Buyer Sought For Whiskey Row Buildings

With just over two months left before developer Todd Blue can legally destroy the strip of buildings at First and Main streets (known as Whiskey Row), Louisville Metro Government is seeking a buyer for the structures. (For more on Whiskey Row, click here)Blue owns the strip, but has said he is willing to sell them to someone who wants to save either the facades or the entire buildings, as many preservationists have called for Blue to do.The Courier-Journal reports that the city is now seeking buyers who are willing to take five of the seven buildings off Blue's hands. Alan Delisle, the corporation’s executive director, and Chris Poynter, Fischer’s spokesman, both said Thursday that the other two Iron Quarter buildings at 105 and 107 W. Main, are probably too dilapidated to attract a buyer and are not part of the sales effort. But they say the five structures that may be sold are worth salvaging in their entirety. “If they are not sold within 90 days, he (Blue) can tear them down,” Poynter said. But he said “there are prospects” for acquiring the five buildings, although he declined to elaborate. Delisle also wouldn’t identify prospective purchasers and called it “a big challenge” to find a buyer, “but we are making the strongest possible effort to get this done.”