Thoughtfully um located and oriented on the site than then the existing mall.

So what we kind of kind of modern development now is is we kind of try to push the parking fields to the middle of the site with the buildings on the periphery to kind of give them that that street front presence.

Whereas the mall right now, it's the opposite.

It's it's you know, the the improvements are in the middle of the site with a sea of parking around it.

So we're we're kind of trying to create kind of the donut idea with parking screened in the middle of the site, all the buildings up against the the roads to the extent they can be put there to really kind of create more of a presence uh for the community.

So that's that's really the goal with our existing design.

And the space sits between Bardstown Road and Baxter Avenue.

So you're you'll have kind of filling that entire space there, correct?

Correct.

Mm-hmm.

That's right.

And we are talking that there will be entrances from both roads into the space.

There'll be entrances from from both roads into the site uh itself.

Uh most of the storefront entrances will either be on Bardstown or interior to the site along the parking or where the primary parking field is, which is in the middle of the site.

We were talking a little bit about what kind of businesses are you anticipating being in the mid-city market.

So the goal in all these projects are very similar in that sense that we want um a mixture of uses, medical, some office, restaurants, boutiques, heavy, heavily typically heavily focused on service-oriented industries, as most of these projects are kind of servicing the local community.

And then a mixture of kind of national, regional, and local tenants.

We want to flavor up all of it.

There are certain national tenants that I think would be highly sought after and highly in demand in this particular location, but we also want the center to kind of reflect the community.

And so the goal would be to get some local tenancy in here as well that that the community knows, loves, and and is happy to embrace as part of the project.

Okay.

And what has been a part of the mid-city mall was the Shelby Park library as well.

And there were discussions about whether the library was going to be staying there.

And can you give us an update on that?

Yeah, yeah.

So I think the mayor announced it.

So this is public information that they have allocated money in the budget for the relocation of the library on site.

We have entered into a letter agreement uh with the uh city for the relocation of the library.

Um, and right now we're kind of working through the kind of binding contractual phase of that.

But I can say this there's been a true meeting of the minds at this point, and we're in agreement on the on the outline or general framework of the deal.

And at this point, I don't see anything stopping us from from uh uh ultimately um creating a new library branch at this location, which which we think is a huge amenity to the shopping center and and hopefully really um gives gives back to some of what the community really wanted that uh uh wanted to see as part of this redevelopment.

So we're we're very excited uh for that component of this.

Absolutely.

And speaking of that, you did have several meetings and had public input into the development of this project.

Is that true?

We did, yes.

Uh, I mean, I think to date, to be honest, uh, I think we're like at meeting number 38 or 39, and that's over about a seven-month process.

Uh, we knew that this project, given its location, given the educational attainment of the neighborhood, which is very high, given how long this project's been in the community now, you know, 50, 60 plus years, we felt like it was absolutely critical to get community engagement in the project and get community input.

And a lot of our site plan and our design was shaped by the community.

The addition of the Rosewood Park on the backside of uh our grocery tenant, the um wall mural art on the backside of our grocery tenant, the relocation incorporation of the library, the preservation of the um the uh park on um on the backside of the library, which which is now called kind of affectionately referred to as Beechwood Park, which is actually owned by the mall ownership, but will now really ultimately most likely become part of the city property.

Those type of that type of feedback um and back and forth dialogue really did shape this development.

The inclusion of two-story shops up along Baxter to give the shops more of a street presence since we were we were really limited on how much of the site we could affect by the existing leases with Heine Brothers and both raising canes.

So the idea was even though we couldn't put the buildings right on the street, if we gave them more height, it would they would feel closer to the street.

So we created story and a half design on the building behind Raising Canes and a full two-story, true two-story design behind Heine Brothers.

Those type of comments, both from city staff but from the neighborhoods, was was really effectuated and affected our ultimate design.

And I do, I'm very proud of the fact that ultimately when what we ended up with, I think is going to be special as a result of that.

So I think community engagement is good.

Um it doesn't mean we can that everybody gets what they want in that process, but it certainly impacts design and typically in a very positive way.

Yes.

Yeah, and many, many, I mean, you know, you're saying almost 40 meetings or what have you, so that's a lot of opportunity for people to express their uh input, what they'd like to share on there too.

And I know you worked closely with the city as well on this project, and how has that relationship worked out?

Really well.

Um we had numerous meetings with uh with a councilman for this particular district, Ben Rena Weber.

He he definitely had an opinion and wanted um some of the neighborhood's concerns uh incorporated into our design.

So we listened to Ben, he was an excellent advocate for the neighborhood.

Uh we had a couple calls with the the mayor as it related to the library, library staff, planning staff on certain design elements they wanted to incorporate both from an architectural standpoint from a site planning standpoint.

So the city the city was very uh active in this process, and I and I have to say we developed for municipalities all over the country, and this is just isn't lip service.

I I felt like the staff level and city level and municipal engagement on this was outstanding, and and um I I felt like leadership here was was particularly good because I think there's a there's a delicate balance between incorporating design elements and addressing neighborhood issues, but also having a practical mindset of at some point the project has to get developed, and this understanding that this process is a compromise, and I think there was a very pragmatic and practical approach on part of the city, which is there are certain must-haves, but we also understand that some of this is a give and a take if this if this project's going to happen.

And I and I felt like at all levels the but all the way from the mayor, council to even planning staff.

I I was I was truly impressed with with the Louisville um staff on this on this project.