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What's Hiding Beneath the Belvedere?
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We discuss the latest look at Louisville’s Belvedere overhaul on this week's Access Louisville podcast.
New renderings show a greener, more flexible public space designed to host everything from concerts to farmers markets. But, as Reporter Michael L. Jones explains, much of the project's budget will actually go toward repairing the aging parking garage beneath it.
We also look at the latest addition to the Galt House’s ongoing makeover: a collection of luxury suites themed around Louisville traditions including U of L athletics and horse racing. Plus, we toss around a few other Louisville icons we think could inspire future suites.
Later in the show, we chat about the recently opened Grand Lyric Theater in the Russell neighborhood, a venue that honors West Louisville's entertainment history while aiming to spark new economic development along the Muhammad Ali corridor.
We also discuss Texas Roadhouse's purchase of the iconic Wright Tower on Dutchmans Lane and what the growing restaurant company might have planned for the 16-story building.
Late in the show, Jones highlights his cover story on Dr. Mushtaque Juneja, the Louisville anesthesiologist whose had a remarkable career in medicine and real estate. Editor-in-Chief Shea Van Hoy previews this fall's music festivals and I talk about Ford's ongoing overhaul of Louisville Assembly Plant.
Access Louisville, sponsored by Baird, is a weekly podcast from Louisville Business First. You can listen in the player above. You can also follow it on popular podcast services including Apple Podcasts and Spotify, which are linked above.
We got a fresh look at plans for the overhauled Belvedere in downtown Louisville. We'll talk about it up next on Access Louisville. Thanks for joining us. My name is David Mann, and joining me today are Michael L. Jones.
SPEAKER_02How are you doing out there?
SPEAKER_03And Shea Van Hoy. Hey everybody. Access Louisville is a weekly podcast from Louisville Business First. Each week we bring you the latest news and plenty of sharp opinions on everything going on here in Louisville, Kentucky. This podcast is sponsored by Baird. Discover the difference Baird can make in your financial life at rwbaird.com slash Louisville. We'll hear from Baird later in the show. For now, let's talk about the Belvedere. This is a topic we've covered extensively on this show. We even had uh one of the people behind the project on the show, Layla George. But uh this week the new news is they've released these new renderings and they gave us some more information on the project. The renderings are pretty. It sounds like a lot of the project money is going to be spent on fixing up this parking garage, I guess, that the Belvedere sits on top of. So I guess we'll start there, Michael. Uh, what's going on with that parking garage?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, uh, well, uh, it's the largest parking garage in uh downtown. It's like almost 2,000 spaces. And uh in uh 19 uh, I think it's 92, sometime in the early 90s, um, they had redone it, but they didn't waterproof it. So that was a silly thing that is. So water is leaking down and it's causing problems or uh some, I think it's called uh effervescence, this chemical reaction happens and it can eat um away at carpaint. So you'll notice in the garage that there's l large sections that are always roped off. And so 75% of the budget for redoing the Belvedere is going towards this parking garage because whenever the Humana uh building is redone as a hotel, that's probably where people are gonna park. And so um actually before uh Mary Greenberg uh d announced the um or unveiled the uh renderings, he took uh some uh reporters on um a tour of the parking garage, and I totally did was not prepared to tour a parking garage in the hot sun, you know, that day. But he showed us all the different areas there were problems.
SPEAKER_03I've seen your photos, yeah.
SPEAKER_02And and there were icicles that hang out over 64, so they're gonna deal with all that uh in the reimagining. And I think they're gonna start on the parking garage part at the end of this year.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Well, you say icicles, I guess they were like stalactites of something. I don't know what that was. Well, during the winter, like you know, when they freeze. But there were like it looked like like you know, a cave kind of thing. Like, yeah, yeah, they did uh feel like a cave in there, yeah. Yeah, well, I mean, it was kind of like you know, when this project was first announced, the renderings were so shocking, it was like a giant butterfly had landed on the oval. They were so crazy looking. And we go from that to, oh, we gotta fix up this parking garage.
SPEAKER_02And it's like Yeah, the first design I think was um too costly and it was going to um logistically, it just wasn't gonna work.
SPEAKER_03It's not exciting, but you do got to take care of your parking garages.
