We get some perspective from a Louisville CEO on this week's Access Louisville podcast.

Logan Pichel, president and CEO of Republic Bank & Trust, is on this week's show. (He also recently made our Power 50 list of the area's most powerful executives.) We cover a little bit of everything including diversity, equity and inclusion, mergers in the banking industry and banking under the new administration of Donald Trump. 

In a period where stories out of Washington D.C. seems to be lighting up news feeds on an hourly basis, Pichel discussed the need to focus on his company's mission.

"You don't run the bank for the administration, you run it for the longterm franchise value of the organization," he said. "Administrations change. Not a lot has changed in our strategy." 

He suspects a looser regulatory environment will likely be in place as a result of the new administration. He could also see more consolidation in the sector — "although I will tell you that we just bought a bank two years ago under the previous administration." 

Pichel was referring to Republic Bancorp's (NASDAQ: RBCAA) acquisition of CBank for approximately $51 million in cash in 2023. 

"It got approved quickly and it was a great experience," he said. 

We also get into talking about Louisville's economy — which has taken some hits of late particularly with the news that KFC U.S. is leaving Louisville for Plano, Texas. The news of Humana Inc.'s move out of its namesake tower on Main Street hasn't bolstered confidence either.

"It is worrisome. You don't want to see exits. You want to see entrance into the community — especially with companies with such great reputations as KFC and Humana. We moved associates downtown in the last year or two."

"I also believe in momentum. Once you start to see more companies coming to Louisville, more people will come here. It's a great community," he said, noting he just moved here 4 and half years ago. Housing is not as expensive here as it is in other places and travel is easy.

"I just think we need momentum. We've got good leadership. Our mayor is fantastic. Craig Greenberg's great. And he's pro business. And he wants to bring new companies in. We just have to start getting some momentum," he said.

"I know we'll get there. I'm encouraged we'll get there. We all just wish it was a little faster."

Access Louisville is a weekly podcast from Louisville Business First. It's available on popular podcast services, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify, which are linked above. You also can listen to the show in the player above.

We chat about a couple of apartment developments in the area on this week's Access Louisville podcast. 

But we also discuss why these proposals seem to touch off so much controversy. 

Specifically on the show we talk about two apartment development projects: One in a former school house in the Highlands and another near Highlander Point Shopping Center in Floyds Knobs, Indiana. 

Through the years, we've heard that Southern Indiana is generally friendlier for development. But in this case, the Indiana development is attracting more complaints from residents than the one in Louisville. We get into chatting about why people oppose developments like this — including traffic, density and population growth. 

We move on to some lighter topics after that including some restaurants and retail news. The new Bourbon & Burgers and the PGA Superstore are both opening soon in St. Matthews. 

And we chat about music a bit considering that the iconic Headliners Music Hall is on the market. We also make note of some of the acts on the lineup at Louder than Life this year.

Access Louisville is a weekly podcast from Louisville Business First. It's available on popular podcast services, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify, which are linked above.

The hits just keep coming for economic development in Louisville — most recently with the news that KFC is leaving town.

That's one of five recent examples of some absolutely abysmal economic news coming out of Louisville. 

Before that it was Papa John's flight from Louisville to Atlanta. And the news that Humana Inc. is vacating its Main Street tower in Downtown Louisville. You can throw the closure of the Brown-Forman Cooperage and Diageo's ending of bottling operations at Stitzel-Weller Distillery onto the bad news pile too. 

Those are just the big, semi-recent ones. Add it all up and it doesn't look good for the Derby City. 

So what's happening here? We give our best shot at an explanation on this week's Access Louisville podcast, which you can check out in the player above.

In short, it's not all just one thing. Louisville is on the wrong end of some recent business trends. 

Obviously, the trends that led restaurant companies (KFC and Papa Johns) out of town are different than those causing the distillers (Diageo and Brown-Forman) to shut down facilities. 

In the case of the former, it seems restaurant companies want greater access to the world than Louisville can readily provide (a few site selection professionals we spoke with gave us some great insight on this recently.) And in the case of the latter, there's a global spirits downturn and threats of a trade war that are impacting Kentucky's bourbon industry. 

As for Humana, it's in step with a lot of companies that are just needing less office space in the wake of remote work. 

So the question is less: What's going on here and more what do we do about it? 

More on this weeks show

We don't just lament Louisville's losses on this week's show. We also go over some good news that has taken place as well. It seems that  things are moving for a redevelopment project at Louisville Gardens, which will be home to the film industry. There's also new apartment building going up that could be a real boon for Downtown Louisville.

And we've got some news on massive upgrades planned at Churchill Downs. 

