Access Louisville
The latest news on Louisville, Kentucky from the staff of Louisville Business First. We look at trending issues in the Derby City from a business perspective. Join us each week!
Access Louisville
Louisville's new growth strategy
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Join us live: Our next live podcast, "Access Louisville: The State of Dining Out," is set for 4 p.m. April 21 at 500 West Jefferson. Three local chefs are coming on: Noam Bilitzer, of MeeshMeesh, Anne Shadle of Mayan Cafe and Lawrence Weeks of Murray’s Creole Pub. We’ll talk about issues facing the industry, including food costs, changing neighborhood dynamics and more. Tickets are available here.
Greater Louisville Inc. is out and One Louisville is in.
We go over the new economic development strategy on this week's Access Louisville podcast. The creation of One Louisville follows the merger of GLI and the short-lived Louisville Economic Development Alliance last month.
The new economic development agency debuted at GLI's final annual meeting on Wednesday. And LBF Reporter Michael L. Jones recently did an interview with One Louisville Board Chairman Matt Thornton.
On the show this week, we talk about what led up to the change and what to expect next.
After that we chat about some recent Southern Indiana news, including the sale of the former Hardee's in Jeffersonville — a high-profile location right at the entrance of that city. We also discuss a major reuse project in New Albany that could bring in new residential and retail as well as a potential roadblock for a solar power project in New Washington.
After a break, we get into some local soccer news, including the departure of Lou City FC's Danny Cruz. Cruz is taking a job in the MLS, leaving Louisville with an opening right as the season begins. We also talk about a recent report that estimates the value of National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) franchises, including Racing Louisville FC.
Access Louisville is a weekly podcast from Louisville Business First. You can follow it on popular podcast services including Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
Louisville has an all-new plan and a new team leading economic development. We're gonna get into it next on Access Louisville. Thanks for joining us. My name is David Mann, and joining me today are Olivia Strite. Hi guys, Michael L. Jones. How are you doing out there? And Steve Schmidt. Hello. Access Louisville is a weekly podcast from Louisville Business First. Each week we bring you the latest news and plenty of sharp opinions on what's going on here in Louisville, Kentucky. A few things before we get into it. First, this podcast is sponsored by Baird. Discover the difference Baird can make in your financial life at rwbaird.com slash Louisville. We'll hear more from Baird later in the show. Also, our next live podcast is set for April 21st at 500 West Jefferson Street in downtown Louisville. It's called Access Louisville, The State of Dining Out. We've got three local restaurant folks coming on. We've got Gnome Billitzer of Meesh Meesh, Ann Shadel of Mayan Cafe, and Lawrence Weeks of Murray's Creole Pub. We're going to talk about some of the issues facing the restaurant industry, including food cost, changing neighborhood dynamics, and much more. I'll leave a link in the notes for this show where you guys can buy tickets. If you're a local foodie, this is not one to miss, and uh we'd love to have you out for that. But let's get into this economic development news that I teased up front. Um, Michael, you've been following this story for a couple of months now. We both have. Uh, but it kind of reached a milestone this week. Greater Louisville Inc., or GLI, and the short-lived Louisville Economic Development Alliance have merged, and the new thing is called One Louisville. And uh, what prompted all this uh uh activity, I guess?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, well, you know, it's kind of like back to the future. Yeah. Uh, because uh before uh during the uh Abramson administration, Greater Louisville Inc., which is the Chamber of Commerce, uh ran everything, ran all the economic development for the region. Yeah, and then Greg Fisher uh created Louisville Fort, which handled it for the city, and then Louisville Fort led to the Louisville uh Economic Development Alliance or Lida.
SPEAKER_03That was under Greenberg.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, under Greenberg. So now they've merged into what great GLI and LEDA have merged into one Louisville. So now we have one organization that is handling all the uh economic development uh for the region, and partly it was because no one knew who did what. You know, a big thing that uh often hear from site selectors is where's the front door? Yeah.
SPEAKER_03I'm like, I want to come to Louisville.
SPEAKER_02Who do I talk to? Yeah, yeah. Who who do you call Lita first? Do you call and then we had business people who are members of both, and then you get donor fatigue? Yeah, yeah, that's true. And so um, you know, this was an attempt to have a unified voice and all the resources under one house. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, and uh I was there for the launch of one Southern Indiana. Uh glad to be there for the launch of one Louisville, too. Uh but uh all right, let's see here. So I guess uh you spoke with the new board chair, uh who that is Matt Thornton. Uh you talked to him this week. What were your takeaways from your conversation with Matt Thornton?
