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Louisville’s steady recovery from the depths of the COVID-19 pandemic was battered by the devastation of the Marshall Fire, but nine months later, the city’s downtown business district, dominated by independent small businesses, is thriving thanks to the strong bonds that residents and business owners developed while responding to those two tragedies.
Initial reports about the pandemic indicated that the impact would be short-term “but of course it turned into two years, and nobody was ready for it,” said Mark Oberholzer, vice president of Louisville’s Downtown Business Association and owner of the Louisville Underground entertainment and event space. “But I thought it really promoted a lot of innovation. People really started to look around at different things they could do, which I think is kind of the nature of small business owners. We’re always looking to improve things, to try something new.”
“In the weeks and months after the beginning of the pandemic, we changed almost everything about our service model,” said Andy Clark, owner of Moxie Bread Co., a bakery on Main Street. “We were just trying to figure out what the highest need was at that time and how to keep our staff busy and to best adapt to the new situation. We started making comfort food for preparation at home, meal kits for stuff like macaroni and cheese casseroles and lasagna.”
Residents responded positively to local business owners’ efforts to address their customers’ evolving needs, said Caleb Dickinson, who represents the downtown ward on Louisville’s City Council.
“None of these (downtown) businesses closed during the pandemic because the community held them up. People shopped locally and did everything they could to keep the businesses intact and whole,” he said.
Local businesses were aggressive and creative in responding to the pandemic’s challenges. Underground transformed itself from a traditional venue for live performances to a diversified live-streaming operation broadcasting everything from concerts and comedy shows to interactive trivia contests.
Bittersweet Café and Confections set up a pop-up bar behind its building that regularly changed its offerings, giving residents fresh reasons to come downtown, said Gillian Millar, president of the Louisville Chamber of Commerce.
“It kept changing, first a miracle Christmas bar, then it was a ski theme, and then tiki in the summer. Throughout all of that, they really reinvented themselves, encouraging people to eat downtown at restaurants and come there for the pop-up bar experience,” she said.
The Marshall Fire didn’t damage downtown Louisville. However, the district’s business owners banded together quickly to support residents of Louisville and Superior whose homes were destroyed or damaged by the blaze.
“So many people and so many business owners in Louisville kind of stopped everything and just gave all of their time and energy to supporting the victims of the fire and the first responders, dealing with the whole enormous weight of the chaos that was caused by that fire,” Moxie’s Clark said.
Downtown businesses that had benefited so much from community support during the pandemic responded in kind after the fire, Dickinson said, using their business contacts and entrepreneurial skills to support affected residents. The Underground provided free birthday parties for children who lost their homes, Oberholzer said. Bittersweet’s pop-up bar raised more than $50,000 for local nonprofit organizations, Millar said.
Several sources pointed to the impact of the Marshall Fire Free Store, a 3,000-square-foot “store” housed in donated retail space on McCaslin Boulevard that provided an expansive range of free clothing and comfort food. The Free Store was staffed by volunteers 16 hours a day for three months, becoming a flagship for the expansive and varied relief efforts targeted at Louisville and Superior residents.
Operating the store was both emotionally rewarding and draining, said Eric Reed, the owner of Acme Fine Goods, who spearheaded that endeavor.
“Our store became a very, very safe and comforting place for people to come,” he recalled. “We had people who were living in hotels who would come in every day to get soup and chat with the people there. People who had lost everything needed time to talk and let their emotions out.”
The downtown business district contains 21% of Louisville’s 670 businesses, according to the city website, and those businesses are thriving, Dickinson said. Half of downtown’s businesses are in the service sector, with the other large segments being places to eat and drink, about 22% of businesses, and retail operations, which comprise 15% of enterprises.
Sales tax revenues and vacancy rates are two important indicators of a commercial district’s economic vibrancy, he said, and downtown’s current sales tax revenues are 10% above 2019’s pre-pandemic levels.
“This year, through July, we’re up 17.5% from last year. Every month in 2022 has been higher than that month in the previous year,” he said.
Downtown’s vacancy rate is static at about 8%, which is comparable to previous years and about the average for the whole city, Dickinson said.
“You always want some vacancies to allow for something new to come in, but you don’t want prolonged vacancies or rates up in the teens or 20s,” he said, calling 8% “a healthy number.”
Vacancies tend to be short-lived, Dickinson added, with established businesses that need to grow often moving to new locations within downtown. Millar pointed to Pitter Patter Children’s Boutique recently moving into a larger location on Front Street followed by The Archer + The Ram, a new artisanal gift boutique and women’s clothing store, opening in their old space on Main Street.
New businesses regularly open downtown, Dickinson said, noting that “the whole community is excited about Snarf’s” sandwich shop coming to Main Street and South Boulder Road in the near future. Renovation on a 7,500-square-foot building at South and Main has been completed, although the tenant has not been finalized, he said.
Other projects approved by the city include:
• The original Main Street location of the Waterloo restaurant is slated for redevelopment that will retain the building’s historic façade but add a rooftop deck.
• Home builder Boulder Creek Neighborhoods plans to revamp its Main Street office into a two- to three-story office and retail space called Terraces on Main.
• A parking lot on Front Street will be the site of a two-story development with commercial on the first floor and residential upstairs.
Enthusiasm about downtown is so pervasive that vacancies are seen as opportunities more than problems. Chase Bank closed its downtown branch in July, leaving a prime space on Main Street for new development, Millar said, adding “I’m excited to see what might go in there.”
Downtown Louisville is not immune to the obstacles faced by businesses across the country. Staff shortages appear to be the biggest issue facing downtown businesses, Millar said. Some businesses are also facing supply-chain interruptions.
“Packaging has been really hard to secure, and a lot of items that were in good supply at distributors are suddenly not there, and you don’t get much notice so there’s a lot of scrambling going on to keep the business running smoothly,” Moxie’s Clark said.
Businesses are concerned about potentially needing to raise prices in response to their higher costs.
“Our food and labor costs have gone up significantly over the past couple years,” Clark said. “We haven’t changed the quality of what we offer, so we’re still sourcing the best ingredients we can, so it’s likely that over time, price increases just become something you have to do to remain stable on your financials.”
What makes downtown Louisville distinctive, Dickinson said, is that it’s dominated by small independent businesses whose owners are personally involved in operations.
“When almost every business is owned by a person who lives here, and they work in the business, it feels authentic and real,” he said.
“There are people that are working really hard to make sure this town stays vibrant, but also has that small town feel,” Acme’s Reed said.
When customers come in multiple times each week, they become friends, Clark said. Moxie has celebrated that connection by holding evening pizza parties and Friday night jam sessions in the bakery’s backyard.
“Pizza nights are just about hanging out with your friends and your customers, playing music and enjoying beautiful summer nights with good food and spirits,” he said.
Downtown’s major value is serving as a gathering place for the entire community, Dickenson said.
“One thing we all understand is the sales tax revenue in this little three- to four-block area is never going to be what keeps the lights on, but downtown is the heart of Louisville. Without this, the town feels different,” Dickinson said. Downtown restaurants, concerts and social activities like the farmers’ market are a magnet for Louisville residents no matter where they live, he said.
Downtown is “a small percentage of our sales tax but it’s a huge part of our image and our quality of life. Being there makes people happier and has a ripple effect on a lot of different things. “
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