A $250M proposal to jumpstart downtown (Podcast)

Access Louisville

How important is a proposed $250M development around Louisville Slugger Field? We chat about that on this week's Access Louisville podcast.

Reporter Joel Stinnett initially reported on this project, on Dec. 2. and is on this week's show to share a few insights and details about it.

The Louisville Sports Entertainment District would be a 500,000-square-foot mix of housing, retail, hospitality and entertainment atop of what now is a city-owned parking lot east of the baseball stadium. The more than $250 million public-private partnership would include Louisville Bats owner Diamond Baseball Holdings, which bought the club last year, and Houston-based real estate firm Machete Group.

The city is working with the two groups on a development agreement.

Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg said the proposed development is in the “very early stages” so it is not clear how much of the $250 million investment would be provided by the city. However, the project would require incentives, he said, including the possible creation of a Tax Increment Finance district.

We also chat about an O.G. punk rocker, Dean Thomas, drummer for the Los Angeles rockabilly group Levi And The Rockats in the late 1970s, who's opened an art gallery on Main Street. Dean Thomas Fine Art Painting opened Dec. 8 at 635 W. Main St. in Downtown Louisville. Reporter Michael L. Jones talked to Thomas about his careers in both music and art, which he wrote a story on here and explains on the show.

Jones also tells us about a new restaurant he recently reported on, which, oddly enough, is opening inside a gun range. Brass Social, at 11800 Electron Dr. opened Friday, Nov. 29, in the Next Level Ranges development in Jeffersontown, which also includes gun ranges and a pro shop.

Brandon Mitchell, co-owner of Brass Social, said the new restaurant serves what he likes to call elevated bar food with locally-sourced ingredients. His partners in Brass Social, James and Jennifer Naive, own a farm in Spencer County, Double J Beef, that supplies the restaurant’s beef. The restaurant also gets beef from Ridge Creek Farm in Spencer County.

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