The Portland Investment Initiative, an organization founded by developer Gill Holland with the goal of purchasing and renovating real estate in the West Louisville neighborhood, has closed on two new properties.
The first is a half-acre lot backing up to the projected future space of Waterfront Park West and an accompanying 22,000-square-foot warehouse at 1226 Rowan St. The property, which sits across from the new Heine Brothers’ Coffee warehouse, sold for $925,000.
“It was the Stagecoach Inn in the 1850s,” Holland says. “So, I want to at least put up a facade easement of some kind for protection -- it is probably the only 1850 building on Rowan Street -- and the back part is a new, industrial, cool open space. So I am envisioning either some kind of tech-firm, some kind of distillery, brewery, (or a) construction-type company.”
Additionally, PII closed on the three-acre former Portland Recycling Inc. location earlier this week. It was purchased at auction for $255,000.
According to Holland, the property, located adjacent to the Tim Faulkner Gallery, could be built up to provide more density in the neighborhood.
“We need lots more housing, kind of workforce housing,” Holland says. “I was thinking in the interim, though, that we could have putt-putt golf until we get money to actually get a three- or four-story building (with) ground-floor retail and mixed use, definitely.”
(Disclosure: Holland is a member of Louisville Public Media’s board of directors.)