A downtown Louisville business district will expand south of York Street next year.

 Starting Jan. 1, the Louisville Downtown Partnership is expanding the city's downtown Business Improvement District, known as the Louisville Downtown Management District, by adding four properties to the BID on the south side of York Street between Fourth Street and the alley west of Fifth Street, according to a news release.

Those properties will include 800 Tower City Club Apartments, Solid Light and James Collins Downtown Ford. Those property owners submitted petitions to expand the district.

According to the release, the petitions "far exceeded" the requirement of 33 percent of property owners and 51 percent of total property value needed by state law.

The BID was established in 1991 and went active in early 1992. It's a 61-block area in Louisville's central business district in which the Louisville Downtown Partnership "provides clean and safe assistance that enhance(s), but does not replace, services furnished by local government," according to the release. 

"In the past 22 years, the BID and its ambassador program has been widely recognized as being a key part of the success of downtown," according to the release.

The partnership goes on to say that its mission is to "promote, market and advance the economic development, business and residential vitality of Downtown Louisville" in the BID.

 The Louisville Downtown Partnership is a collaboration between the Louisville Downtown Development Corp. and the Louisville Downtown Management District. The organization promotes economic growth and activity in the CBD while also overseeing on-street enhancements to improve downtown's look and appeal. The partnership administers the BID and on-street enhancements within the district.

"Property and business owners recognize the tremendous benefits the BID can provide this area and really drove the support within the community for the expansion,” Rebecca Matheny, executive director of the Louisville Downtown Partnership, said in the release.      

Jonathan Holtzman, CEO of City Club Apartments, which owns 800 Tower City Club Apartments, has been lobbying for an expansion of the BID for the last several months.

Holtzman's company has invested more than $11 million to renovate the apartment tower and create new amenities, including a new rooftop pool and sky deck area. Bar Vetti, a new italian restaurant concept by Feast BBQ and Royals Hot Chicken founder Ryan Rogers, also recently opened inside the apartment complex. 

The Louisville Downtown Partnership on Tuesday also released new data showing how downtown is expected to change by 2019 in terms of commercial and residential activity.

The organization projects a 56 percent increase in the number of downtown hotels, to 28, and a 36 percent increase in hotel rooms, to 6,547 by 2019.

Read full article by Marty Finley - Reporter, Louisville Business First