Paducah Mayor George Bray announced Tuesday evening that the city is dissolving its partnership with a development firm that had committed to bringing a $24 million project to the far western Kentucky community’s downtown.
Bray made the announcement during a city commission meeting that Paducah and Weyland Ventures – a Louisville-based property development group that first signed an agreement with the city in 2020 – would no longer be moving forward together with the City Block project, which called for plans for a boutique hotel with restaurant and bar spaces as well as additional greenspaces and improved parking.
“We've been working through for a long time to try to bring this project to fruition. And at the end of the day, after pressing them very hard to make a decision, you know, they chose not to move forward,” Bray said at Tuesday’s meeting.
The announcement was not included on the agenda released ahead of the meeting.
Multiple state officials came to the community’s groundbreaking ceremony for the hotel project in 2023, including Gov. Andy Beshear. At the time, the governor described the City Block project as a symbol of Paducah’s “growing and vibrant downtown.”
City officials and Weyland Ventures announced in October that the project had been delayed. At that juncture, Weyland Ventures CEO Mariah Weyland Gratz cited multiple factors including foundation design issues, rising construction costs and interest rates and difficulty with securing contractors. That same month, Weyland Ventures lost its financial commitment from Paducah Bank for the project.
The City Block project was originally a cornerstone of the minimum capital investment Paducah needs to make to meet its $20 million requirement for its Tax Increment Financing (TIF) District, which allows local governments to capture future increases in property taxes and other taxes from new developments within certain areas.
In a press release, the city said public and private investments in its TIF district are “nearing the $20 million milestone” without the hotel construction. Bray said Paducah is still on track to achieve its TIF initial investment goal by March 2025.
With the project no longer moving forward, Bray said the city of Paducah can regain control of the portion of the block that Weyland planned to use for the boutique hotel.
Bray said he is still optimistic about the future of Paducah’s downtown and the potential for some other new developments, including a potential new hotel near the city’s convention center and possible projects involving the former U.S. Bank Building.