SPEAKER_02You know, I think that he uh kind of voiced the same thing about how there was a lot of redundancies and inefficiencies and just confusion in the marketplace. And so if if Louisville was just going to um, you know, take advantage of our opportunities that we have right now, then we needed to uh get our act together when it comes to economic development. And I have to correct you. You said we've been following this for months. I've been following this for four years. Yeah, but one of the first cover stories I wrote was about uh Louis Velfour and JLai and where's the front door? Yeah, that's true.
SPEAKER_03You have you uh that was the story you were referenced earlier today. You wrote it in 2022. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02I sent it out to somebody um today who responded to me about the story, and uh Matt, you know, shared the uh sentiment, you know, the business community needed more uh say in in a lot of initiatives that are going on.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Yeah, and uh so last night I went to the GLI annual meeting, the very last GLI annual meeting. Um I'm sure the one Louis will will probably pick up the torch and have an annual meeting, but uh um they kind of looked back at a lot of different things that GLI had done over the years. They had some videos. Um one of them was like so it's like Bill Samuels and Alice Houston talking about how they went to David Jones back when the Yum Center was built. And uh David Jones and John Schneider were apparently against having it downtown, but uh though they went to uh to uh to Jones was like tried to get him on board with it, and he did come on board with it, and uh and that that kind of led to that happening. So I think the key message, the key takeaway was how the organizations really brought people together, people uh who have a say, like David Jones, like John Schnott, or like um uh Bill Samuels at Maker's Mark. Uh and uh it really, you know, kind of I think that was a message they were trying to get across was just that that collaboration is something that's gonna benefit the area. And Matt Thornton got on stage uh for a few minutes, talked about why he has um taken this on, and he just you know talked about how he wanted Louisville to be a great place for his kids to grow up.
SPEAKER_02So you know, and you look at some of the other board members that were announced: Kim Halbauer from Fifth Third, Camilla Schroeder from uh Vance Freddy uh Mixed Concrete, and Carlos Sanchez from ATT Kentucky. And these are people that are really involved in a lot of organizations, bring a lot of ideas. And Matt told me, like, we're not really we're not just gonna combine the boards of the two old organizations. Uh, we're gonna seek out uh ideas from big and small businesses. Yeah. And so in April, they'll probably announce their full board.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. And I'm sure that we'll have a like a five-year strategy or something like that roll out eventually once they get everything kind of figured out. So uh yeah, it was uh interesting uh meeting that they had. Now, uh Steve, mm Matt Thornton, he he hadn't really been in the GLI scene in a while, but he's been in the entrepreneurial scene, right?
SPEAKER_04Yeah, so Matt is a uh he's a longtime member of the board of Endeavor. It's uh Endeavor Southeast. And I was just looking up, he's still listed as the board chair. I'm curious to know if he's gonna be gonna do that. He's a busy guy if he's got if he's got the uh you know one Louisville and and Endeavor. So yeah, so he's he's known by a lot of people before before this announcement. I mean, he's been known by a lot of people in the startup scene for for years. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Uh yeah, Matt Thornton had been uh been involved with the Thornton's brand, of course, that was started by his family, and then uh that got sold to BP, and now he's up with Thornton Capital, and and some of the uh some of the board leadership that he uh that he has as well. So interesting developments there. Uh we'll continue to watch that and you know, hope it works out. I hope they've they've I hope this is the one.
SPEAKER_02I think they've realized that you can't depend on re relocating companies that we really gotta invest in our like doors and and build the next Humana or the you know big Thwartons or whatever big company.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, exactly. I mean Humana Thwartons, both companies that were built up here. So um, all right. Well, we'll move on. Uh go across the Great Ohio River to southern Indiana. Uh we've got some southern Indiana news here. Uh of course, uh Libya, you wrote that the former Hardys in Jeffersonville sold. And, you know, first glance you're like a Hardy sold, who cares? But I think it's a big deal because of the location, right? It's right when you get into Jeff.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and as um some council members and Jeff have told me, it is the gateway to Jeffersonville. So, I mean, you know, when you think of Hardee's, it's it's gateway to the city.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Um for years it was, you know, it's like Hardy's and Thornton's right there. But I think Hardee's closed a while ago.