SPEAKER_02You know, I mean well, I think that's why they did the tour because they wanted like it's not very sexy to say, hey, we're getting a new parking garage downtown. We're not even getting a new one, we're getting an old one fixed up. Uh but the the the things that they're doing to the Belvedere itself sound really nice. There's gonna be like a this flexible stage that can be used in different ways. They're adding more trees and making it more of a a gathering place because right now it's only used like five or six days a year.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yeah, it is pretty underused. Um, yeah, I think the renderings are really beautiful. I hope it turns out that way. I saw they're bringing in what 350 trees or something like that, so we'll have more trees up there. Uh, that's pretty wild considering we're talking about a concrete island. It's gonna have all these trees up there. Um, and then I guess we don't know a price tag yet.
SPEAKER_02Uh no, they're waiting until uh they get all the final bids because they don't want to release a budget and then the bids. Uh but they have, you know, the city's gotten $190 million for downtown projects from uh the state over the last two funding uh periods, and then uh Louisville Metro governments uh got 20 million, I think, involved, and there's seven million uh from the federal government. And Greenberg said that there's a lot of found local foundations and philanthropic institutions ready to make up the difference. So he he believes, you know, that um they're gonna be able to pay for this, and uh it's scheduled to open uh right before Thunder in 2030.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yeah, yeah. Uh well Shay, what did you think of the uh the renderings?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I I mean I like the original uh renderings. I wanted the crazy buttons. It was crazy, uh, but obviously, oddly, you know, then it was all of a sudden like it's too um it might be too heavy to do that uh with the parking garage. Um but I was impressed with the new renderings. I I think you know it the way um that Layla talks about it in the article that Michael wrote is they want it to be usable without a lot of effort, uh meaning changing things around and maybe just to be like uh kind of like Waterfront Park, you know, where it's it's there, it's multi-use, you could set up concerts there. I know people have said they want farmers markets, they want yoga classes, they want a gathering space, people to use it actually, and which it's really not now. So this does look, and I like how sort of the um the curved nature of some of the past like probably lead toward congregating and another thing I've seen a positive response for obviously uh you know maybe going farther would be better to this uh in the future, but that there is a connection to the river. Um, there's a walkway, we'll be walkway down to the river, so more interactive with the river. And um, but there's you know, there's spaces there, it's not going anywhere, and so it's it's good to see uh some movement on a green space there, like maybe a true green space that obviously it's not now, it's a concrete space that people aren't really uh drawn to uh unless you just want to like look over the river for a little bit.
SPEAKER_03Occasionally I walk up there just you know, if I just need to get out of the office, I'll walk over there, look over at a river. But yeah, you're right. I mean, there's not there's not that much activity up there. There's nothing to keep you there other than just there and you walk there, you look, you go, wow, it's cool. And then you go back, you know, and like farmers markets, uh exercise classes, all that sounds cool. I hope they do that. And concerts, they they mention concerts too.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, or even just a place for people to like have a picnic or like throw football or whatever. Um it it does it. So and it is still like with the greenery, it is still attractive, I think. Um just maybe not as uh ostentatious as before, I guess. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03Maybe next time when we have it. It seems like you know, we had uh uh museum plaza that was a very ostentatious building. That didn't happen. And like this thing, it was very ostentatious, it didn't happen. Yeah, you gotta get one of these ostentatious things to work out.
SPEAKER_01So yeah, but it looks really like it there's a and there's a lot of path and things like that. So I think it uh I think uh they did a nice job of uh compromising on this and still being able to, like Michael said, make the infrastructure happen that needs to happen for for it to be built. And then obviously the parking garage is uh key to the you know if the Po uh Humana conversion hotel happens, which would be a thousand rooms. And I believe, Michael, you said uh that that would be the kind of the main parking lot for that, right? Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03So and uh you said construction is expected to start later this year. We're gonna be watching Thunder over Louisville up there, what, uh 2030, they said?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah, hopefully.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. All right, cool. Well, uh moving on to uh we'll say a neighbor of the Belvedere, that is the Galt House. Uh Shay, you just wrote about some new uh some new features at the Galthouse.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so obviously we've reported a lot about the Galthouse renovations over the last few years. I think it topped easily topped $100 million in all the stuff they did, including they renovated all the guest rooms, uh, you know, Swizzle uh was the you know, they renamed the the restaurant, the the rotating restaurant up there, some of the common spaces. So uh the galt house has a has a fresh update, but now they're adding some luxury, more luxury amenities to that in the form of what they're calling the legendary kit uh collection. It's luxury suites, as we talked about before. They're as big as a house, pretty much, a pretty pretty decent sized house, 2,000 square feet. Um, and they have two bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a full kitchen and waterfront views. But they've decided to theme these around iconic sports in Louisville. So there's a U of L football themed suite, a U of L basketball themed suite, or or multiple ones, but that those are the themes, and then third and two thoroughbred suites. So um, you know, they've leaned in on horse racing and and U of L football and basketball for those. Uh, and they're all in the East Tower of the Galthouse.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. You know, I thought it was kind of silly. They went to the U of L bucket twice there. They went to U of L basketball and U of L football. Um what what other Louisville traditions could be celebrated here?
