The developers planning a $193 million soccer stadium in Louisville’s Butchertown neighborhood will get $21.7 million in tax increment financing. Louisville City FC announced the TIF Thursday, and said construction is set to begin in August.
Metro Council greenlit the project in October, voting in favor of a $30 million bond to aid in stadium construction. That bond — with interest — will end up costing taxpayers about $42 million over its 20-year lifespan. According to the development agreement, the soccer team’s ownership group will spend at least $45 million on construction of the actual stadium and pay back $14.5 million to Louisville Metro government.
The last piece of the deal was the tax increment financing, which owners said they needed to make the deal financially feasible. With TIFs, local governments forgo millions in new tax revenues to help developers foot the bill for projects in certain areas.
Tim Mulloy, an owner and board member of Louisville City FC, said the team and investors were pleased with the announcement and assured the TIF investment would end up paying off for the city.
“We don’t get any of that benefit unless we do it, and we’re not in the business of not succeeding,” Mulloy said. “We will be good stewards of [taxpayer] money. We will honor their faith in us by putting our own money at risk as we have and will continue to on the private financing of the stadium.”
Louisville Metro Councilman Bill Hollander said the TIF announcement is great news for the city, saying the stadium could revitalize areas at the waterfront and around it.
The stadium project also calls for the development of retail, office space and hotels on the site near Interstate 64. The project proposal estimates it could bring $3.8 billion in total economic development to the area over 20 years.
This story has been updated.
