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.

Whiskey Row Demolition Starting Soon?

According to a Fox41 report, part of the roof of one of the buildings at Whiskey Row has collapsed. It looks like it's the back part of the yellow and white brick facade building. (second from the east). It is part of the building Todd Blue still owns. As I drove past there yesterday, I saw that the city moved the construction fence completely across the street. Washington Street is therefore closed to cars. You can still use the sidewalk across the street though. Employees from neighboring buildings were actually the ones who found out about the collapse first, as they were told to not park their cars on Washington anymore.
With a giant hole in the roof I imagine demolition should start soon. I don't know what a good rain and storm could do to the building and its neighbors.

Here's a LINK to the Fox 41 story, where you can see the hole in the roof.

Jeffersonville Canal District Rendering

The team in charge for planning the Jeffersonville Canal released a nice looking rendering of what the project might look like during their last meeting. In the rendering you can see the proposed convention center right next to Court Street. It also shows the Indiana approach to the Big Four Bridge. Once completed the Canal District in Jeff will feature 1,100 housing units, a 225-room hotel, 30,000 square feet of office space and 165,000 square feet of retail space. According to Jeffersonville's "One Great Community" magazine, going to the International Council of Shopping Centers trade show generated lots of interest in the retailing community.

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.

Chuy's Clarksville Taking Shape

The popular Tex-Mex chain Chuy's is getting closer to opening its second area location. After opening their first location last year near Oxmoor Center, their latest location will be just across the river in Clarksville. They will set up shop in the Clarksville Station shopping center. The center is located just off I-65 on Veterans Parkway right next to Walmart and Cheddars. This location will not be a stand alone location. Various reports mention opening dates ranging from March to April. It looks like the exterior is almost complete. If the first location is any indication, parking might be a challenge at the new location. According to a Business First article, the Texas based chain is leasing a 7,700 square feet of space.

Louisville's Cardinal Towne Tops Off One Corner

The Cardinal Towne condo/retail development near the campus of U of L is coming along nicely. Crews have pretty much topped off at the corner of Fourth street and Cardinal Blvd. On this side they've finished the four stories. Going east along Cardinal Blvd, you can see that there's still a lot of work to be done as only three floors are complete. For more on the project go to:

http://louisvilledevelopment.blogspot.com/2011/01/cardinal-towne-development-update.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.

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

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

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.