You can't be a suburb of nowhere.

And that means that Downtowns are important to communities, including Louisville. 

Jeff O'Brien, executive director at the Louisville Metro Cabinet for Economic Development, made that point during Access Louisville: Heart of the City, a live event put on by Louisville Business First on Feb. 5 at the Baird Conference Center at 500 W. Jefferson Street. 

The event doubled as a live recording of the Access Louisville podcast. 

Lee Weyland, of Core Real Estate, Hank Hillebrand, of the Poe Cos., and Rebecca Fleischaker, of the Louisville Downtown Partnership were on the show as well. Louisville Business First Senior Reporter Joel Stinnett moderated the discussion.

The panel spoke about the importance of development in Louisville's urban core, not just in downtown but also NuLu, Butchertown and elsewhere. 

It was a particularly timely discussion considering all the recent news on new developments.

On Tuesday, Feb. 3, Louisville-based Poe Cos. announced it had officially signed a letter of intent to purchase the Humana Building at 500 W. Main St. and convert it into a 1,000-room hotel. (Business First exclusively reported Poe Cos. plans on Dec. 12.) 

And only a few weeks ago Business First reported that Indianapolis-based Ghoman Group has secured franchise approval to bring a JW Marriott hotel to the 26-story 401 S. 4th St. Tower — formerly the Brown & Williamson Tower — at 401 S. Fourth St.

So we weren't short on things to talk about. Access Louisville is a weekly podcast from Louisville Business First. You can follow it on popular podcast services including Apple Podcasts and Spotify, which are linked above.