SPEAKER_02When I worked at the evening news, I used to used to pick up breakfast there all the time. Oh yeah, there you go.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's a staple, but it did close uh um in 2024, and so it's been sitting empty ever since, and it sort of became just um it it was online a lot, facing some scrutiny after some council members posted and was like, why or why is the site not being maintained whatsoever? There were massive potholes that I have driven through and did hurt my car in. No. So win some, lose most. But um there was it was basically sold um earlier this year to the to an LLC under the name of Court Av Development. It sold for it the two parcels sold for like$775,000. Um, but that LLC is linked to um a new Albany address um who was that was registered by uh John Springler. So he um we reached out to him, haven't heard about what their plans are. There are some certain specific chains that that location is not allowed to be. Um, so there haven't been any permits filed for any sort of development there, but um, we're just gonna have to wait and see.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Personally, I hope they knock it down, build some sweet new apartments. They've been doing a lot of that in Jeff. Um, there's one right right near there. You got that uh parcel of land we talked about a while back. It's not exactly across the street, but it's on Court Avenue, adjacent empty parcel of land could be could be something. They're talking about a grocery store potentially there.
SPEAKER_01So still manifesting that to this day. I live around there. Like, please, I could really use that.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I hope uh hope all this stuff works out.
SPEAKER_02But if it was in Louisville, it'd be a hotel. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03Honestly, you could build a hotel there because it wouldn't be that far of a walk to the Big Four Bridge. I guess it's kind of a walk, but uh a couple blocks. Um anyway, yeah, uh and and people throw a fit about apartment complexes. Um but Sprigler, you mentioned Sprigler, uh they have another project going on uh in New Albany that you recently wrote about. That's a big development,$37 million development, right?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so that one is the pageant district, and so that's gonna involve the adaptive reuse of a historic building and just some other new construction in the area. It's gonna create like 40 loft style apartments and then have a bunch of other retail commercial space, um, and then also more housing units across the street. So that is a big deal, especially for New Albany, because it's going to be right on like the outskirts of its downtown area. Um but basically at a New Albany Redevelopment Commission meeting um last week, they announced that they are able to start construction this spring. So the first phase is gonna be happening shortly.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, that sounds cool. I'm excited about that. Uh a lot of uh mixed-use kind of uh and retail proposals. I thought that sounded cool. Uh and then uh one more southern Indiana story here. You were up late, unfortunately, covering this uh big solar project. Um, and uh and that was in New Washington, right?
SPEAKER_01Yes, yeah.
SPEAKER_03So it was, but it's not now.
SPEAKER_01No, well, maybe. Who knows? I think they're gonna appeal after this. Um, but yeah, so that basically there is this project called the Idawild Solar Project. It's being developed by a company called Orion. They have a bunch of different solar farms across the nation. Um it was gonna be a$550 million project. Um, but during the Board of Zoning Appeals meeting, which Idawild Solar Project was just looking to extend the time they have to begin construction to five years rather than beginning in three years. So they were supposed to start in 2028, looking for 2031. Well, at this board meeting, which was full of people, I watched the live stream, but the room was still packed. Um, they heard four hours of public comment basically all against this project, people saying that it would devalue their property, um, it would create some public health and safety concerns, uh all these issues that were brought up, and the board ended up voting against um the special request extension that or the special exception that they had um been asking for. So it's kind of up in the air what's gonna happen next. The board does think that they're gonna appeal or that Ida Wild will appeal. Um so what was going to just be an extension for construction has now turned into some more issues for that project.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Sounds like a uh a knockdown drag out like we would have here in Kentucky.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I'm coming out to Indiana now.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, you would think it was mid-city mall. Yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER_01True.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Up uh the meeting went on until 11 o'clock last night, you said. And uh I'm tired.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_03I've been at those meetings. Uh they are they're rough when people, you know, get up, they want to say their piece. A lot of them say the same piece over and over again. But um, but yeah, I mean it's uh it's a blow for renewable energy. I guess we'll see what happens with uh getting that project back on the rails. Um and with that, uh let's go ahead and take a break. Uh hear from our sponsors, and we'll be back. We'll talk a little a few sports stories.
SPEAKER_00I'm Jim Allen, Vice Chair of Baird. For over a century, Louisville families have relied on Baird to provide customized financial solutions. In addition to wealth planning and trust services, Baird also offers extensive investment banking capabilities to clients ranging from large corporations to family-owned businesses. Finally, our public finance team provides valuable advice to municipalities, school districts, and academic institutions in need of capital. Yes, Louisville, Baird has you covered.
SPEAKER_03Okay, let's see here. First, uh let's I guess we'll talk soccer. I said sports stories, but I I I I lied. They're both soccer stories.
SPEAKER_02That sounded mean.
SPEAKER_03I'm I'm actually a soccer fan. Um that sounded mean, but I'm gonna keep that in. Um anyway, Steve, what's the uh what's the news uh with Danny Cruz? He's out at Lou City, he's been the uh manager, very winning manager at uh Lou City.
