West Louisville FoodPort
30th Street and West Muhammad Ali Boulevard, Louisville, KY 40212 approximate location
OMA drew a ring of buildings around an open yard and called it a food port. It was meant to grow, process, and distribute food on 24 acres in west Louisville. The anchor tenant pulled out during final design and the whole thing stopped. The site did get built on, just not with this.
The site on the map
This project has no assigned street address, so the location is approximate and this is the map rather than a panorama. A verified first-party or explicitly licensed photograph replaces this embed when available. How the two halves work.
What changed
- OMA designed a 24-acre food hub at 30th and Muhammad Ali on a former tobacco warehouse site. The program included urban farms, a food truck plaza, shared commercial kitchens, a coffee roastery and juicery, classrooms, a visitor center, a rooftop plaza, and a recycling facility.
- Contemporary coverage described the FoodPort at roughly $53 million to $56 million, but the sources reviewed do not establish that range as an audited final budget; about $2.7 million was reported spent on design.
- An earlier plan for an anaerobic digester on the site was dropped after community opposition at public meetings.
- Anchor tenant FarmedHere, which planned a $23 million indoor vertical farm, withdrew during a corporate reorganization.
- Seed Capital Kentucky terminated the project in August 2016. None of OMA's design was built.
- The replacement Norton Healthcare Sports & Learning Center opened for its first scheduled competition on February 17, 2021 at the former FoodPort site.
Why it changed
Tenants and financing, not design. Seed Capital Kentucky's Stephen Reily said that without a sufficient tenant base the project was no longer economically viable once FarmedHere backed out. Project director Caroline Heine said proceeding without committed tenants would not honor the organization's commitment to the community. Reported by LPM, August 18, 2016.
Details
- Status
- Abandoned. None of the design was built.
- Where
- Louisville, KY
- Neighborhood
- Russell (at the Shawnee and Portland edges)
- Developer
- Seed Capital Kentucky, in partnership with Louisville Metro Government
- Architect
- OMA (partner in charge Shohei Shigematsu, project manager Christy Cheng)
- Rendering credit
- OMA / Robota
- The built result
- Shown through Google's live map embed at the project coordinates. Imagery remains with Google.
Sources
- LPM: Plans For West Louisville FoodPort Terminated (Aug 18, 2016) lpm.org
- LPM: Demise of West Louisville FoodPort brings mixed reactions lpm.org
- LPM: Sports complex will fill former FoodPort site lpm.org
- ArchDaily: OMA designs Food Port for West Louisville archdaily.com
- Designboom: OMA masterplans a food port in west Louisville designboom.com
- WAVE: Norton Sports & Learning Center opening (February 2021) wave3.com
- Norton Sports & Learning Center: official facility history nortonslc.com
Research checked . Status and figures are updated when a source changes.
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