Changes In The Works for 500W Jefferson

Last December it was announced that the former PNC Plaza building in downtown Louisville has a new owner. The tower in 500 block of West Jefferson Street in downtown Louisville was aptly renamed 500W. But there are more changes afoot. According to their website ( http://www.500wjefferson.com ), the new owner wants to completely update the lobby, modernize the elevators, add a state-of-the-art fitness center as well as a conference room and a private tenant lounge. If you look at their renderings they show a complete overhaul of the first three floors. It looks like they are preparing to replace all concrete outside walls on the third floor with floor to ceiling windows on the third floor. The rendering also shows a new entrance on the Jefferson Street side of the building. The company says, they are looking to complete the work in 2019.

Gordon Biersch Louisville Construction Start

Construction at Louisville's newest soon to be microbrewery seems to have started. Currently crews are working on installing new duct work at the lower level of the former Border's location on fourth street and Liberty. Recently a $2.5 million building permit went out for interior modifications. According to local media outlets, the brewery is still slated to open sometime this spring.
Gordon Biersch is a Chattanooga based restaurant chain that started business in 1988. It is famous for its European style micro brews and normal bar food (burger, chicken, etc.) Currently it operates 33 US locations. In Louisville it will fill up the entire ground floor of the former bookstore and serve as the northern anchor of Fourth St. Live.

Louisville City Hall gets new Fire Escape

In recent months, the city of Louisville has added a new fire escape to the north side of city hall. The four column steel structure spans three floors and replaces the old fire escape from the 1940's. According to WAVE3 the finished structure will be painted to match the limestone color of the original building. The structure itself has a price tag of over $400,000.

Construction Starts at Louisville's Nucleus Life Science Research Park

After several ground breakings and announcements, work has finally begun at the new downtown research park. Crews have moved in last week to start foundation work on the Nucleus Life Science Park. The park will be built in phases. The first phase is an eight story building on the corner of Market Street and Floyd Street. The building will have over 180,000 square feet available for tenants. According to Business First, 75,000 of those have already been spoken for.

Troll Pub Under the Bridge is now open

After an investment of one million dollars, Whiskey Row is now home to yet another restaurant/bar. The basement of the building facing the KFC Yum Center is now home to the Troll Pub Under the Bridge. It's quite hard to miss, since there is a giant troll guarding the entrance ramp. The troll itself is 10-ft tall.

The owners also installed nice signage on the corner of the building. The bar was open today for the U of L scrimmage. If you want to see how the troll was constructed, check out this older blog entry. Unfortunately, Washington Street, the street the pub is facing, is still closed for through traffic.

Federal Attorneys Office gets Painted

Exterior assembly of all the prefab concrete slabs at the new federal attorneys office building has been completed. Workers are still adding trim elements to the outside walls. The six story office building at Seventh and Broadway is currently getting a coat of paint. It is supposed to match the color of the federal courthouse across Seventh Street. 

Potbelly Sandwich Shop Louisville Opening Soon

The signage of Louisville's soon-to-be newest sandwich shop is up. A sign in the window announces that a Potbelly Sandwich Shop will be coming soon. The new restaurant is located at 302 South 4th Street in downtown Louisville, right next door to Qdoba. Workers are currently working on the interior which will most likely feature vintage stoves and other knick knacks. From the looks of it, it will be quite a few weeks before customers can enjoy toasted sandwiches and old-fashioned milkshakes. The chain was founded in 1977 on Lincoln Avenue in Chicago and now has stores in 12 states. Potbelly's website says they will be opening in the fall.

Parts of "The Edge" in Louisville Complete

Parts of City Properties' The Edge at Liberty Green project seem to be complete. As you can see in the picture, work has also started on the middle section of the development. So far the only thing completed are the dividing walls between the individual homes. It looks like it is being completed in phases, since there is no construction yet on the northernmost part of the site.

The project itself is loosely based on the Huxtable neighborhood in the Cosby Show. It is somewhat of a fresh take on that. Looking at the buildings, they look very different from the surrounding Liberty Greens buildings.

Previous posts concerning The Edge:
http://louisvilledevelopment.blogspot.com/2011/02/construction-start-of-louisvilles-edge.html

http://louisvilledevelopment.blogspot.com/2010/10/edge-at-liberty-greens-groundbreaking.html

Whiskey Row Troll Pub Under The Bridge's troll taking shape.

A few months ago it was announced that there will be a new pub coming to the Whiskey Row block in downtown Louisville. The so called Troll Pub Under The Bridge will be located on the Washington Street side of the development. According to City Properties Group, the pub will feature a 10 foot troll statue outside the establishment. There's a nice little video I found on Youtube, that shows the making of the troll.
The bar will be in the basement of the block. The owners plan to invest about a million dollars.

