LOUISVILLE — Mortenson Construction, the firm that is building the new downtown arena here, has agreed to lease 10,000 square feet on the first floor of the Presbyterian Center for $150,000 per year. The lease is for 30 months.
The new arena, expected to be completed in November 2010 with the University of Louisville basketball team as its primary tenant, will sit directly across the street from the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s national office building. Mortenson will have a separate entrance to the Presbyterian Center, providing it direct access to the arena site.
Joey Bailey, deputy executive director for shared services of the General Assembly Council (GAC), said, “The $150,000 per year that we expect from this lease agreement was not a part of the budget that was recently approved by the General Assembly for 2009-2010, therefore these are additional funds that are available to implement the new activities mandated by the 2008 General Assembly in those years.”
In April, the GAC announced that it had been able to consolidate 30,000 square feet of unused space at the Presbyterian Center, and would be seeking to lease the space in order to produce additional funds for PC(USA) mission.
“This lease commits one-third of the space that we were hoping to make available, we still have 20,000 square feet of prime downtown real estate,” Bailey said. “We are optimistic that we can also extend our mission by utilizing that space as well.”
