Home » Luckett & Farley to develop new boutique hotel in Louisville

Luckett & Farley to develop new boutique hotel in Louisville

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Luckett & Farley will renovate the old Bank of Louisville building at 500 W. Broadway and turn it into a new boutique hotel after the Louisville Metro Council approved a critical incentive for the project.

The firm is partnering with the IHG Boutique Hotels Worldwide brand for a new Hotel Indigo. The hotel is anticipated to have 195 rooms.

“We are happy the Metro Council and Council President David James share our vision to make Louisville an even better place to live and work, and they are helping us make this investment in our community,” Aric Andrew, president and CEO of Luckett & Farley, said after the Metro Council approved tax increment financing (TIF) for the project Thursday night.

“Approval of TIF was critical to making this project viable to investors. It couldn’t have happened without it.”

Luckett & Farley purchased the building in 2017 through its development arm with the aim of helping revitalize the South Broadway (SoBro) area. The building has been vacant for about seven years.

Andrew said the level of investment needed for such a complex project – estimated at $50 million – would be difficult, if not impossible, to leverage without tools such as TIF.

The TIF will be capped at $2.7 million and collect incremental local property taxes generated in the district over a 20-year period. It will redirect 80% of the increased property taxes generated by the building’s redevelopment back to the developer.

Approval of the TIF allows Luckett & Farley to have more certainty on the financing of the project and finalize other details, such as the size, scope and other partners.

“The project will be a great improvement to the Broadway corridor, and bring more jobs and activity,” Andrew said. “Our hope is that it will be a catalyst for more investment in the corridor and downtown.”

With the development of the property, the city will receive more in taxes from the project than it does today.

Andrew noted the new hotel also will help Louisville compete with other regional cities with boutique hotels, such as Nashville and Indianapolis.

He said the firm and IHG have ideas for what the project would look like, but it is still in the planning and concept phase and more details would be coming within the next few weeks.

He said the hotel is part of Luckett & Farley’s overarching vision of helping revitalize parts of Louisville, along with other places in Kentucky and the region.

The building has 11 floors and contains around 200,000 square feet. It was built in the 1960s as the headquarters for the former Bank of Louisville.