Home of the Louisville Slugger and Muhammad Ali, sports is engrained in the identity of Louisville. Derby City continues to make a big push to bring in an NBA team, but a different professional team is already in town. Louisville City FC, also known as LouCity, is Louisville’s professional soccer team. The club is not only a two-time champion of the USL, the team is now in the process of building a new $65 million stadium with seating for more than 13,000 spectators. Dubbed Lynn Family Stadium, the new arena will be the centerpiece of a 40-acre, $200 million mixed-use development in Louisville’s Butchertown neighborhood. Construction of the stadium is on schedule and should open for the 2020 season. The stadium will have amazing views, including the skyline of downtown Louisville and the waterfront area overlooking the Ohio River. The project should spur other retail, housing and offices to be constructed to revitalize Butchertown. Additional sports/entertainment is moving into Louisville’s malls as anchors. The vacant Sears location at Oxmoor Mall in the St. Matthews area will have Topgolf as a new anchor tenant. Topgolf has been working to come to Louisville for 18 months and was recently granted the approvals …
Louisville continues high occupancy levels throughout the metropolitan area in all apartment types as the market continues to enjoy record-level rent growth and new development. This is enhanced by low unemployment and rising wages throughout the Louisville metropolitan area. The diverse local economy from worldwide distribution at UPS and high-tech manufacturing at Ford Motor Co. and General Electric Appliance Park, as well as innovation in the medical industry, continue to provide high-paying jobs and a highly desirable employment base that can drive occupancy and rents for apartment owners in the Louisville metropolitan area. Integra Realty Resources reports an overall occupancy level of 96 percent for the Louisville metropolitan area, which has seen mid- to high-single-digit rent growth on an annual basis over the last three years. This high occupancy level and rental growth rate have attracted a number of new developments around the metropolitan marketplace. In 2018, there were 2,173 units completed and an additional 898 have been delivered in 2019 as of this writing. Most of the larger scale developments have been completed by regional developers such as Nashville-based Bristol Development and Indianapolis-based Cityscape Residential. Local development companies, such as Denton Floyd, LDG Development, Hagan Development and NTS Development, …
In 2018, Louisville saw a record year with more than 10 million square feet of net absorption in its industrial sector. This is a huge absorption number for any of the Midwest markets and represents more than three times Louisville’s previous record. Louisville was second only behind Chicago out of the Midwest markets tracked by CBRE. The absorption follows a record year for speculative construction as well, as close to 4 million square feet was delivered in 2018. User demand came from all sectors, including automotive, e-commerce, third-party logistics firms (3PLs), manufacturing and medical. Automotive and manufacturing were particularly strong performers. The more notable automotive and manufacturing transactions in 2018 were three Ford Motor Co. leases totaling more than 1 million square feet, as well as New Flyer’s 315,000-square-foot, $30 million transit bus and motorcoach parts fabrication facility in Bullitt County. Additionally, Denso leased 311,000 square feet in Southern Indiana and KCC opened another 224,000-square-foot plant to expand production capacity of its HVAC equipment line. Distribution remains strong in Louisville due to its central location and available workforce. According to a recent report from CBRE’s Labor Analytics Group, Louisville has the highest distribution labor score among the Midwest markets. As …
LOUISVILLE, KY. — Brookview Realty Group has purchased Echelon at Middletown, a 210-unit, garden-style apartment complex in Louisville’s Middletown neighborhood, for $38 million. The property offers one-, two- and three-bedroom floor plans averaging 1,080 square feet. Community amenities include a swimming pool, spa, 24-hour fitness center with a yoga studio, pet park, internet café and a business center. The community is located at 400 Echelon Way, 17 miles east of downtown Louisville. Wick Kirby, Marty O’Connell, Kevin Girard and Kyle Butler of JLL represented the seller, The Garrett Cos., in the transaction. Dave Keller and Nelson Almond, also with JLL, originated a 10-year, fixed-rate, Fannie Mae acquisition loan on behalf of the buyer.