A big time change coming to U.S. soccer could mean Louisville's best opportunity for a new top-tier sports team. And we chat about it on the Access Louisville podcast. 

As LBF reported on Thursday, The United Soccer League is planning to launch a division one professional soccer league which will directly compete with Major League Soccer at the top of the U.S. soccer pyramid. LouCity FC currently plays at the second tier of the pyramid in the USL Championship league. While nothing has been officially announced, there are strong hints that Louisville would move up to the top once the new league is launched.

As we talk about on the show, USL President Paul McDonough mentioned Louisville soccer specifically in two separate press interviews — one with the Athletic and one with the Guardian. 

We talk about why this could be an exciting development — though not without it's growing pains. As we discuss, Lynn Family Stadium, where LouCity FC plays, can get tight when too many fans show up. There's also the question of the long-awaited development that was supposed to happen around the stadium — something that's surely among Louisville's biggest development opportunities.

We also spoke about Greater Louisville Inc.'s new economic development strategy. The plan includes a talent attraction strategy around wooing people back to Louisville who used to live here — referred to as boomerangs. That's already been something that occurs naturally in a lot of cases. 

And we talk about Trevor Pawl, the new CEO of Louisville Economic Development Alliance (LEDA), who seems to be bringing fresh perspective to the realm. We wrap up with a discussion about Humana CEO Jim Retchin, who spoke at GLI's annual meeting this week.

Access Louisville is a weekly podcast from Louisville Business First. It's available on popular podcast services, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Does Louisville hate big ideas? We get into that on the Access Louisville podcast.

A proposed revamp of the Belvedere is what gets us talking about the topic. Renderings of the project were recently unveiled, which showcase a unique and distinct design, on Louisville's waterfront. The designs were created by London-based Heatherwick Studios, which is also behind the Vessel in New York or Little Island in Brooklyn.

There's been a few pieces of news on the project including it's cost and timeline. Mayor Craig Greenberg has also appointed an executive to lead the effort.

But the reception on social media has largely been negative. 

Yes, we realize that people generally use social media to complain but it got us talking about other big Louisville ideas that have seemingly been met with scorn — Museum Plaza, the Big Four Bridge, a Mid-City Mall redo and so on. Even when the Clark Memorial Bridge got a coat of paint that wasn't grey, people seemed upset by it. 

We have our theories as to why — everything from nostalgia for the way things used to be to just plain grumpiness. 

Also on this week's show we chat about a new art installation, called Spark, coming to Louisville's Portland neighborhood that's surely to get people talking. 

We chat about the upcoming sale of the Humana tower and what might become of it. And we update you on the progress of the former Urban Government Center on Barret Avenue.

Access Louisville is a weekly podcast from Louisville Business First. It's available on popular podcast services.

We chat about several local construction projects on this week's Access Louisville podcast.

Topping the discussion is what looks to be a new grocery store at 201 Blankenbaker Parkway. LBF Reporter Joel Stinnett spotted a demolition permit that had been filed to tear down part of the structure there (which used to be home to a Winn-Dixie and Walmart Neighborhood Market) in order to make way for something new.

The permit hints at a retailer going into the space and it's the right size for one — though nothing has been confirmed yet. 

After that we also chat about Kentucky Educational Television (KET) opening its new studio on Main Street, which Digital Editor Zak Owens got a look at earlier recently. 

Also on this week's show we talk about demolition planned at the former EMW Women's Surgical Center at the corner of 2nd and Market streets. A new 27-story hotel tower has been discussed for that space in the future, but for now the building is being demolished for a parking lot, as Stinnett reported recently. 

After that we go talk about Stinnett's recent LBF cover story on the largest development opportunities in Louisville, which include the Urban Government Center on Barrett Avenue, the Starks Building in Downtown Louisville and the area surrounding Lynn Family Stadium. You can check out the full story on that development to-do list here.

In the second half of the show we switch gears and chat about a handful of local sports stories, including a new platform that allows fans to raise money for college sports recruits. LBF Reporter Stephen P. Schmidt has details on that program here. We also go over news about a former Louisville City FC player going to the MLS and the departure of UofL volleyball coach Dani Busboom Kelly.

Access Louisville is a weekly podcast from Louisville Business First. It's available on popular podcast services, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

We talk strategy with the CEO of a popular Louisville attraction on this week's Access Louisville podcast.

DeVone Holt has been at the helm of the Muhammad Ali Center, as president and CEO since September. He's the first in the organization’s history to hail from Louisville. On the show he talks about how he plans to both foster local relationships and expand the organization's reach. 

“It really has been a whirlwind of activity,” Holt said on the podcast, which was recorded with LBF Editor-in-Chief Shea Van Hoy in late December. Holt spoke about the immense honor of spreading Muhammad Ali’s legacy around the world, calling it “literally one of the greatest honors of my professional career.” 

