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. 
It looks like it's actually happening. Even a 5-7 season for the Louisville Cardinals can not stop the university's stadium expansion plans at Papa Johns. As announced earlier this year, construction was supposed to start right after the end of the regular season. And indeed, construction fences are up, construction equipment has arrived, and the first actual construction (more of a destruction) has started. What they are currently doing is to remove the steel fence around the east side of the stadium. This would be the side that would see most of the construction, as they will add an upper deck to the structure.
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.
Over at Shelbyville Plaza near Mall St. Mathews exterior construction of the addition has been completed. Workers are currently working on the interior of a couple new restaurants. As I have mentioned earlier, Jason's Deli as well as Buffalo Wild Wings will set up shop over here. BW3's will be moving here from there other St. Mathew location. 
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. 
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. 
Over at the construction site of the Kentuckiana Medical Center in Clarksville the heavy equipment has moved to the adjoining lot. It looks like things are wrapping up at the main building. From the looks of it we should expect some sort of final opening date to appear on the horizon here shortly. As for the construction equipment, they are currently working on another access road from the highway. They have already poured the gravel base for it. 
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.
The University of Louisville has installed a giant countdown clock towards the opening of the downtown arena. The so called Cardinal Countdown is located right their at Main and Second Street. As of Saturday the countdown had not been initiated. The sign also features an arena rendering. There are also several other banners posted around the construction site listing its financial supporters and construction teams.
Here's a little construction update on the new Holiday Inn being built near the Ford plant across the Interstate near Fern Valley Road. 
Last week the city of Clarksville released their plan of what is going to happen with the Colgate Plant. Eventually the site will become a mixed use development consisting of condominiums, shops, anchor tenants and a conference center plus hotel. The tentative name for the development is Clark's Landing. It will stretch from the Colgate site almost all the way to the river. Don't plan on seeing anything going up soon though. Planning is still underway and it could take up 15 years to develop it all. Yesterday the city released a couple of renderings of what it could look like. Here are some of the designs, don't count on it looking like that though. Oh yeah, I counted the floors on the hotel behind the clock. I counted 18. 
If you have driven by the Shively Center on Dixie Hwy and the Shawnee Exp lately you can see that it has gotten a total makeover. After Dillard's department store closed in 2007 the center was in desperate need for an anchor tenant. The city really wanted to locate a Kohl's store down here, but that never came to fruition. Eventually they found one in a Norton's Primary care facility. It will also include a obstetric and gynecologic practice. The city estimates daily visits to be about 21,000. It is scheduled to open sometime in the winter of 08/09.
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.
The first Louisville Einstein Bros. Bagel store is nearing completion of the interior work. The new store is located street side at the Hyatt hotel on 4th Street. The bagel shop will serve breakfast all day. It also has a lunch menu containing open face deli melts, wraps, pizza bagels, bagel dogs (sounds interesting) and other stuff. It'll be the second bagel place (if you count Panera as a bagel place) that will open up shop on 4th street within the last couple of weeks.
With the Green buildings inaugural show on its way (see previous entry) its time to look at what might be in the future for that part of eastern downtown. Plans still call for a farmers market next to building, which would be a pleasant addition to downtown grocery offerings. It might replace the food stands that were lost at the Haymarket property. 
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.
For the last couple of weeks, I've been wondering why nobody is working on the site of the Legacy Lofts project on East Main Street. I went ahead and took a picture, but waited to see whether work resumed. Tonight, I saw on the Business First preview on Fox41 that the project is officially stalled. Apparently, the developer cannot pay his contractors and has accrued half a million dollars worth of liens against him. 
The Villages of Audubon (near Audubon Hospital and St.X) are are on the verge of welcoming a new stand-alone tenant. Louisville's newest Chili's restaurant is about to open its doors at the shopping center. The building is complete and the chain is hiring. Yet another restaurant about to start interior construction in the Villages is a J.Gumbo. So far, there's only a sign in the window.
