By Caitlin Bowling 
Nov 12, 2014, 3:51pm EST

Kirkland’s, a Tennessee-based home decor chain, opened a store in St. Matthews today.

Kirkland’s has moved into a 7,500-square-foot space at Shelbyville Road Plaza, located at 4600 Shelbyville Road, according to Tommy Edwards, a leasing agent with Hagan Properties Inc., which owns and operates the center.

The retail company is hosting a grand opening celebration from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 15. Kirkland’s will offer refreshments from Argo Sons Coffee and Please & Thank You. Gift bags and $10 gift cards will be handed out to the first 50 shoppers, according to the event’s Facebook page. All shoppers will have the chance to win a $50 gift card.

Kirkland’s has two other area locations, in Clarksville and in Springhurst Towne Center in Louisville’s East End. The company operates more than 300 stores nationwide.

By Braden Lammers  – Reporter, Louisville Business First
Nov 10, 2014, 5:19pm EST Updated Nov 11, 2014, 7:38am EST

The meter is running on a legal judgment made in Jefferson Circuit Court more than a year ago.

The case involves developer J. Scott Hagan and his former plan to build Signature Point, a complex of 414 apartments and 299 condominiums on 90 acres near Christian Academy of Louisville, as Business First reported last year.

PBI Bank lent Hagan more than $25 million to build the complex, but the project went awry in the recession.

According to court records, Hagan claimed PBI Bank asked him to deed the property to the bank in exchange for forgiving the loan. Hagan agreed, if he could keep the 30 acres planned for apartments.

Hagan claims that, unbeknownst to him, PBI Bank was negotiating the sale of the apartment property to Managed Assets of Kentucky LLC for $3.8 million. Hagan’s attorneys said that was “deceitful negotiating” to secure the deed from Hagan.

In September 2013, a jury awarded $7.8 million in damages to Signature Point LLC. PBI Bank’s parent PBI Bancorp Inc., (NASDAQ: PBIB) continues to appeal that judgment.

Because the ruling favored Signature Point, PBI was required to put up a bond to cover the $7.8 million award. That appeal is ongoing, and the interest on the bond continues to accrue more than a year after the ruling and dollar amount were initially set.

“After a year with all the post-trial motions that PBI made, the case wasn’t finished in August,” Signature Point attorney Larry Zielke said.

Therefore, Zielke requested that another year’s interest be added to the bond to cover the interest that had accrued.

According to court records, the court agreed to increase the bond by $942,824 as of Oct. 1. PBI paid the additional interest to Jefferson Circuit Court on Oct. 22.

Zielke said he expects that the earliest the appeal could be resolved is the summer of 2015. If the case continues until September 2015, he said, he will ask again for the bond to be raised to cover the accrued interest.

PBI Bancorp officials declined to comment on the matter, except to confirm that the bank had made the interest payment to the court.

By Kirby Adams  – Courier-Journal
Jun 20, 2014, 2:37pm EDT, Updated Jun 20, 2014 2:38pm

Nadeau is a new player in the Louisville furniture arena. The recently opened St. Matthews business imports handmade furnishings. Located in the Shelbyville Road Plaza at 4600 Shelbyville Road, the 4,000-square-foot showroom holds a wide selection of hardwood pieces that have been hand-painted, carved and stained by local craftsmen in India and Indonesia.

Originally, a wholesale furniture warehouse, Nadeau has evolved over the years to retail storefronts while maintaining wholesale prices with 24 store locations across the country.

Regular store hours are Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sunday, noon to 5 p.m.

For more information, www.furniturewithasoul.com.

By Jenna Esarey – Correspondent
Mar 14, 2014, 6:00am EDT

A Nordstrom Rack store opened in Shelbyville Road Plaza in October 2013, marking Nordstrom Inc.’s entry into Louisville and Kentucky.