Ali is revered by people from all walks of life and continues to inspire the center’s mission, he said.

Holt worked for Goodwill Industries of Kentucky prior to his CEO appointment and helped shepherd the organization's $50 million Opportunity Campus development in West Louisville. He speaks about his roots growing up in West Louisville before attending Doss High School. That's something we reported in our recent holiday feature on where several local executives went to high school.

The Muhammad Ali Center welcomed about 150,000 guest in 2023, ranking it among the area's largest tourist attractions. Access Louisville is a weekly podcast from Louisville Business First. It's available on popular podcast services, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

The bourbon news doesn't seem to stop flowing.

We chat about a major strategy change for Louisville-based distiller Brown-Forman Corp. (NYSE: BF-A, BF-B) on this week's Access Louisville podcast. The discussion was spurred by the recent news that the company, which owns Jack Daniel's, Woodford Reserve, Old Forester and other spirits brands, is laying off 12% of its global workforce and shutting down its Louisville cooperage.

You can read more about the news from Brown-Forman here, as well as some reaction from the industry on the cooperage closure specifically.

We chat about what the news means for local tourism. 

Bourbon sales are undoubtedly slowing down. But the famed Kentucky spirit still has plenty of fans that are up for a visit. You can check out our most recent list of the area's biggest bourbon attractions here. 

We also discuss a local Hemp company that's considering a similar tourism-driven facility in Louisville. 

After the bourbon and hemp talk, we switch gears to talk movies — which is becoming an emerging industry in the state. 

You can read about a movie being shot in Louisville, "Dead Man's Wire" that has received $4 million in tax incentives from the state of Kentucky here. You can also read more about Kentucky's emerging film industry in this Q&A with Soozie Eastman founder and president of 502 Film and chair of the Louisville Film Commission. Eastman made a guest appearance on Access Louisville last year.

Access Louisville is a weekly podcast from Louisville Business First. It's available on popular podcast services, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify, which are linked above. You also can listen to the show in the player above.

We chat about what's next for the bourbon industry on this week's Access Louisville podcast.

Specifically, LBF Bourbon Reporter Stephen P. Schmidt is on the show to talk about the coming year for the industry. Schmidt recently talked to several people in the industry for a two-part story on the year ahead in this signature Kentucky space. He heard a little bit of everything from speculation on acquisition deals to expanding the ways in which brands sell to their consumers. You can read part 1 of Schmidt's bourbon prediction story here, and part 2 here.

A key takeaway: Last year was a challenging one for the industry — at least compared to the boom years of the last decade — and that's expected to continue in 2025.

After that, we chat about a couple restaurant stories with Reporter Michael L. Jones. He tells us about a new location for popular Mexican restaurant I Love Tacos. He also shares an update about the former Pints & Union Space in New Albany, which will soon be home to a new tavern.

Finally we wrap up the show with a discussion of Louisville's Hometown Heroes banners. The sepia-toned banners have for years decorated the sides of Louisville buildings with the faces of famous and notable Louisvillians. A new class of Hometown Heroes was recently announced, as Digital Editor Zak Owens recently reported. (Fun fact: One of the Hometown Heroes Honorees, Ken Clay, founder of Corner of Jazz, co-authored a book with Jones, 2024's "Soulful Sounds of Derby Town." You can hear Jones talk about the book on our show here.)

Access Louisville is a weekly podcast from Louisville Business First. It's available on popular podcast services, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

We've open up our crystal ball, blew on the circuit board and put it back together.

Surely, now, we're ready to predict the future. 

As we have the last few years, we start another year of the Access Louisville podcast by making predictions for what we think will happen in the area over the next 12 months. 

We tackle a large range of topics in our predictions — construction, sports, business trends bourbon and more. You'll have to listen in on your favorite podcast streaming app to hear all of them but here are just a few to give you a taste: 

• Mid-City Mall will be sold (it is on the market after all) but there will be legal battles related to what is developed there;
• A new building conversion program will finally get work moving on the Starks building redevelopment project;
• Louisville will make a push to land a WNBA franchise considering expansion plans for the league;
• And Buc-ee's will continue it's expansion into Kentucky with a location between Louisville and Cincinnati.

Keep in mind these are just predictions, based on familiarity with trends in the area and not any inside knowledge. 

The predictions show is a favorite Access Louisville tradition.

In fact, last week on Access Louisville, we traveled back in time to our 2024 predictions to see how they aged in hindsight. We only got a few right

Access Louisville is a weekly podcast from Louisville Business First. It's available on popular podcast services, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify, which are linked above. You also can listen to the show in the player above.