LOUISVILLE, KY. — Kentuckiana Curb Co. Inc., which makes HVAC products and does business as KCC Manufacturing, plans to develop a 300,000-square-foot, $50 million facility in Louisville that will house corporate offices and manufacturing space. KCC acquired 20 undeveloped acres at 2706 Blankenbaker Road for the project, which is 14 miles east of downtown Louisville. The Kentucky Economic Development Finance Authority (KEDFA) will provide KCC with $6.5 million of tax incentives if the company adds 400 jobs over the next 10 years and pays an average hourly wage of $29 across those jobs, including benefits. Production at the new facility will include the design and manufacturing of HVAC equipment and sheet metal products. KCC currently houses 512 employees at its existing Louisville facility, which is located at 2716 Grassland Drive, two miles from the planned property. A timeline for construction was not disclosed.
LOUISVILLE, KY. — Churchill Downs Inc. will invest $300 million to add 5,500 reserved seats, a 156-room hotel and 900 historical racing machines at Churchill Downs, home of the annual Kentucky Derby horse race in Louisville. A historical racing machine is an electronic gambling system that allows players to bet on horse races or dog races that have already been run. The seven-story hotel will include 900 historical racing machines, a 27,000-square-foot ballroom, dining room overlooking the track, 92 trackside suites, four trackside presidential suites and multiple dining options. The project is expected to create 600 construction jobs and 300 permanent jobs upon completion. Churchill Downs Inc. expects the expansion to be complete in November 2021.
LOUISVILLE, KY. — A 12-story, dual-branded Hotel Distil and Moxy has opened on Louisville’s historic Whiskey Row. Poe Cos., White Lodging and REI Real Estate Services jointly developed the 315-room project. Louisville Business First reports project costs of roughly $100 million. The 205-room Hotel Distil is part of Marriott’s Autograph Collection Hotels, a portfolio of independent and upscale hotels comprising more than 180 properties. Many of Hotel Distil’s design cues are taken from bourbon barrels and the distilling process, with the intent of paying homage to Louisville’s bourbon heritage. Examples include wood tones, staves, black metal accents and copper fixtures. The hotel design incorporates an original 1860s-era façade, which was saved following a fire in 2015 and served as the original location and barrel house for J.T.S. Brown & Sons, a Kentucky bourbon whiskey produced by the Heaven Hill Distillery company. Hotel Distil will offer guests a nightly celebration of Prohibition. Guests will receive an invitation at check-in to join the hotel’s lobby for a nightly toast at 7:33 p.m., which is 19:33 Universal Time, the year Prohibition was repealed. Attendees will receive a celebratory whiskey cocktail. The hotel’s event space totals more than 11,000 square feet across its ballroom, three meeting rooms and …
BOONE COUNTY, KY. — IDI Logistics has sold Building I within its Park South at Richwood Industrial Park. Building I spans 442,304 square feet. The undisclosed buyer plans to open a package sorting center at the location. Park South offers seven buildings, totaling nearly 5 million square feet. The property is located along Interstate 75/71, about 20 miles from downtown Cincinnati. Jeremy Kraus of CBRE represented the buyer in the transaction. Mike Lowe, also of CBRE, represented IDI Logistics.
LOUISVILLE, KY. — Cushman & Wakefield and Cushman & Wakefield | Commercial Kentucky have brokered the $10.9 million sale of Paragon Place, a three-story, 83,153-square-foot office building in Louisville. Paragon Place is situated at 9100 Shelbyville Road, 12 miles east of downtown Louisville. Amenities at the property include a conference center, courtyard with a fountain and tenant storage space. Craig Collins of Cushman & Wakefield | Commercial Kentucky and Samir Idris and Andy Johns of Cushman & Wakefield represented the sellers, Banyan Street Capital and Oaktree Capital, in the transaction. The buyer was not disclosed.
GLASGOW, KY. — Marcus & Millichap has negotiated the sale of Glasgow Self Storage, a 66,075-square-foot, 452-unit self-storage facility in Glasgow. The facility was built in 2010 at 908 Happy Valley Road. Brett Hatcher and Gabriel Coe of Marcus & Millichap represented the seller and procured the buyer in the transaction. The buyer and seller were both undisclosed limited liability companies. Colby Haugness of Marcus & Millichap, the broker of record, assisted the team in the transaction. The sales price was not disclosed.