Omni Set to Build New 600-Room Downtown Louisville Hotel—With Grocery, Retail Space

Another luxury hotel is slated for construction in downtown Louisville—one brings with it a full service grocery store, retail space and 200 apartments.Omni Hotels is set to begin construction on a 600-room convention hotel in 2015. The project is being done in collaboration with The Cordish Co., which owns Fourth Street Live.The $261 million project is being announced Thursday by Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer and Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear.Nearly 51 percent of the funding will come from private sources.  The state is set to provide nearly $90.5 million in tax rebates and Metro Government will contribute about $35.5 million in the form of land ($17 million) and the construction of an 850-vehicle parking garage.“This investment will be a catalyst for more convention activity, while bringing more out-of-state visitors to Kentucky,” Beshear said a statement.The project is set to be completed by 2017 and create nearly 1,350 construction jobs and 350 permanent jobs.“This project is a major infusion in our downtown and to the city’s entire economy,” Fischer said in a statement.The Louisville hotel will be the first Omni hotel operated property in Kentucky.“Louisville is a thriving city, and we are ready to work in partnership with the city, state and The Cordish Companies to develop a full-service, four-diamond hotel that will bring more meetings and conventions, as well as business and leisure travelers to the area,” said Mike Deitemeyer, president of Omni Hotels & Resorts.Here are some of the projects specifics from the city news release: ·          600 guestrooms and suites, 70,000 square feet of meeting space, a spa, fitness center, two full-service restaurants, rooftop pool-side café, street level retail venue and a lobby lounge. The hotel is expected to achieve LEED Silver certification; ·         200 upscale, market-rate apartment units; ·         44,000 square feet of retail including a high quality, full service downtown grocery store;  ·         850 space parking garage to service all three major components (hotel, residential and retail/grocery) developed by the Parking Authority of River City.The Omni Hotel announcement comes on the heels of plans to build a 167-room Aloft Hotel near the KFC Yum Center and as a 162-room Hilton Garden Inn is under construction on Fourth Street.Omni operates nearly 60 hotels in North America in cities such as Atlanta, Dallas, Fort Worth, Nashville, Providence and Washington, D.C.Earlier: Sources have confirmed to WFPL that Omni Hotels will construct a luxury hotel in downtown Louisville.Mayor Greg Fischer and Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear are expected to announce the plan to build the hotel at a press conference later Thursday afternoon.The plan to add an Omni hotel to the downtown cityscape comes as a Hilton Garden Inn is under construction on Fourth Street and an Aloft Hotel is set to open near the KFC Yum! Center in April 2015.An Omni Hotel opened an 800-room Nashville facility in September 2013.   We will bring you updates after a formal announcement is made later today.