Louisville's Joe's Crab Shack is getting a new coat of paint. Painters have been covering the riverside restaurant in white paint for the past couple of weeks. I don't really think it was necessary, since it looked kind of shackish beforehand, but they probably had a good reason. I hope they finish what they started, because this one spot under their logo on the side has been left unpainted for a couple of days now.
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.
Recently, scaffolding was put up at one of the to-be-renovated buildings over on the 100 block of West Main Street. The building bound to be renovated is the one in between the earlier announced City Properties "Whiskey Row" development and the proposed "Iron Quarter" project. Once completed, the former warehouse will be the downtown location of some sort of restaurant/bar development by the people behind O’Shea’s Traditional Irish Pub and Flanagan’s Ale House in the Highlands. This would mark the first actual renovation on the site. The Whiskey Row project is said to start in 2009. A time table for the Iron Quarter project has not yet been announced.
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.
Over at the De Hart Paint building in the 900 block of east Main Street, there is still no movement whatsoever. I wonder if City Properties has abandoned the idea of renovating that structure altogether. It was announced at least two years ago that they wanted to turn that building into 7 condos as well as 11 rental units. All we can see so far is a faded poster of the renderings. I am afraid that City might have shifted focus towards more lucrative projects like Whiskey Row near the arena and their under-construction Zirmed Gateway Tower. Back in 2006, it sure did sound like renovation efforts were imminent.
As announced in February, the Sons of the American Revolution will turn the Fulton Conway Building on West Main Street (across the street from the Louisville Slugger Museum) into their national headquarters. When I last checked, they put some of their interior renderings into the windows for you to see what it'll look like once the building is complete. They have even more renderings on their website. The lower one is courtesy of that site (http://www.sar.org/news/building.html). In the photo I took, you can see their future library. 
This is already the second year for the Cyclocross Grandprix to come to Louisville. It is being held this weekend at Champions Park at Zorn and River Road. The event is one of the most important cyclocross events in the US attracting bike riders from all over the country and world. If you have never seen a cyclocross event, you should come and check it out. Riders go on a cross- country course zig zagging through the park. At certain intervals of the course, riders have to dismount their bikes to cross obstacles. It is really fun to watch, and it also proves that Louisville is a sports city that can host major events like this after all. For results of the race go to http://www.usgpcyclocross.com/.
Clarksville's as well as southern Indiana's first Buffalo Wild Wings is the last building to be completed at the newly built Coyle Commons shopping center. The new Buffalo Wild Wings is a stand- alone restaurant which might be another first for the area since I can't think of another one in Kentuckiana. Most of the restaurant's locations in Louisville are in strip malls, except the one on Bardstown Road. The southern Indiana location will have 6,030-square-feet and a nice little patio area. By the time it's all built, the company will have spent almost two and a half million dollars on the project. It's located right next to Coyle's car dealership near the west end of Veteran's Parkway. You can't really see it from the road though, since it's kind of hidden by a new Rite-Aid pharmacy.
Here's a look at the new signage on the side of the parking garage at Republic Plaza. There's also a smaller version of it on the side of the building on the top floor. We can probably expect the same kind of signage to go up on the front of the building. 
It looks like Stoplite liquors on River Road near the Tumbleweed is about to leave its current location. They will move across the street into a brand new strip mall. I am wondering what they are making room for, since I have not heard much about River Park Place expanding that way. Nor did River Park Place start building anything on the land they already own. 
It looks like the north tower of Zirmed Gateway Towers is almost topped off. Construction has reached the 10th floor over there. Workers are currently working on the eleventh floor of the south tower. So they are still one floor shy of topping off the whole building. They are also currently putting in window frames on the third floor, after they've completed the first and the second.
The transformation of the legal arts building into a more modern office building is almost complete. The paint job is done, and some of the new signage is up on the side of the building as well as the parking garage. What is still missing is the signage on the front as well as a nice entrance overhang. 
This morning at 9 you can see a little part of the former LG&E substation still standing. By the time I went by there again around 5, that part was gone too. So say goodbye to the substation, and let's hope we will soon see some real "concrete" construction starting at the arena site. I have never seen the arena site from this angle, but on the picture it actually looks like there is enough room to built an arena. I had my doubt at first, but with all the buildings gone, you can actually see how much room there really is.
