For years, folks getting off the bus on Liberty Street in Phoenix Hill walked wide around the old First Link grocery. On Monday, Oct. 12, the heavy equipment finally showed up.
Demolition began that morning on the vacant grocery and pharmacy building, which dates to the 1940s and had sat empty for about a decade. The lot will become The Miller, a 127-unit affordable senior apartment building and the first phase of Mae Street Village, the Louisville Metro Housing Authority's plan to replace the aging Dosker Manor public housing complex across the street.
Who's doing what
The arrangement is laid out on the housing authority's redevelopment page. LMHA and LDG are co-developers. The housing authority is providing the land, project-based vouchers and more financial support, while LDG is leading the design, construction, financing and development. LMHA is overseeing the demolition itself, which is being paid for with Community Development Block Grant money awarded by the city.
According to WDRB's report from the first day of demolition, the city set aside $2.1 million for the grocery teardown and site cleanup. LMHA Executive Director Elizabeth Strojan told WLKY the plan is to finish the teardown by the end of the year and start construction soon after, and she hopes the job won't use every dollar, so the leftover can be added to the $1.5 million the city has dedicated toward starting on Dosker Manor.
None of the public announcements name a demolition or general contractor, so we're not naming one.
LDG has described The Miller as 127 one-bedroom apartments for households earning 30% to 80% of the area median income, with a fitness center, business center, community room, walking path, food pantry and a resident service coordinator. The building is named for Millersburg, the hometown of the late state Rep. Mae Street Kidd, whose name is on the larger village. Residents are expected to start moving in sometime in 2028. WDRB has reported the full Mae Street Village could eventually have room for about 350 families.
The harder job across the street
The grocery is the easy part. Dosker Manor's three towers, built in 1968 and once the largest public housing development in the city, sit close to the interstate, the downtown hospitals and the Liberty Green neighborhood.
"We are studying the best way to bring it down," Strojan told WDRB. "You can see proximity to hospitals, the highway, this site here, Liberty Green — all of the things that make this such a wonderful place to live also make it very difficult to demolish."
LMHA began moving residents out of Dosker Manor in March 2024 and finished in January 2026, according to the agency. Strojan told Spectrum News earlier this year that nearly 600 residents were relocated, and that project-based vouchers let them decide whether to move into the new village. The housing authority is still working to line up the money to take the towers down, and no demolition date has been set.
Archie Mathis, who lived at Dosker Manor for a decade, was there to watch the work begin. "It was deteriorating. It was horrid," he said. "Bring her down. It needed to come down." He hopes to get an apartment in the new building, and he's already seen the plans. "The gentleman showed me the design of the new buildings. I could not believe it. It's wonderful," he said.
Mayor Craig Greenberg said the city is at about 7,000 of its goal of 15,000 new affordable housing units. "While we are making progress on the first link site today, Dosker Manor you are up next," he said.
Why it matters for Contractors
This is a two-part opportunity. The Miller is a 127-unit building on a downtown lot with a 2028 move-in target, which means a tight schedule for site, foundation, framing, MEP and finish trades once demolition wraps up. Because LDG is running design and construction, that's the door to knock on for bid lists.
The bigger prize is Dosker Manor. Taking down three 1960s high-rise towers next to an interstate and two hospitals is a specialty demolition job that will need careful engineering, dust and vibration control and, as WDRB reported, likely cranes. Once the money comes together, that work will draw demolition, abatement, hauling and site contractors, and then the later phases of new housing will follow on the cleared ground.