In The News

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.

By Kevin Eigelbach   – Reporter, Louisville Business First
Jul 19, 2013, 12:24pm EDT

Attorneys for PBI Bank and its holding company, Porter Bancorp Inc. (NASDAQ: PBIB), plan to ask that a $7 million verdict by a Jefferson Circuit Court jury against the bank be set aside.

Doug Sharp, special counsel to the president of PBI Bank, said in an interview that the bank’s attorneys plan to file an objection in writing, probably on Monday, “setting forth what we believe are the errors (made in the verdict) and our defenses.”

The jury on Tuesday night awarded $7 million in damages against PBI Bank, $5.5 million of which were punitive damages.

The case involves developer J. Scott Hagan and his former plan to build Signature Point, a complex 414 apartments and 299 condominiums on 90 acres off English Station Road, near Christian Academy of Louisville.

PBI lent Hagan more than $25 million to build the project, which was the largest loan in the PBI portfolio of loans at the time, said Larry Zielke, who is representing Hagan in the case.

The project went awry during the last recession, when the local condo market “hit the skids,” Zielke said. “You couldn’t give them away.”

PBI management asked Hagan to deed the property to PBI in exchange for forgiving the loan, Zielke said, and Hagan agreed if he could keep the 30 acres planned for apartments. While they were negotiating, Zielke said, the bank arranged to sell the apartment property to a third party, without telling Hagan.

Hagan eventually deeded all the property back to the bank, and the bank sold the apartment property for $3.7 million.

Hagan’s claim, Zielke said, was that by not telling him about the third-party offer for the property, the bank denied Hagan a business opportunity and failed its fiduciary duty to him.

Zielke said he plans to ask the court on Monday to enter a judgment in the case based on the jury’s verdict. But Sharp said PBI will ask the judge not to enter the judgment.

The judge’s options would include modifying the verdict or not entering it altogether, Sharp said.

He declined to say what errors the bank thinks were made, or what defenses the bank might use.

If the judge does enter a judgment, he said, the bank would have 30 days to appeal to the Kentucky Court of Appeals. But the trial judge “has the first opportunity to reverse what we think is error,” he added.

By Andrew Robinson – Reporter, Louisville Business First
May 17, 2013, 2:57pm EDT Updated May 17, 2013, 3:19pm EDT

Shelbyville Road Plaza has added another tenant.

The St. Matthews shopping center, which is owned by Hagan Properties Inc., recently added a Lane Bryant store.

Lane Bryant, which sells plus-sized clothing for women, opened earlier this month in a 5,000-square-foot space in the shopping center’s south end, near Off Broadway Shoes and Massage Envy, according to Tommy Edwards, leasing agent for Hagan Properties.

Shelbyville Road Plaza has had several new openings in the last several months, and announced earlier this year that it is adding a 33,000-square-foot Nordstrom Rack store.

Ross Dress For Less opened in March in a 28,000-square-foot space that had housed a Wild Oats store.

But a 26,000-square-foot space that previously housed a Borders bookstore remains vacant in the St. Matthews shopping center.

Edwards reiterated on Friday that Hagan officials still are determining whether the space should be leased as one space or be broken up for multiple tenants.