Louisville's Whiskey Row Lofts add Signage

The Whiskey Row Lofts development across the street from the KFC Yum Center adds outdoor signage to the building. The large black letters are facing the arena and spell out "Whiskey Row Lofts." The lofts part of the 19 Million dollar development should open up fairly soon. Most of the retail spaces have already been occupied. The latest development on the retail front was the announcement of an additional bar, called "Troll's Pub Under the Bridge" which will be located at the Washington Street side of the development. According to a Business First article, the bar will feature an eight foot troll sitting outside the establishment.

Louisville's Federal Attorneys Office Building Progress

Crews are currently working on the ceiling beams at the new U.S. attorneys building between 6th and 7th street on West Broadway. The buildings final height is 6 floors. So far workers only reached those six floors on parts of the building. The building is built upon 2 floors of parking. The steel structure on the east side of the building is still missing.

Construction Start of Louisville's "The Edge" condominiums at Liberty Green

As I was driving through the Liberty Green neighborhood near downtown Louisville, I noticed some new construction activity. Excavation as well as some foundation work has started at the site of where City Properties is supposed to build their "Edge" condominium project. The ground was broken here last year. "The Edge" is part of the home owner ship portion of the Liberty Green project. For more on the project as well as some renderings click on this earlier story:

http://louisvilledevelopment.blogspot.com/2010/10/edge-at-liberty-greens-groundbreaking.html

City Properties Parking Update

Just to cap off the week here's another look at a City Properties parking garage project. This is the one behind the Henry Clay near Fourth Street and Chestnut. Crews are currently working on the seventh floor. Eventually this garage will be encased by a hotel. The construction bid for the eight story hotel / condo building came out a few weeks ago.

Ice House Lofts Louisville Construction

Driving around downtown Louisville I've noticed some signs of construction at the backside of what will be known as Ice House Lofts. When finished The Sofo development on the 200 block of East main street is supposed to have 50 one bedroom apartments. It seems like this project is very much delayed. The construction might still be stalled. I drove past it on a saturday so I did not see any workers actually working. As you can see in the picture, they have put up construction particle board in all of the backside windows. I don't think that has been there before.

Norton Cancer Center Adds Bricks

The new Norton Cancer center on Floyd and Broadway is adding multicolored brick to the steel structure. They are also currently working on a connecting corridor to the rest of the Norton facilities. They seem to be on schedule for their summer 2011 grand opening of the 65,000 square feet addition. Driving down Floyd I saw construction just north of this side, but I may just be sewer work.

Mayor tours Downtown Louisville's new Eddie Merlot's

Yesterday the outgoing mayor of Louisville got a private tour of the new Eddie Merlot's on Fourth street and Muhammad Ali. Workers were putting on the final touches to the outside of the building, adding light fixtures in between the awnings. The restaurants interior build out is complete, with just the stocking of the giant temperature controlled wine room in the middle of the Restaurant remaining. Opening date is set for the 18th of January. The 11,000 square feet restaurant itself is split up into several separate dining areas. The walls feature large tiled pictures as well as several stained glass windows. There's a large bar facing the Fourth street side which has a seperate entrance, but also connects to the restaurant. Eddie Merlot's Louisville is currently hiring 100 workers. Prices for the food are around 30-50 dollars for a steak and I don't think that includes any sides.

Zirmed Garage Topped Out

One of the two City Properties Garages in downtown Louisville seems to be topped out. Last week construction crews removed the tall crane at the property on West Market. The structure tops out at 6 stories and will feature a gym facing Market Street. It looks like they are getting close to topping out the second garage as on fourth and Chestnut as well.

New Sign at Cardiovascular Innovation Institute

I just made a little observation. Coming down Muhammad Ali Blvd., I've noticed that the Cardiovascular Innovation Institute on the downtown University of Louisville Health campus added new signage. The new lettering is atop of their surgical facility. That building is fairly new as well.

Mozz: Louisville's newest restaurant now open

As I was driving around town last weekend, I saw a new restaurant opening up at Cobalt Marketplace on East Market Street. It's called Mozz. It uses the space previously occupied by Primo. With the restaurant in place it looks like the retail part of the Cobalt Marketplace is fully leased ever since AAA rented the space of the former Fresh Market. According to their website, Mozz is an Italian supper club and a Neopolitan pizza counter. Their website also says they're now open. Their prices range from $12 Tortellini to $95 porterhouse steak for two or four. 

Downtown Louisville's Eddie Merlot's Adds Signage

The Fourth street location of Eddie Merlot's added signage over the weekend. The steak house also added black awnings to the Starks Building. Interior work on the steak house's fifth location is still in full swing. The restaurant also added two revolving doors. One of them is facing Fourth street, the other one faces Muhammad Ali boulevard. Earlier this year I thought they tried to paint part of the Starks building brown. Turns out that was probably just the primer for a new black coat of paint.

The signage they just put up really fits in well with the rest of the signage at fourth street live. The big bulbs on it have kind of a retro feel to it. It reminds me a lot of the signage of O'Sheas near the arena.