Louisville’s restaurant, business woes continue

(The Center Square) – In the last month, three restaurants have announced they will permanently close their downtown Louisville locations, adding to the woes the city has faced this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

On West Main Street, a block down from the 22,090-seat KFC Yum! Center, there’s a for-lease sign in front of Impellizzeri’s Pizza. The local chain posted on its website that “with a heavy heart” it closed the downtown location.

A few blocks away at Fourth Street Live!, the Jim Beam Urban Stillhouse is also closing. Late last month, the Beam Suntory, which owns the Kentucky-based bourbon brand, said in a statement it was focusing efforts on developing a new visitor center next summer in Clermont, home to its distillery roughly 20 miles south of downtown Louisville.

Reopening in Louisville will happen as the company will “reimagine its consumer experience” in the city.

“Beam Suntory looks forward to bringing a bigger and better consumer experience to a new location in Louisville in the future,” the company said.

A couple doors down from Jim Beam, the iconic guitar sign for Hard Rock Café is coming down. The restaurant had been an anchor tenant at The Cordish Companies entertainment district development since it opened 16 years ago.

In a statement, Hard Rock International noted that it enjoyed its time in Kentucky’s largest city but with the lease set to expire in 2021, the decision was made to close.

“The brand remains committed to the city and is open to having another location within the market, if the right space can be identified,” the Hard Rock statement concluded.

In its statement, Fourth Street Live! cited the “immense challenges” COVID presented as the reason why Hard Rock ended its lease but expressed hope the Florida-based chain may return.

“Fourth Street Live! has been the most visited destination in the state for over a decade and we are very bullish about the future of Louisville as we return to normalcy. We look forward to sharing some exciting announcements soon,” the statement read.

Cordish representatives aren’t the only ones looking for a return to normalcy. The convention and tourism business, a major industry for Louisville, dwindled significantly as organizations canceled scheduled meetings and trade shows due to the pandemic.

According to Louisville’s WDRB-TV, Louisville tourism officials estimate the canceled conventions cost the city about $380 million. (https://www.wdrb.com/in-depth/hard-rock-cafe-to-close-louisville-location-permanently/article_8bcef180-448e-11eb-bb69-77877f99f319.html)

“There’s been a few restaurants close, and there will probably be a few others,” said Karen Williams, president and CEO of Louisville Tourism told the station. “We’re all trying to do everything we can, at this point, to hang on.”

COVID has also kept the locals away from downtown, too.

At the Yum! Center, the city’s major arena, concerts for such artists as Elton John, Justin Bieber and Sturgill Simpson were either cancelled or rescheduled for 2021 or later. Even events that have gone on have done so with far fewer fans thanks to social distancing guidelines.

On Saturday, the University of Louisville hosted the University of Kentucky, its archrival, in their annual basketball game. Typically, the game is played before a sellout crowd, but on Saturday, only 3,281 fans –less than 15 percent of capacity – were able to watch in person.