Louisville leaders set to review scaled-back Redtail Ridge proposal

Louisville leaders set to review scaled-back Redtail Ridge proposal

Lucas High

LOUISVILLE — Nearly a year after Louisville city officials sent Denver-based developer Brue Baukol Capital Partners LLC back to the drawing board for its proposed Redtail Ridge mixed-use project, the company is coming back before Louisville City Council with a scaled-back version of plans for the long vacant ex-Phillips 66 (NYSE: PSX) property adjacent to U.S. Highway 36.

Initially, the company sought to turn the parcel into a 5.22 million-square-foot live-work development anchored by a new corporate campus for medical-device maker Medtronic Inc. and a roughly 1,500-home senior-living community operated by Erickson Living LLC. Additional planned components included offices, retail space and apartments. 

Medtronic skipped town for a nearby site in Lafayette, and locals spoke out against the housing portion of the project, arguing that thousands of new residents would strain city resources and exacerbate traffic congestion.

Under the revised plan, Brue Baukol reduced density by about half to 3.1 million square feet and completely eliminated the residential element.

According to a fiscal analysis developed by a city consultant to estimate potential tax revenues and service costs, about 1.7 million square feet could be dedicated as office space, another neary 1.4 million to industrial users and about 150,000 for retail. 

Brue Baukol bought the site late last year for $34.93 million, a discount of just more than 37% from the $55.6 million that ConocoPhillips paid for the property in 2008.

The prior Brue Baukol plans fell apart after the Louisville Planning Commission voted against recommending approval. This time around, the commission is in favor of the project, so long as certain sustainability measures are taken.

The general development plan is set to be reviewed by the Louisville City Council during its Tuesday meeting.
While the Redtail Ridge project has spent the past year in neutral, Medtronic is pressing the accelerator on its campus development in Lafayette, which includes 400,000 square feet of new office and laboratory space spread across two, five-story buildings.

Plans breezed through the approval process and ground was broken last month. The first employees are expected to move in around fall 2022 with the campus fully occupied by winter 2022. 

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to clarify that the square footage breakdown for retail, office and industrial uses is based on a fiscal analysis model developed by a consultant for the city. 

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