SPEAKER_01I mean, you could definitely see an Ali suite. I think you can definitely like, especially with the Ali Center, draws a lot of international. It's like a few doors. Yeah, international travelers, so that's that's an obvious one. Um, I don't know, Michael, what do you think?
SPEAKER_02I'm surprised that we have nothing in the city really celebrating Hunter S. Thompson.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's gonna be a mural, and that's it, right? Basically, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02And so I don't know what that would look like. Maybe Ralph Steadman drawings in the suite or something. And I don't know if I could sleep in that. Yeah. Or like it's the party room. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Or what if you did a you didn't know these people were from Louisville or or lived here? Like Tom Cruise, they wrote a happy birthday to you. Tom Cruise was here for you know a couple years. Put do like a um hang on, that's a CJA exclusive. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, but do a uh do a um like a uh backdoor style mural of all those people. Yeah. That might frighten people as well. Well, those are kind of in the same stuff. It's interesting though too, because like I guess you were if you're looking for U of L football or basketball, you'd be looking for those people that are U of L fans who are coming in to stay because you know, every once in a while people might maybe they do a staycation if they're a big fan.
SPEAKER_02You know, I was I was this week I interviewed Trevor Paul from when Louisville, and I was very, you know, he's from uh uh Michigan. I was very disappointed when he said I am a U of L and UK fan. Oh my god. I was like, you you can't be both. You gotta choose, man.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, that's true. You could have done a UK thing too.
SPEAKER_01I mean, so sorry. I don't know about that. Yeah. Uh I will uh the last thing I'll add about the suites was I'd ask how much it they were um putting into it. Uh, and a lot of the uh construction is being doing by their done by their in-house team, but it's a part of a six million dollar capital improvement plan um across the whole property this year. So um they're spending another six million in upgrades this year on on the property.
SPEAKER_03Cool. Well, speaking of Louisville traditions here, Michael, you just had a story about the Grand Lyric Theater that's a new theater uh in West Louisville. And I understand from your story, it has six historical significance, but it's also trying to promote economic development and bring bring some entertainment to West Louisville.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, this is uh a new uh 330-seat uh venue uh that uh it's at the uh Louisville Central Community Center in the Russell neighborhood. And uh the grand and the lyric were old um uh theaters on um in uh Walnut Street um in the old uh you know a black business district. And uh the uh campus, the LC triple C campus, they called it old Walnut Street campus. And so uh this is gonna be like a kind of an art center. They're gonna have different programs, and but they also hope it it's gonna spur more economic development along uh that Muhammad Ali corridor. Uh and so they're starting out with like a week of uh of arts and culture events, and they have um a group, uh the Curtis Family C Notes, which I had never heard of them, but apparently people who uh watch America's Got Talent, everybody knew who they were. That's good. Yeah. They they appeared in America's got talent. Yeah, we're not watching the right shows, apparently.
SPEAKER_03Well, uh I went when you said you had never heard of them, I was like, Well, you're a music guy, so I feel like if you hadn't heard of it, then I don't know. But I guess we just we're not keeping up with the pop culture, I guess. Yeah, yeah. We're we're I'm old. Well, cool. I'm I'm hoping that uh lands some good shows. Uh and one last story here, Shay. This Joel did this story, but you're just kind of filling in for Joel. I can it's hard to line up four people's schedules. Uh so uh sometimes we had to we had to do this. But uh Joel had a story about Texas Roadhouse making a big purchase. So what's going on there?
