Louisville plans to add downtown parking in time for holidays

The Louisville City Council plans to review bids for a project that will add around 40 new parking spaces to its downtown during a called meeting on Aug. 23.  

The new parking lot will be located on the grassy 1.1 acre lot where the Thomas Brothers automotive shop once stood on the north end of Broad Street. The lot was purchased by the Louisville Downtown Development Authority (LDDA) in 2015 and given to the city in 2022.   

The city plans to use 2016 SPLOST funds allocated for Recreation and Tourism, Transportation SPLOST funds and a bit of Local Maintenance and Improvement Grant (LMIG) to pay for the estimated $150,000 project that will also include paving portions of Fifth Street.  

City Administrator Ricky Sapp said that he expects the lot to be finished by Dec. 31, but the city has offered a bonus of around $10,000 to be paid if the contractor can finish the project before Thanksgiving so that the lot can be available for downtown businesses before the holiday season. 

Louisville’s downtown currently has a little over 100 parking spots. 

Mayor Jenny Smith said that while parking has been an issue in the downtown business district for years, those spots have become more and more important with the opening of several new businesses. 

“What we have is a problem of success,” Smith said. “Some of our downtown businesses are so successful that they are attracting more customers than our current parking spaces can accommodate.” 

Lil Easterlin, who acts as a managing director of the LDDA, said that the organization was anticipating the need when it purchased the property and envisioned it as a parking lot that would serve both downtown business and as a trailhead for a series of walking trails leading passed the Revolutionary War Cemetery down to the Ogeechee River. 

With new businesses like L&L Sports Lounge, The Homefresh Bistro, Station Donuts, a T-shirt shop and a soon-to-be-opening photography studio joining the thrift shop on that end of Broad Street, Easterlin said that the need has never been greater. 

“It’s very exciting for us to see that corner get fixed up and to know that there will be a lot more support for the businesses there,” Easterlin said. “Bustlin’ on Broad events always bring big crowds and this year the Louisville Garden Club is planning a December event in the old Henderson Chevrolet building across the street from the lot.” 

Brothers Levenski and Lamar Brown opened L&L almost a year and a half ago and the success of their business and the traffic it brings downtown, especially throughout the weekend, has been cited by city and LDDA officials as an inspiration for pushing the parking lot project to get finished as soon as possible. 

Levenski Brown said that he has seen customers park on the far end of Broad Street, down near the county courthouse, and walk some distance because all of the existing parking was full. 

“We’re excited,” he said. “Right now, they (customers) pretty much get in where they can fit in. The new lot will give people much better and closer access. I think downtown is a really good investment right now and I hope this new lot will encourage other business owners to think about opening downtown.”