Louisville Business First and Access Louisville did a poll asking: What is the most important project in Louisville? We talked about the results of the poll all these projects this week's Access Louisville podcast. Here's a look at the top five priorities that Louisville must take action on. 

1. Finding a new use for the Humana building: In early 2024, Humana Inc. announced plans to vacate the iconic tower and consolidate its local employees in the recently renovated Waterside building and neighboring Clocktower building. The Humana tower is now for sale and Chicago-based Cushman & Wakefield U.S. Inc. has been retained as the exclusive listing agent for the building — a 27-story structure at 500 W. Main St.
2. Two new Downtown hotels:  Louisville Business First broke the news on both of them. The most recent one is a 1,000-room hotel tower at the now-vacant site next to the Muhammad Ali Center, which is in the “predevelopment” phase by Louisville-based Poe Cos. There’s also a 300-room, 27-story hotel tower being planned by Zyyo, led by founder and CEO Nick Campisano.
3. Converting the Starks Building: Back in 2020, Underhill Associates unveiled a plan to convert the empty office building at the corner of Muhammad Ali Boulevard and Fourth Street into apartments with first-floor retail. As proposed, the primary tenants would be artist and the units would be offered at rates affordable for that income.
4. Residential/retail development near Lynn Family Stadium:  In March, Soccer Holdings, the parent of Louisville City FC and Racing Louisville FC, announced an agreement with Denton Floyd Real Estate Group and LDG Development to build a mixed-use development with 200 luxury apartment units along with dedicated retail spaces on the first floor.
5. A new use for the former Jeffboat site: Right now, it's a massive, rustic slab of concrete but it could be so much more. The vision is for a $1 billion mixed-use development transforming a former shipyard in Jeffersonville, Indiana, into a waterfront residential and commercial area. Columbus, Ohio-based Thrive Cos. is the developer. Site work and demolition have received grant money from the state of Indiana but it's all still in the early stages.

The show, sponsored by Baird, was episode 300 of Access Louisville. It was recorded in front of a live audience at the Baird Conference Center on the 29th floor of the 500W building in Downtown Louisville. 

The program included three special guest: 

• Earl Winebrenner, owner and president, Winebrenner Capital Management
• Michael Gross, development director, LDG Development 
• John Hollenbach, managing partner, Hollenbach Oakley

The show was moderated by me and Joel Stinnett, senior reporter at Business First. You can find a few quotes from the our panelist in below but be sure to check out the program in the player above for the full show. Access Louisville is also available on popular podcast services, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify. 

Derby weekend won't be the same next year, following the news that Churchill Downs is pushing the running of the Kentucky Oaks back to 8 p.m. or later.

We chat about the impact of that on this week's Access Louisville podcast. 

Churchill Downs announced the change on Thursday, July 24.  Typically post time for the race, which runs the day before the Kentucky Derby, is scheduled shortly before 6 p.m. NBC executives say the race will move to NBC and Peacock, and the primetime post will allow for a “spectacular twilight finish.”

Our next live podcast is July 28: Join us as we take look at Louisville's most important development projects. Registration here.

The big impact will likely be how restaurants and bars evolve their dinner service. They're obviously losing a few hours — though it's hard to imagine that restaurants will actually be empty at dinner time on Oaks Day. We'll surely be watching how restaurants respond come next May.

We also chat about how the Derby Week experience has evolved over the years as it becomes more of a "bucket list" type of event for the world. Oaks Day used to be known as the day for locals to come to the track but that hasn't been the case for some time. Even Thurby is a scene, nowadays. For better or worse, locals are much more likely to be spotted walking around at 502'sDay at the track.

Reporter Joel Stinnett also gives us an update on a recent project at the track — albeit a behind the scenes one. 

Later in the show we shift gears to talk about gas station food. 

The popular gas station Wawa opened recently in Louisville — bringing out a number of fans. We also got the news that a Florida gas station, Nick & Moes, known for its fried chicken, is opening locally. That gets us talking about favorite gas station foods as well as the cult following that many of these chains have managed to cultivate. 

Access Louisville, sponsored by Baird, 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 can also listen in the player above.

The hard stuff keeps flowing, in spite of potential hard times ahead.  

We chat about the latest with the Kentucky Bourbon industry on this week's Access Louisville podcast. 