Nordstrom Rack operates about 140 stores in the United States that carry merchandise from Nordstrom department stores and Nordstrom.com at discounted prices. The store also carries apparel, accessories and shoes that are purchased for Nordstrom Rack stores from many brands carried in Nordstrom stores, including Hugo Boss, Kate Spade and Trina Turk.

“Generally, Nordstrom Rack stores locate in markets where there is already a Nordstrom department store — which Louisville does not have,” said Tommy Edwards, leasing agent for Hagan Properties Inc., which owns the St. Matthews shopping center.

For Shelbyville Road Plaza, Nordstrom Rack is another big-name tenant in addition to stores such as Trader Joe’s. The shopping center is 87 percent leased.

A big challenge of the Nordstrom Inc. project was converting the former Circuit City space that had sat vacant since 2009 into the new store, said Edwards.

A new facade — which had to blend well with the current design of Shelbyville Road Plaza but also meet Nordstrom Rack criteria — was constructed. Other improvements included a new heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning system and interior and exterior lighting.

“It’s almost cheaper and less time consuming to build new than to retrofit,” Edwards said.

The new store is a finalist in Business First’s 2014 Commercial Real Estate Awards program in the Best Retail Lease or Sale category.

The Stats

50: Approximate number of new retail positions created by the opening of Nordstrom Rack.

3: Years it took to complete the deal.

8: Number of months needed to renovate the store’s space.

Perseverance pays off

The deal with Nordstrom was three years in the making.

“They were concerned they wouldn’t have enough brand recognition to make the risk worthwhile,” Edwards said. “We were told from the beginning of the deal, back in 2010, ‘We really only look at markets where we already have a presence.’ It took us a long time to sit and talk with them about the Louisville market.”

In 2011, a Nordstrom Rack opened in Indianapolis, another market without a Nordstrom department store, but with similar demographics to the Louisville market.

That store was a success and led to the approval for the Louisville location.

“From that store’s opening, it took another two years,” Edwards said. “Deals like that take time. There’s lots of money involved. It’s got to be the right deal. Everything has to go perfect.”

Talks began with Nordstrom in 2010, with direct negotiations beginning in April 2011. The deal was finalized in March 2013.

“Anytime you get a deal like that, it’s always going to be a big deal,” Edwards said. “Nordstrom’s been around forever.”

By Kevin Eigelbach  – Reporter, Louisville Business First
Nov 7, 2013, 2:44pm EST

Louisville-based PBI Bank has appealed a $7 million judgment rendered against it in Jefferson Circuit Court in a lawsuit involving Signature Point, a proposed residential development off English Station Road.

As Business First reported in July, a Jefferson Circuit Court jury awarded $7 million in damages against the bank.

The case involved developer J. Scott Hagan and his former plan to build Signature Point, a complex of 414 apartments and 299 condominiums on 90 acres near Christian Academy of Louisville. PBI Bank lent Hagan more than $25 million to build the complex, but the project went awry in the last recession.

According to court records, Hagan had claimed that PBI Bank asked Hagan to deed the property to the bank in exchange for forgiving the loan. Hagan agreed if he could keep the 30 acres planned for apartments.

While they were negotiating, according to a trial memorandum that Hagan’s attorney prepared, PBI was also negotiating with a third party to buy the apartment property.

“PBI concealed the sales opportunity from (Hagan) and instead began a course of deceitful negotiating with Hagan in order to obtain a deed to the property,” according to the memorandum.

Hagan eventually deeded all the property to the bank, and the bank sold the apartment property to the third party — Managed Assets of Kentucky LLC— for $3.8 million, according to the trial memorandum.

A portion of the Signature Point property now is being developed by Elite Homes Inc., which plans to build 124 garden homes and unattached single-family homes, as Business First reported in August.

According to court records, on Oct. 25, the bank appealed the jury verdict to the Kentucky Court of Appeals both the verdict and the judge’s decision to deny PBI Bank’s motion to reduce post-judgment interest the bank would have to pay.

Attorneys for the bank and for Signature Point did not immediately return messages left for comment today.