Groundwork will soon begin on a mixed-use building that will include a co-working space and dining hall on the edge of NuLu.
The as-yet-unnamed building at 750 E. Jefferson St. will include about 80,000 square feet of usable space between four floors, said Mariah Gratz, CEO of Louisville-based development firm Weyland Ventures.
A food hall is planned for the building’s first floor, reminiscent of Logan Street Markets and The Village Market in Paristown Point, but also drawing inspiration from halls in larger cities, including Chicago and Denver, Gratz said.
She also envisions a place for fresh fruit and vegetables from local farmers in the summer.
Directly above will be a co-working space that Gratz said will co-exist with the dining area below, with workers grabbing coffee or lunch at meetings downstairs alongside tourists and locals coming to eat.
“It can almost become an extension of your office,” she said. No specific vendors have been selected for the food hall yet.
The third and fourth floors of the building will occupy traditional office space.
With the foundation permit approved, work on the site at the corner of East Jefferson and South Shelby streets is expected to begin in the next few weeks, Gratz said. Weyland Ventures recently filed with the city for a building permit, which is under review.
She expects a spring 2025 completion date for the project. The project was originally announced in early 2020, just before the coronavirus pandemic hit the US
The space was always slated for mixed-use development, but the pandemic changed those plans. Incorporating co-working space to give employers more flexibility, compared to long-term traditional office building leases for larger spaces, seemed to make more sense.
“It was a great project to think about the future and how we design these buildings and spaces for where we’re going, not where we’ve been,” Gratz said.
As part of the $115 million overall originally designed development plan for the area, Weyland Ventures is also developing the Hilton Tempo hotel and parking garage next door along Jefferson Street. Construction has been ongoing throughout the year, and both are slated to open in the spring of 2024 before the Kentucky Derby.
NuLu-based DKN Architects is working on both the hotel and the mixed-use project, Gratz said, giving some visual continuity between the buildings.
The developer also plans to build a 189-unit market-rate apartment complex as part of the block’s redevelopment, according to plans filed with Louisville Metro Government. Gratz said the building is slated to open in the spring of 2025.
The Louisville Metro Council approved a tax increment financing district for the overall development in December 2021.
“It’s been a great experience for our team to look at how to continue to create great urban spaces amid the pandemic that we hope to move further and further away from, and to figure out how to ensure that these spaces are enabled to move in the future,” Gratz said.
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Growth and development reporter Matthew Glowicki can be reached at mgl[email protected], 502-582-4000 or on Twitter @mattglo.