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.

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

Louisville's newest Forever 21 now in business

The Mall St. Matthews latest addition has just opened its doors. After more than three years of vacancy, clothing store chain Forever 21 relocated into parts of the former Dillard's department store. Even though the chain already owned a smaller store near the food court, it now operates a more than 10 times bigger store across the mall. According to an older Business First article, the chain invested more than $3.3 million into its 109,000 square feet store.

Doc Crow's Louisville about to open

Main Street is just days away from adding yet another restaurant to its roster. Doc Crow's Smokehouse will open its doors on February 10th in the Whiskey Row development next to the KFC Yum! Center. The restaurant will feature southern style barbecue and seafood. It will also include a raw bar for oysters on the half shell. Their bourbon list will be quite impressive as the owners will offer 60 of them. The restaurant is just next door to O'Sheas and a future Sol Azteca Mexican restaurant. The restaurant is funded through a low interest loan of $120,000 by the city

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.

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. 

American Revolution Genealogy Center on Main complete?

As announced in 2008, the Sons of the American Revolution are in the process of relocating their headquarters to Main Street in downtown Louisville. It looks like part of the work has been completed. As you can see in the picture it seems like the S A R's Genealogy Research Library part seems to open for business. At least that's what the office desk in the front room suggests. Crews are still working hard on the museum part though. The museum part is located right next door to the research center. It will transform the "Fulton Conway & Co" building in the 800 block of west main into a history museum, adding yet another attraction to museum row.

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.

Fancy new sidewalk on Norton Healthcare plaza at Yum Center

With just one more day to go before the grand opening of the KFC Yum Center I noticed some fancy sidewalks. As soon as you step on to the newly named Norton Healthcare plaza right outside the arena you will know what kind of game the main tenant will play. The traffic light indicator bricks for blind people are shaped like a basketball. They also added a tower structure to the plaza indicating that now it's the Norton Health Care Plaza.

Sidewalk changes near KFC Yum Center

Over the last few weeks, worker have been installing a new sidewalk across the street from the KFC Yum Center. Unfortunately one of the first steps was to get rid of the trees that used to line this part of main street between second and third street. They were replaced by new lamp posts. The sidewalk itself was changes into some kind of checkerboard pattern with black and grey bricks. On the picture it's hard to tell, because the bricks are completely covered by construction dust.

KFC Yum Center Video board working

Driving past the arena today, I've noticed that the giant video board overlooking the plaza is now operational. One of the first animations running was a rotating cardinal bird mascot clip.

As you can see in the picture, there is one small panel not working. 

Since you can see the jumbo tron from the road I wonder if the arena has to limit what they can show on there. I remember a couple of years ago when the Kentucky center installed a digital billboard they had to comply with state regulations. They could only change the picture so much within a certain amount of time. From what I saw today, the new jumbo tron had moving images. I wonder if that might cause some trouble in the future.

New downtown Louisville office building complete

Louisville's downtown has a new 3 story office building. The building is located just north of West Broadway on ninth street. It was constructed using prefab concrete walls, which were than painted over.  The prefab pieces are identical to the ones used in a two story building on West Broad between 7th and 8th street, right next to the White Castle. Since that building houses medical offices, I wouldn't be surprised if the new building will also be used in such a way.

Republic Plaza Main Signage Up

Republic Plaza's main signage block is now in place. The structure towering over seventh street seems to be complete, even though I hope they still going to paint it. If you look closely you can see the structure displaying the logo has lots of bumps and dings. I am not sure whether that is supposed to look like that.

Currently they are still working on the entry way as well as the landscaping out front.

Coyle Commons Open For Business

Right next to the new Buffalo Wild Wings and Rite Aid on Veteran's Parkway in Clarksville you can find a small new strip mall. It's all part of Coyle Commons, aptly named after the neighboring car dealership. The area next to the car lot was supposed to be part of its expansion plans, but once real estate prices shot up, it was more lucrative to create more retail space. Coyle did expand though. Their new building is a refurbished building near the Outback Steakhouse in Clarksville.

Coyle Commons main tenant is a Verizon Store. The other spaces are still vacant. It also housed the Buffalo Wild Wings hiring office during the restaurant's construction. It has since been vacated again.

Buffalo Wild Wings Clarksville Now Open

The Buffalo Wild Wings in Clarksville has finally opened its doors. Its grand opening happened last week's day after Thanksgiving, which I think is a great day to open a restaurant, because when you have family at the house you don't want to cook, so you go out to eat. The store is located behind the new Rite-Aid drugstore on Veterans Parkway across the way from Best Buy. As I have mentioned before, the wings restaurants is a pretty looking true stand-alone version with a nice porch on the side.

Einstein Bagel now Open

Downtown Louisville's latest eatery is now in business. Einstein Bros Bagel's location at the Hyatt opened its door last week to welcome its first customers. Obviously people will flock to new places, but it looked like they seemed to be doing great business over the weekend. As you can see in the picture, almost all the seats are taken. But then on the other hand, how can you go wrong with opening a bagel shop outside a large hotel.

Grand Opening for New Albany's new YMCA

Saturday was the grand opening of New Albany's new YMCA. This marks the end of an eighty year history of not having a Y in New Albany since the previous one closed in the 1920's. The new facility boast three pools (a family fun pool, a therapy pool as well as an all purpose/competition pool), a three story climbing wall, an indoor track, an interactive play area and all the other givens you'd find at a Y. The gym is supposed to work as a catalyst for downtown development in New Albany. Architecture wise it's a very pleasing design, with lots of glass and natural light in the three story 2,000 sq ft lobby.

Green Building Louisville holds inaugural show

The Green Building on 732 E. Market in Louisville opened its doors for an art show for the first time last Saturday. The inaugural exhibition features work of Louisville artist Cynthia Reynolds. The Green building itself is one of the latest renovations completed on Market Street. Started in spring 2007, the mixed-use building will be the first commercial building in Louisville that will have earned a LEED platinum certification for its sustainability and environmental friendliness. Early next year a street side cafe called 732 Social will welcome patrons.

Jeffersonville's Beef'o'Bradys now open

Jeffersonville Town Center's first merchant is now open for business. The Beef'O'Brady's restaurant chain opened its doors for the first time last Monday. After years and years of planning, and trying to rent out a completed building, this marks a milestone in the history for the town center. As you can see in the picture, the L&N Federal Credit Union also has their "Coming Soon" sign up, so they are well on their way to being the second tenant in the shopping center.