Louisville will commission a real estate consultant to understand the area surrounding the city’s defunct Sam’s Club site for the “potential of new retail and commercial development” and “supportive uses that could foster new investment and development,” among other directions, according to the specifics of a request for proposal unveiled Friday.
City Council will convene on the details of the plan at its scheduled Tuesday meeting.
It comes only months after plans to overhaul the property with a King Soopers Marketplace were halted shortly after Amazon’s purchase of Whole Foods last year. The city decided last month that it would commission a specified market study before embarking on any new plans to reanimate the site, and say the study could cost around $50,000 to conduct over the entire process.
The RFP likely to be sent out to potential consultants dictates that they examine the “rules and regulations,” such as zoning codes, that may be limiting the property’s potential.
Residents, and even some in the city’s leadership, have voiced a certain discomfort with attempting to reinvigorate the site again with new big box retail. Especially under the current market conditions: a host of converging factors, both locally and nationally, have stunted capabilities of traditional large-scale retail.
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