fourth street.- walking tour podcasts: funded by grants from republic bank & trust and its foundation, ddc expanded its audio walking tour podcast series featuring significant locations in Downtown and narrated by prominent louisvillians. Three podcasts were completed in 2023 with the series to be announced in 2024.- Downtown banner program: in Partnership with ldmd, ddc added an additional 250 banners to its street pole banner program within cdb, bringing the total number of banners to approx. 750. These banners help to create a sense of place and neighborhood and reinforce the variety of reasons that make Downtown unique.- homelessness and panhandling engagement: one of the tragic, lingering consequences of the pandemic was a significant increase in the number of people experiencing homelessness throughout Louisville. Ddc remained engaged with our public, non-profit, and private partners to develop new strategies to address the complex issues surrounding homelessness and panhandling in the urban core. In 2023, ddc received funding to deploy two new outreach ambassadors who are dedicated to finding outreach support for those most in need.- 2023 grants/allocations to others: $59,625 in support of an additional ambassador for ldmd.