LBF Bourbon Reporter Stephen P. Schmidt is on the show to give us the latest on Chicken Cock Whiskey (yes, they realize they have a funny name.) The bourbon brand built a tasting room in Bardstown a year ago and is now planning to open another location in NuLu. Schmidt got the scoop on the new development from a company executive after it came to light in a legal ad. 

“We found a great space and a great part of town that is vibrant and growing,” Tyler Rothenberg, vice president of marketing for Grain & Barrel Spirits, CCW’s parent company, told us recently.

Our next live podcast is July 28: Join us as we take look at Louisville's most important development projects. Registration here.

Schmidt also got a look at Heaven Hill Brands new corporate office in the ShelbyHurst development in Louisville in the last few weeks. During a visit he had a chance to speak with the family behind Heaven Hill about what the new space means for them.

We also chat about the recent sale of Dueling Barrels Distillery out of Pikeville, Kentucky. And we discuss Whiskey House — a massive new contract distilling venture that's based in Elizabethtown, Kentucky.

Late in the show we talk about the demolition of the Executive Strike & Spare at the Kentucky Expo Center. And we give you a few recommendations on where to bowl in Louisville.

Access Louisville, sponsored by Baird, 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 can also listen in the player above.

Our next live podcast is July 28: Join us as we take look at Louisville's most important development projects. Registration here.

Affordable housing is an issue affecting many communities in the country, including Louisville. We get into some of the factors behind it on this week's Access Louisville podcast.

Elizabeth Strojan, executive director of the Louisville Metro Housing Authority, joins the program to give us her insights on the issue. You might not realize how many people in Jefferson County are impacted by the Authority's work — which is something Strojan admits surprised her too. It directly serves 30,000 people in the county.

Strojan and LBF Editor-in-Chief Shea Van Hoy go over a number of topics on the show, including reactions to the recent Big Beautiful Bill — passed by Congress and signed by President Trump — as well as affordable housing needs. 

They also talk about the reaction that new affordable housing proposals often garner — specifically when it comes to density. 

"It's really the same everywhere," Strojan said. She recalled that even while working in New York City in affordable housing finance, neighbors opposed dense housing developments.

"We're talking about a densly built city where people are scared of density," she said. "I think it's unfortunately a part of human nature to fear change and fear the unknown. The best way to get people supporting affordable housing is to build the affordable housing. Because they see the sky doesn't fall."

Strojan also talked about what's next for the Dosker Manor public housing complex.

She said it's unfortunate that it has to be demolished but, after a physical needs assessment, there didn't look to be a way to save it. Right now, the authority is in the process of relocating residents (about 200 remain). The three highrises and the former First Link grocery story will be demolished and several hundred units will be rebuilt (which won't be as dense as before.) 

"Overall we want obviously to increase the supply affordable housing. But that level of very high needs population in one city block was not sustainable for an organization like ours," she said.

You can hear the full interview on the show. Access Louisville, sponsored by Baird, is a weekly podcast from Louisville Business First. It's available on popular podcast services including Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

We take a trip to the Hoosier State on this week's Access Louisville podcast.

Our discussion revolves around some of the economic goings on in Clark and Floyd counties. LBF recently took a deep dive into trends in the area for a section we called Southern Indiana spotlight.

To start, we chat about new home development, which has taken off despite higher interest rates affecting housing affordability 

New single-family home inventory grew by 8.8% between April 2024 and April 2025 in Clark, Floyd and Harrison counties, Glenn Hockersmith, a Realtor and broker with Schuler Bauer Real Estate, told LBF in a recent report. Despite the increased supply in the area, the average number of days on the market for these homes plummeted 12.9% during the same period. 

River Ridge Commerce Center, a 6,000-acre commercial and industrial park in Jeffersonville that produced an estimated $3.04 billion in economic output in 2024, has a lot to do with that growth. But we also discuss how the various school systems in the region play a role. 

On the show, we also talk a restaurant boom in New Albany, including something new heading into the former Toast on Market space. 

We chat about the backstory on Hidden Hill Nursery & Sculpture Garden, which recently hit the market. We discuss a new recreational trail in Borden, Indiana, which is supposed to eventually connect to Mitchell, Indiana (and even up to Indianapolis at some point.) And we go over the plans for Origin Park, which we recently toured. 