Workers at the Kentuckiana Medical Center off of Veterans Parkway in Clarksville seems to have finally completed the exterior. But if you look through the windows you'll notice that the inside is far from being ready to welcome its first patients. The center was supposed to open late summer 2008, but that date has passed, so now we are just going to have to see when it opens. Once completed the center will have 40 to 60 beds as well as a level 1 and 2 ER. There was also some medical offices in a different building planned on the site, but work on those has, as far as I can tell, not started. 
Workers are putting together the atrium at Southeast Christian Church's Jeffersonville satellite campus. It seems like all the exterior brick work has been completed. The church's website tells us that construction is a little behind. The official opening date was pushed back from fall 2008 to winter 2008. The church will serve Southeast's 1200 or so southern Indiana members, hoping to attract even more Indianians. Once completed the 85,000 square foot facility can seat almost 1400 people. This expansion might just be the beginning for Southeast as they are planning three or four more churches in the greater Louisville area.
There's a new building ready to be populated at the Eastpoint Business Center. It is a nice but average looking three story building. It only took just over a year to complete, since the ground breaking was held June of 2007. Back then it was a speculative business project, and I am not sure if there are any tennants yet. The building is located on Eastpoint Parkway.
As I have told you a couple of days ago, Baptist is building an outpatient hospital just west of I-265 near the Old Henry Rd. exit. Now I am pleased to tell you that Jewish is building an outpatient center at the same exit as well. Theirs is located just east of the exit. From the rendering I can tell that it's going to be called Jewish Medical Center Northeast. It's projected opening date will be the Summer of 2009. The center does not appear to be as big as the Baptist Eastpoint. It only has four stories. 
From the outside it looks like Baptist Healthcare System will be able to meet its Fall deadline for its new outpatient surgery hospital. The new Baptist Eastpoint, on Easpoint Pkwy, will feature physicians offices, a women's imaging center, cardiovascular imaging, as well as a physical therapy component. Most pleasing about the center is the architecture. It is a really neat looking 5-6 story building. You can see it from I-265 near the Old Henry Rd. Exit. In the next couple of days I'll show yet another outpatient center in the East End. The healthcare coverage out there is really growing.
With construction money in hand, and the old substation almost gone, pre-construction of the arena has started. Workers are digging holes and putting steel beams in them. I am not a construction guy, so I do not know the exact term for the work they are doing, but it looks like real construction to me. 
If you have travelled through downtown Louisville lately you might have seen the plastic wrapped signs around the central business district. Now the plastic is gone and we can see that Louisville now has new signage. The signs point to various parts of downtown, such as Slugger Field and the various medical and business districts. The same signs, just in a different color, can be seen in Old Louisville as well. One of them can be found right off the St. Catherine street exit ramp.
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.
The new retail buildings at Shelbyville Road Plaza are taking shape. The future home of a Jo Ann Fabric and Craft store, the first in Louisville, looks almost complete. Other tenants will include a Buffalo Wild Wings and a Jason's Deli. The Buffalo Wild Wings will move there from Saint Matthews Station just down the road. The Jason's Deli restaurant is kind of a riddle to me. It already has a store on Hurstbourne near Shelbyville Rd. I don't understand why they want two stores so close together, even though their food is pretty awesome.
Louisville's Zirmed Gateway Tower now has windows. Workers recently installed shiny new panes of bluish glass on the bottom floor of the high rise. I almost think it's a little too soon for that, since there are still plenty of hammers to be dropped until the building is topped off. Besides, the exterior of the building is still missing as well.
Jeffersonsville Town Center is getting pretty close to celebrate its first tennant's grand opening. The work at the new Beef'o'Brady's location has been steady ever since the city and the developer held their big press conference a couple of weeks ago. Work for the new bank, on the other hand, seems to be kind of slow. At least I haven't seen much done over there. 
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'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.
