36-unit apartment building planned for Louisville’s Portland neighborhood
Submitted by Kitty McKune, New Directions Housing Corporation
Change is in the air at Roosevelt Apartments, located at 226 N 17th Street, on the
eastern edge of the Historic Portland neighborhood. New Directions plans to optimize
the Roosevelt Apartments’ strategic location by developing an active intergenerational
campus including:
• The substantial rehabilitation of the existing historic school complex
which contains 47 affordable housing units; and
• The construction of a new $8.8 million 36-unit senior affordable
housing development on the site.
By connecting to the existing infrastructure of Roosevelt Apartments, New
Directions will create an active intergenerational campus with both Roosevelt
Apartments and the new Roosevelt Senior Housing sharing re-imagined site amenities,
parking, and community services facilities.
The existing Roosevelt Apartments were originally rehabbed in 1995-1997 by New
Directions from the Theodore Roosevelt Elementary School, which was built in 1865
and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. In addition to the upgrade of
the existing 47-unit Roosevelt Apartments, the new 36 unit Roosevelt Senior Housing
will reactivate a presently unimproved and under-utilized portion of the Roosevelt
Campus.
A critical innovation of the Roosevelt Campus approach will be the intergenerational
opportunities, programs, services, and activities that will be managed by New Direc-