SPEAKER_01Right, and this I give him credit, he'd gotten a a tip on a vague tip on this, and he guessed it. Right. What it had a turn. He was really impressive. Um, so Texas Roadhouse has been buying up properties of late. Uh they bought a building, uh basically they bought up their entire current headquarters they occupy. They did not own all of it, and that was a $25 million deal, I think, um, last year, uh maybe uh months ago, anyway. So now they've bought one of the most recognizable buildings in Louisville. Uh that's the former Caden Tower, now called Wright Tower, uh, named uh now after the fact that it was Frank Lloyd Wright's firm that built it. Uh it's uh home to Ruth's Chris on the top floor, that's how a lot of people know it, or the uh lattice work on the side off the Waterson. So Texas Rite Office is right next door. Um, but you know, you don't um Texas Red Offs headquarters is a few stories, kind of a normal licking office building. It's very nondescript. Uh, this does not, you know, this is not a nondescript building, and it's 16 stories tall. Yeah. So um we haven't really gotten any uh, you know, other than just eh, this is next door. We want to make sure we're extending our expanding our footprint, investing in our hometown. Um, but they're obviously gonna do something with it. I think for now they're just gonna be a landlord. Um, I believe Roos Chris at least has a few years left. There's other people in there too, office office tenants. So unclear at this point if Texas Roadhouse is gonna move some of its office workers in there, uh, or they're just gonna be sort of a landlord for now. But it's right next door that came up. Um they bought it for 12 million, uh, which is a little bit more than what uh it was sold for a couple years ago. I think Joel said it was like 10 and a half. Um and they bought it from NREL, which is a Florida real estate company that owns other buildings in town. So just kind of expanding their area there on Dutchman's Lane. There's also a a Jagger's right there, so one of their restaurants is is right there nearby.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I wonder what they want with it. It seems weird. I mean, obviously they um they do stand to grow at some point, but do they really need a 16-story tower, or maybe they're gonna eventually just move everything over there and then keep the other building for something else, you know?
SPEAKER_01So right, yeah. They've now that they own that, I guess they've got a lot of options and uh, you know, they're one of our four, I think, largest public companies, and they've uh you know, some of the re the restaurant industry has definitely struggled over as Michael knows over the last few years, but they've just sold anything even in course. They have big fans during COVID. They they really pivoted to they weren't they weren't really in on technology and and curbside and delivery, and then they really invested in that. So I think now still a good portion of their business is is is to go. Um, but yeah, they kind of weather the storm and yeah, and uh just could just continue to grow. Um Michael also, for his cover story this week, talked to a an early investor in Texas Roadhouse, and you know, some of those individual properties are making millions of dollars each. Yeah, that's true, right? So that was a good I guess, you know, I have it's never really bad to invest in real estate.
SPEAKER_03So if I'll say that. That's true. And it's a distinctive building, like you said. Uh it's probably the only the tallest building in the east end, I would think. I mean, unless maybe something in the Highlands qualifies.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah. Well, the uh, you know, the condos are about the same height there at Cherokee Triangle, but but yeah, as far as out east until you know, one park if it gets built out that way, but yeah, not much else other than a couple of those uh buildings kind of down by uh like off Newburgh and the water center around that maybe close to that tall. But but yeah, there's not a whole lot out that way that's that tall.
SPEAKER_03And you know, we also we always see the price of towers falling in downtown Louisville. This one actually went up in price. Didn't go up by a lot, but it went up in price, so that's that's a good sign for it. So all right. Well, we will take a break uh right there, and uh we'll get a word from our sponsors, and we'll be back after that and we'll give you something to think about.
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SPEAKER_03All right, well, let's wrap up the show the way we always have, below these many years, uh, by giving you guys a few last things to think about. Michael, why don't you start us off here?
SPEAKER_02Okay. Um Shay kind of hinted at my cover story this week is on Dr. Junja, who is um anesthesiologist at um Norton Healthcare, but he also uh was an early investor in Texas Roadhouse, Planet Fitness, and Republic Bank. And I've literally year spent years trying to get him to sit down for an interview, and he was always like, nobody wants to read about me. I'm not that interesting. And so then when we finally sit down, I find out he worked for the royal family of Saudi Arabia. Uh he's like built an anesthesia uh program and funded at at Bellerman, and now he owns the largest um Indian catering company uh in the country, or one of the largest. So uh it was one I think people are just gonna find really interesting.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I mean what an interesting guy. He's what a life he's lived, and he's uh he's 78 now, so uh he's kind of slow slowing down, only working 80 hours a week now.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it was it's a really good read. I second that as someone who's read it.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yeah, it's good. I'll link to it in the notes for this show. All right, uh Shay, why don't you give us something to think about?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, well, uh we're gearing up for Danny Wimmer festival season coming up in September. Uh this year they've inverted the usual order. Uh Louder Than Life is um first on starting on the 17th of September, and then Bourbon and Beyond follows the following Thursday through Sunday. One thing, interesting thing that I've noticed and people have been talking about is uh this wasn't gonna be my thing, but now it's partially my thing to think about, is they've been covering up the bourbon part of the marketing now with either band names or where the event is. So Bourbon and Beyond is being like obscured by other words, and so there's all this guessing game going on on social and among you know people music fans are like is this part of the bourbon bus being you know, blah blah blah. Uh I also thought maybe it was just a creative way, uh, because each a lot of the headliners have been posting on their page like Casey Musgraves and Beyond, Counting Crows and Beyond. So maybe they sort of thought that this would get you know gather favor wider than than just the name. But on the lineup poster that they sent out this week, Bourbon and Beyond is obscured by the location, which is the Kentucky Expo Center. So just interesting thing to think about there.
