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.

Pics of New Parking Garage at Galt House

With the new arena opening the need for parking grew near the site. The Galt stepped up and built an 860-car parking garage across the street from the arena on third street. The building looks complete, but it is still missing gates at the main entrance. As you can see in the pictures, the bricks that were used are color matched to the ones used in the lg&e power station next door. The garage replaces an old power grid structure. The new building also improves the street scape beyond the garage and gives this block of third street an unified brick look, adding also some retail space, yet to be leased.

Parking Garage near Fourth Street Update

There are currently 3 large parking garages being built in downtown Louisville. One near the arena, that looks almost complete, one adjacent to the Zirmed tower near ninth street, and this one on Fourth and Chestnut. The latter two are both built by Louisville developer Bill Weyland and seem to progress at the same rate of building speed. The one on fourth street, as you can see in the picture, has progressed to the third floor. It is not located right at the edge of the property line in order to leave room for a planned Indigo hotel with 105 rooms as well as 30 apartments. That building is supposed to be built at a later date.

Clarksville's Suburban Lodge Update

Clarksville's new hotel cluster right next to I-65 in between Veterans and Lewis and Clark Parkway is slowly taking shape. Exterior work at the Suburban Lodge project seems to be complete. The only thing left to do on the outside is to put up signage.

Exterior construction at the close by Candlewood Suites is almost half way done. Construction on the third hotel to be built on that site has not yet started.

Holiday Inn Fern Valley Update

Here's a little construction update on the new Holiday Inn being built near the Ford plant across the Interstate near Fern Valley Road.

It looks like most of the windows are in. The exterior is probably 90 percent done. Last time I visited the site I was hoping for an interesting architectural feature at the top of the building. It turned out to be a quite standard cosmetic addition to the roof line. Other than that it's not a bad looking building when it comes to chain architecture. Since it's one of the first larger buildings you'll see coming into Louisville from the south, it's not bad, not awesome, but not bad.

Crowne Plaza Louisville Renovation Update

The conversion of the Executive West to a Crowne Plaza is in full swing. They are currently working on the entrance. As you can see in the picture, they are adding a new roof structure above the entrance. From the looks of it, this will be just a cosmetic addition to the hotel. They are also currently working on the porte-cocheres on all sides of the hotel. Once finished, the hotel with its 588 rooms will be one of the largest Crowne Plazas around. After spending over 26 million dollars, Al J. Schneider Company hopes to finish the renovation in December.

No More Louisville Downtown Holiday Inn

I was very surprised to see, that the owners of the downtown Holiday Inn were covering up the Holiday Inn logos last week. Apparently the downtown Holiday Inn dropped their affiliation. The temporary signs now say Hotel Louisville Downtown. They have covered up the logo on the south side of the building as well as the sign in the parking lot on Broadway. The big logo on the north side of the building still says Holiday Inn, but I'm sure it won't say that much longer. It seems a little weird since the hotel was recently renovated.
I can only speculate, but with the Holiday Inn chain's expansion recently (new hotels on Crittenden, as well as Fern Valley), it seems the downtown location probably did not meet their standards anymore. I just hope the now chain less hotel won't become a dive hotel, selling rooms for $33.95.

Louisville's Hotel Cluster Growing?

It looks like Louisville's hotel cluster at Blankenbaker and I-64 is growing. There is new construction going on next to the Country Inn and the Microtel. It is real brick construction and looks architecturally better than some other wooden construction. From what I can tell, it might be a Fairfield Inn, because I saw the word Fairfield written on some of the building supplies.

Clarksville Hotel Cluster taking Shape

Clarksville's new hotel cluster right off Veterans Parkway is starting to take shape. Eventually they will put three hotels on a parcel of land next to the Outback Steakhouse. There are currently two hotels under construction. So far one floor of a Candlewood Suites hotel is built. Next to it the Suburban Lodge already has four floors plus a roof up. Each of the hotels under construction will have 110 rooms. The third planned hotel will be a Holiday Inn Express with 90 rooms. Construction of that might start early next year.

Mystery Solved - It's a new Holiday Inn

For the longest time, I did not know what they were building at Fern Valley Road and I-65. A trip to the construction site solved the mystery. They are building a new Holiday Inn. It's actually a pretty impressive structure when it comes to hotels. It's all stone and has six stories. It also has a nice architectural feature on the top left which looks like a sky garden.
The question that now remains is what is going to happen to the Holiday Inn across the street from there. Are they going to keep it, tear it down, or sell it?