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

GE Appliances President and CEO Kevin Nolan says a move to bring expanded laundry machine production to Louisville, from China is part of the company's ‘zero-distance’ business strategy.

We talk about the move and the strategy with LBF Senior Reporter Joel Stinnett on this week's Access Louisville podcast.

As Stinnett reported on Thursday, GE Appliances is spending $490 million to expand its local footprint and create an additional 800 full-time jobs at Appliance Park. The investment will move production of the GE Profile Combo Washer/Dryer and the GE Profile UltraFresh Front Load Washer from China to Building 2 at Appliance Park, located at 4000 Buechel Bank Road.

The strategy seeks to make appliances as close as possible to our customers and consumers and "aligns with the current economic and policy environment,” Nolan said in a news release announcing the investment.

GE Appliances is Louisville’s eighth-largest employer, according to Louisville Business First research, with 8,400 local employees. The company has been at Appliance Park, which is more than 6 million square feet on 750 acres, since 1953. The park houses GE Appliances’ technology and engineering center, industrial design, distribution center, warehouse operations and production of washers, dryers, dishwashers and refrigerators.

The company was spun off from General Electric and acquired by China-based Haier in a $5.4 billion deal in 2016.

The expansion comes one year after GE Appliances laid off 4% of its global salaried workforce, citing an appliance industry that was, “even more challenging than anticipated.”

JCPS news and more

Later in the show we talk about Yum Brands Inc.'s donation of its 28.4-acre campus at 1441 Gardiner Lane to Jefferson County Public Schools. Stinnett spoke with JCPS Marty Pollio about the donation recently. 

After nearly 30 years as an educator, Pollio doesn’t shock easily, as you can imagine. But he told Stinnett he was floored by the generosity of the gift. 

“This donation from Yum Brands is the equivalent of a brand new elementary school at JCPS that we will be able to build as a result of this,” Pollio said. “That generous gift will impact generations of young people in this community.”

Pollio's last day as superintendent was June 30. His replacement, Brian Yearwood, started July 1. 

For the last segment of the show we talk about gas stations — including a new location for Wawa and the sale of the former Thornton's property in Downtown Louisville.

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

Louisville's bar scene is a lot to keep up with but we give it our best shot on this week's Access Louisville podcast. 

This week Louisville Business First Reporter Michael L. Jones is on the show the share some local bar and restaurant news. We start with a new location for High Horse Bar — which is now in Nulu after leaving space in Butchertown. We recently had Brian Goodwin, a partner in that bar, on the cover of LBF for a feature story. 

Jones also has news on a couple of bar closures. Patrick's, a long-time favorite on Frankfort Avenue, has called it quits after having been in its space since the 1940s. Jones also shares the backstory on the closure of ShopBar — that closure has caused some kerfuffle online. 

We also discuss a suspended liquor license for the 21st in Germantown, Dave's Hot Chicken coming to St. Matthews and Del Taco's plans for the area. 

Late in the show, we shift off the restaurant topic and discuss a couple of high-profile executive exits in the nonprofit realm and the impacts of those moves. Top level leaders at The Speed Art Museum and Fund for the Arts announced plans to exit their respective organizations recently.   

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

Jim Allen, vice chairman of Robert W. Baird & Co., is on this week's Access Louisville podcast.

Baird is the sponsor of the podcast, but Allen was on the show with LBF Editor-in-Chief Shea Van Hoy to talk about local business as well as other topics. 

At the top of the program, Allen tells us about progress since the merger between Hilliard Lyons and Baird. The merger of the two legacy financial firms (Hilliard Lyons dates back to 1854 in Louisville and Baird 1919 in Milwaukee) was announced in fall 2018 and completed in April 2019. The companies celebrated the five year anniversary of that merger last year and it's been going well since, he said.

"What has really made it go is the cultural compatibility between the organizations," Allen said.

The business has really changed over the 44 years that he's been in it, he explained. Back at the time he began, Hilliard Lyons was much more of a brokerage and transaction business. Today it's more about wealth planning, which he says is a market necessity particularly as wealth is being transferred across generations. 

"Things are going really well [for the business] despite market volatility," he said. 

Allen also spoke about Downtown Louisville on the show. 