SPEAKER_04Um so yeah, so Danny Cruz, um, he's been the manager there since 2021. He actually replaced John Hackworth. He's got the most wins, and he's he's coached the most games, I believe, in Lou City history. So he he took that and he ran with it. You know, they won the uh the SHIELD last year. Um they they had the most points um in in uh team history, possibly USL regular season history. So they've got all these accolades. So he's gonna be an assistant coach at Minnesota United in the um in the major league soccer. But uh my guess, I don't have any uh knowledge here, but I'm guessing they probably said, hey, you can be our head assistant, and then you'll be next in line.
SPEAKER_03That's what happened with uh with Bev Yenez when she came here to Racing Louisville FC. She was assistant first and then took over in the the main coaching role. Um because I'm such a soccer fan, I've been on the Lose City Reddit, and I know that you know, I remember a few years ago when Lou City wasn't doing as hot as they were, people were calling for Danny Cruz's ouster. So um, you know, now they got their wish. I'm worried about it though. I mean, he's had a couple of good campaigns. They've had disappointing appearances in the playoffs where they lost in the very first round of the playoffs after winning the shield for the season. But um, but you know, now they've now they've got to figure out this next era.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, and I I think the thing is is from a business perspective, from an overall narrative, looking at a 10,000-foot view, is that the Lou City and several other teams in the USL are hoping to be called up to this top level that's gonna be starting to play in 2028. Uh and um I was on the impression it could happen within a few months. Um like sometime in this year, I expect it to happen. So now you kind of have, I'm not saying that this is going to derail them from doing that because they still have the stadium in place, they still have the history in place, uh, and they're still one of the um, I'd say the uh standard bearers of the USL championship league. But this definitely kind of uh makes things a little bit more interesting than I think the management would would like them to be. Um and so I still predict them to go to that that new that new conference that new upper level uh division one level. Um but yeah, this kind of if if you know it just kind of makes things more interesting than they need to be. Uh, you know, we'll see how the new how the new coaching staff is. You've got Simon Bird, who's gonna be the uh the uh the head coach, and he was a player at the U of L. And then his main assistant is Paulo Del Piccolo, who all the Lou City fans will know as being a uh um on the team as a as a starter for for many, many years. So you're gonna have um Byrd was the was was uh leading the uh Lou City Academy um for a while there. So they they these are not new names. These are guys who know Louisville, they know the community, and so I think that you know that that should bode well for them in their in in this season.
SPEAKER_03They won last night, they beat Southern Indiana FC, which probably probably they were uh probably pretty overmatched there, but uh yeah, they are they are undefeated so far in three games. That was a cup, uh cup play they're doing there. So uh and then the other story uh we had was Racing Louisville FC. You recently just uh found a report on how much uh all the uh NWSL franchises are worth and uh and how Racing Louisville stacks up.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, so I think the big thing is is that just how fast the NWSL, so National Women's Soccer League, how it's how it's growing. So the average worth of of uh a team is 184 million, which is up 77% from 18 months ago. Um and so back in 2023, teams were worth 16, 66 million. So that's that's a jump of close to 180 percent. Uh so the only uh women's uh professional league that is worth more would be the WMBA. Now it had racing's worth at 127 million, and so um if yeah, it's it's growing and growing. And um, yeah, the that was a that report was from Sportico, which uh they they're really uh they do these these uh analysis on on leagues. Sometimes they get the stats from the actual teams themselves. I think 10 out of the 14 teams or the 12 teams uh actually gave the the information willingly. The other ones they kind of had to just kind of work around. Um, but uh it it paints a pretty a pretty good picture.
SPEAKER_03All right. Well, I believe that is all we have for you this week. We'll go ahead and wrap up there. Before we go, let's do what we always do here and share our social media handles and let folks know where they can find us on social media. Olivia, I'll start with you.
SPEAKER_01You can find me mainly on LinkedIn under my name Olivia Estraight.
SPEAKER_02All right, how about you, Michael? I'm on Facebook and LinkedIn as Michael L. Jones.
SPEAKER_03And Steve, how about you? Yeah, I'm on LinkedIn at SP Schmidt. Yep, and you can find me on LinkedIn as well under my name David A. Man. If you like this podcast, please consider subscribing to it on all the popular services, including Apple and Spotify. Thank you very much, Olivia, Michael, and Steve. Uh, thank you, Bear, for the support. And of course, thank you guys for listening to us out there, and we will see you next time. Bye.