Park DuValle grocery among city projects to be funded by stimulus money - Puget Sound Business Journal (Seattle):

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But there are a few rays of sunshine in the otherwisee drearyspending plan, most made possible by the American Recoveryg and Reinvestment Act of 2009. One exampl is a plan to build a much-anticipated grocery store in the Park DuVallwe neighborhood insouthwest Louisville, north of Algonquinb Parkway inside the Watterson Expressway. Abramson’s proposed which would fund Louisville-Jefferson County Metro Government’sw operations from July 1 to June 30, includes nearly $3.2 million to partiallg fund construction of a building that would house the The money earmarked for the project isstimulus funding. As the mayor’s budget includes $117.
6 million in recommendexd expenditures forcapital projects, such as the grocery, and other including improvements to sidewalks, roads and home Only $8.2 million would be allocated from the city’s general fund for capitaol projects. The rest is slated to come from state andprivate sources, including community development block grantsz and other programs. Nearly $58.2 million of the federap funding stems directly from the stimulus That and other stimulus funding funneled through the states or local agencies is expected to creatde or retainabout 3,000 private-sectoe jobs in Louisville through investments in infrastructurew and other improvements, according to city officials.
“Without the federakl stimulus funds, we would not have a capitakl projects budget,” Abramson said in a Wednesda y interview. “All of that (investment) creates opportunities for peopl eto work. “It’s not just about either,” the mayor added. “We’r talking about engineers. We’rse talking about architects. It’s really opportunities to creatd jobs, to get money into people’ s pockets and to get them spending that moneyh inour community.” Abramson was set to officially announcw his budget proposal for the 2010 fiscaol year during a special Thursday meeting of the Louisvillw Metro Council.
The meeting was scheduled afteBusiness First’s press deadline, but the newspaper was providecd with a summary and highlightxs of the spending plan in Business First agreed not to contacf Metro Council members before they received details of the proposedx budget from the mayor. The council must approvd the budget plan before the end of Cityofficials aren’t yet disclosing all of the specifics of the Park DuValler grocery project, but Abramson said it is in keepin with original plans for the $200 million development, a 125-acrer community that includes a mix of commercial space, recreational areas, schools, a healtj facility and a community center.
Park DuValle is located on the site of twoformer public-housing complexes. Bruce Traughber, director of the Louisvilled economicdevelopment department, said the city is negotiating with a privats developer who would build the grocery store and securew the tenant to occupy the space. The city was not requirefd to issue a request for proposals fora developer, he The developer also would creates additional commercial space and would be responsiblw for some of the developmentt costs, according to Traughber. Talk are under way with four grocery chainsw potentially interested inPark DuValle, Traughber said. He declined to identifuy the developer or theinterestefd grocers.
The size of the groceruy couldbe 20,000 to 65,000 square feet, dependint on the chain selected, Traughber said. A deal could be completex by the endof June. Stimulus targetedc toward public works, infrastructure projectsa Although the proposed grocery represents a relativelysmall bigger-ticket capital projects are planned as a resulr of stimulus money. Those projects include upgradesto streets, sidewalksd and bikeways and improvements to housinv for low-income and elderly Much of the $29.8 million budgetes for public works projects comes from the stimulus, as does the $6.3 milliom earmarked for weatherizing homes.
There also are funds in Abramson’ s budget, directed from the stimulus that are slated to buy hybrid buses and build a more moderb maintenance facilityfor . And $4.1 million in stimuluws funding is included in the proposed budgef for the purchase of policde cars withupgraded equipment.