SPEAKER_03I've not heard this controversy. Yes, and now I want to continue.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. In fact, I just got a pitch um from a local PR uh expert uh about a possible op-ed about this. So anyway, stay tuned for that. Uh, but the lineups are out, so that's what I was originally gonna focus on. And I'm most stoked about Loudder Than Life this year, and the lineup is like pretty much insane if you're a fan of like hard rock or metal. Uh some of the like back to back to back. I was talking to Allison, my coworker, whose husband is going on Thursday, and he was just like, This is just everyone I wanna see back to back to back. So I'm really stoked about that. So the lineups, the time the set times are all out if you want to go to the the individual websites and check those out. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03I uh I've been reliving this very short emo chapter of my life, uh listening to My Chemical Romance because they're one of the headliners.
SPEAKER_01Your night's Friday night then.
SPEAKER_03Friday night, and I and and I looked up what they've been playing, and it's the 20th anniversary of the Black Parade, and they're just playing the Black Parade, and then after they're done with that, they play a few more. So I'm super stoked for that. Yep, yep. I'm not exactly like that's not usually my kind of music, but for some reason my chemical romance just stuck.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and they they did a good job of you know grouping those type of bands on Friday. So you've got Taking Back Sunday, Coheed and Cambria, day to remember. So that kind of genre or era is all mostly packaged together on Friday.
SPEAKER_03So your day is Thursdays.
SPEAKER_01Well, Thursday's a good one, Sunday's a really good one. So the Monday after the Sunday, I'm just gonna be tired of work. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03All right. Well, I'll give you something to think about, and that is uh just an uh got an update today on Ford's progress over at the Louisville Assembly Plant, and it really does sound like they have taken that thing down to the bare bones in order to put in this new uh manufacturing system. They call it the Universal EV platform. So uh they had they said they headed down to where it was just four walls inside the plant, and then uh they've now built it back up. That was a few months ago they had it down that far. Uh so it's it's interesting to watch, you know. I'm I'm hoping that uh Ford's, you know, they made some changes in their electrification strategy. EVs are kind of like, are they up? Are they down? You know, I mean, uh the the tax break went away, um, but I still feel like there's a market there. So it's just fascinating to watch, you know, um, as Ford's trying to adjust to this. I think all the automakers are trying to adjust to this too. I mean, Toyota's getting ready to roll out a battery-only vehicle too, and they're uh, you know, they're obviously trying to figure out they've had a very successful platform with hybrids, so now they're going all battery. I don't know, just see.
SPEAKER_01The interesting thing to me about that is I don't think you mentioned the price tag. Oh, yeah, the price tag. Because that's that's been the problem with EVs without the credit.
SPEAKER_03The um the price, this is called the Ford Fathom, uh, and it's a $28,000 uh EV pickup truck. Yeah. So uh yeah, $28,000 for any pickup truck is a good price.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, any when I bought a car, I did not buy an EV, but I bought a car recently, and the the um I did not I uh I went to Honda World and bought it there. So uh I bought a used car, but when I was talking to the salesperson, I think it's the prelude is their EV. It's really sharp looking, and it was sitting out front, and I was like, man, this this is a sharp-looking car. And he's like, it'll be here when you come back in six months. Because they're the that I mean that's like a $60,000 or $70,000 car. And he's like, without the tax credit, people are not not buying it. But if $28,000, tax credit or no credit, you're talking that's yeah, lower than the what's the average new car is $40,000 now? Is that right? Something like that. So you're coming in under under that.
SPEAKER_02That was there being the EV infrastructure isn't really there yet. And so I'd be worried about taking a road trip.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, that seems to be the worry. And let me say the $28,000 model is the what is for it's calling the standard range model. Okay. So I don't know what the standard range is, but I'm assuming it's not as long as the extended range metal. So so who knows? I mean, that might be that might be the truck that never leaves the city. But uh, but uh, you know, I still think it's exciting to watch just that industry evolve. I've been covering automotive for a long time, so it's uh it's fun to watch. But uh, I believe that is it for our show. Um, if you like what you hear, please consider subscribing to us on uh many popular podcast services, including Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Uh thank you very much, Michael. Thank you, Shay, thank you, Baird, for the support, and of course, thank you guys for listening to us out there, and we will see you next time. Bye-bye,