UPCOMING EVENT: Access Louisville Live presented by Baird. Be on hand for a live recording of the Access Louisville podcast April 22. Details and registration here.

Louisville and the surrounding area have seen a bevy of new data center projects announced in the last several months. We discuss what it all means on this week's Access Louisville podcast.

The latest news is a $6 billion project in Oldham County which is attracting scrutiny from nearby residents and officials. There are also data center developments in South Louisville and at the River Ridge Commerce Center in Jeffersonville, Indiana. 

The jury is likely still out on whether having these projects are good or not. Sure, they attract big investments and require some high paying jobs. And possibly set the area up for more technology industry development. But they're also a major draw on power and water resources.

After the data center discussion, Reporter Joel Stinnett shares some of his notes from covering new University of Louisville president Gerard "Gerry" Bradley. He did his first press conference recently after his very unusual appointment to UofL's top office. 

Lastly, we get into a little baseball talk — particularly the news that a Louisville native has landed a very lucrative MLB contract with the Arizona Diamondbacks. And we wrap up the show with me lamenting the fact that Cincinnati Reds games are no longer readily available on my TV provider of choice. TV revenue is a challenge for MLB teams compared to those in other sports, as we recently reported. 

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.

The city got some surprising news this week with the announcement that Kim Schatzel was out as president of the University of Louisville.

What started as a Tuesday night rumor quickly evolved into a close-door meeting of the University of Louisville Board of Trustees on Wednesday. Louisville Business First reporter Michael Jones was at that meeting and shares his insights on the situation on this week's Access Louisville podcast. 

Perhaps most surprising was that Schatzel's departure was followed by the quick appointment of Gerry Bradley to replace her. Bradley is the third president in five years. UofL has experienced a rotating cast of leaders since longtime president James Ramsey resigned in 2016.

Also on this week's show, we discuss the former Highland United Methodist, which recently hit the market. Star Auerbach and her father Rob Auerbach, co-founder of Rainbow Blossom Natural Food Market, had purchased this property in 2023 and were considering a boutique hotel for the space. But after Rob Auerbach passed away in 2024, Star says she's no longer able to do the project on her own — though she would still like to see someone else pick it up.

Further, we talk about some recent Downtown property sales including Advocacy Plaza near the courthouse and the former MPI Printing building on Jefferson Street. We chat about development near Lynn Family Stadium and we've got an interesting story involving two bars in NuLu, both of which are named Taj.

There's also some content from our sponsors at Baird. LBF’s Lisa Benson has an interview with investment strategist Ross Mayfield — they’re talking market volatility, tariffs, bourbon and other economic news.

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.)

We have a classic restaurant news update on this week's Access Louisville podcast. 

LBF Restaurant Reporter Michael L. Jones is on the show to share some of his latest reporting. We start off on the surprising news that Joy Luck has closed its two locations in the area. The Asian fusion eatery, which had locations in the Highlands and on the East End, has been a staple of the local restaurant scene over the last nine years. The restaurants were owned by brothers Alvin and Brendan Lin. The two opened the Highlands location in 2013, and the East End restaurant followed in 2016.

Jones also has some news on Playa Bowls, which is replacing the Highlands restaurant. New Jersey-based Playa Bowls specializes in bowls containing superfoods like acai, pitaya, chia pudding, and more. 

We also chat about Limon Y Sal, a new modern Mexican restaurant that opened recently at to 3900 Shelbyville Road. The nearly 7,500-square-foot space was previously occupied by The Raven, which closed last May.

We also talk about the food and drinks on offer this season at Lynn Family Stadium. And we go over new locations for Bubba's 33 as well as Swig and Highlands Fish Market that are coming to the area soon.

After the restaurant talk, we discuss new regulations on the hemp beverage industry. As well as a new promotion and relegation system adopted by the United Soccer League, of which Louisville City FC is a part.

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 lost one of its biggest luminaries this week with the passing of Junior Bridgeman.

We discuss his passing and share some of our favorite stories about the basketball star turned businessman on this week's Access Louisville podcast. 

Bridgeman died at age 71 after suffering a medical emergency during the 45th Annual Leadership Luncheon on Scouting held at the Galt House on March 11.

He was a star guard on the University of Louisville’s 1975 squad that went to the NCAA Final Four. He played 12 years in the NBA, most of that for the Milwaukee Bucks, who retired his number. After his athletic career ended, Bridgeman operated numerous restaurants, including many Wendy's locations. 

On this week's show, we share some favorite stories about Bridgeman. Reporter Michael L. Jones also shares some clips from interviews that he conducted with Kevin Cosby, president and CEO of Simmons College, Jimmy Kirchdorfer, CEO of ISCO Industries and Wade Houston, a basketball great and founder of HJI Supply Chain Solutions. You can find more from people who knew Bridgeman in this story from Jones.

Check out a few other favorite stories of ours here:

• An interview with Junior Bridgeman on the Breaking the Mold podcast, hosted by Kentucky to the World from 2016.

• Bridgeman's buy in to the Milwaukee Bucks from the Milwaukee Business Journal in 2024.

• And a 2014 profile of Bridgeman from Louisville Business First.

Later in the show we also chat about the retirement of Scott Davenport, who stepped down as head coach of the men's basketball team at Bellarmine University. And we chat about a few things to watch for as we head into March Madness. 

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 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.