He's worked in Downtown Louisville throughout his career and long advocated for it, including when the company re-invested in the Louisville headquarters in the 500W Jefferson building. Baird invested more than $20 million into relocating and renovating its office spaces within the top five floors of the tower. The company began moving into the space, totaling roughly 100,000 square feet, in early summer 2021.

In spite of calls by some to move to the suburbs, he wanted the company to stay in the heart of the city.

"We need a strong urban core, a strong business center to really thrive as a city and as a region. And, of course, as we all know Louisville is a key economic driver for the commonwealth of Kentucky. Having a vibrant downtown is really, really essential." 

A part of the company's commitment to downtown includes underwriting the taxable subordinate debt for the KFC Yum Center, he said. 

Back before the arena opened in 2010, Hilliard Lyons financed that debt, which covered the suite level of the arena and was not eligible for tax-free financing, he noted. Goldman Sachs was the lead underwriter for the Yum Center and did not want to underwrite that portion.

"And so we did it," he said. "that's a very big source of pride for us ... as we all know the Yum Center has been transformational for Downtown Louisville." The Yum Center's 15th anniversary is on October 10, 2025.

You can hear more from Allen in the podcast, which you can listen to in the player above or on popular podcast services including Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Links to the show on both of those platforms are at the top of the story. Access Louisville is a weekly podcast from LBF which covers news in Louisville and features some of the city's key business leaders. 

A handful of significant commercial real estate deals top this week's Access Louisville podcast. 

LBF Senior Reporter Joel Stinnett is on this week's show and tells us about the sale of the Brown-Forman Cooperage. As he reported recently. Lebanon, Missouri-based Independent Stave Co. purchased the 16-acre property at 402 MacLean Ave. from Brown-Forman for $13.66 million on May 1, according to a deed filed with the Jefferson County Clerk’s Office.

The site includes several storage warehouses, two equipment shops and the more than 4,000-square-foot production facility. The cooperage, which opened in 1945, produced about 2,000 barrels a day before closing this year as part of a 12% cut to Brown-Forman's global workforce.

Stinnett also tells us about a Louisville company, Goodson Clothing and Supply Co., moving into new office space on Nelson Miller Parkway. We also chat about a new Wawa opening along Veterans Parkway in Clarksville, Indiana. And we discuss a couple of recently revealed plans for new speculative warehouses — one in Shelby County and another at the River Ridge Commerce Center in Jeffersonville, Indiana.

In the last part of the show, we talk about the Academies of Louisville program, which aims to prepare students at Jefferson County Public Schools, for their careers post-high school. Eight years after it was implemented, a number of business and education officials are calling it a success — though a leadership change at the school certainly makes us wonder about its future. 

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

What's behind the Kroger Co.'s recent push to invest in Louisville?

Jake Cannon, Louisville division president for Kroger, is on this week's Access Louisville podcast to explain that and much more.

LBF has been reporting on major investments from Kroger in the market during the last few years. In March we had a story about a $1.8 million remodel of the West Broadway location. Before that, we covered a $2 million renovation of the Outer Loop Kroger. Those are just to name a few recent examples.

As Cannon explains on the show: "it takes capital dollars invested into our brick and mortar stores to make sure layout of the store is right and that we have the right assortment [of products.] Thousands of items are introduced into the market each year."

For example, he noted, that when he ran a Kroger store in the 2000s, there was only one energy drink on the shelves: Red Bull.  

"Now it's an aisle ... everybody in the world has an energy drink and that's what the customers are looking for," he said.

Late last year, Kroger also announced a $40 million new marketplace store on Beulah Church Road.

The company is facing new competition in town, including Publix's entry and expansion into Louisville. Cannon talks about competition as well — including what he looks for when he visits Kroger's competitors. As well as companies that he personally admires, including Starbucks and Chik-fil-a.

Cannon, originally from Utah, started working in a grocery store when he was 16 as he explained in this 2023 profile story in Business First. That store wasn't a Kroger location but he found his way to the company from there. He worked for Kroger in Utah, Las Vegas and at the company's general office in Cincinnati, before coming to Louisville. 

Cincinnati-based Kroger has served the Louisville community for 95 years now at 27 stores across Jefferson County. Kroger Louisville Division operates 116 retail stores in Kentucky, Southern Indiana and Southern Illinois. Kroger Co. is one of the largest employers in Greater Louisville.

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