SHELBY COUNTY, Ky. (WDRB) -- The bourbon industry in Kentucky is booming, even in Shelby County.

Construction is ongoing along Vigo Road, near Bagdad, Kentucky, where seven new 30,000-square-foot rickhouses are being built. Workers are currently finishing the second one.

Bob Koetter, CEO of the Indiana-based Koetter Group, is teaming up with The Spirits group to create a development called the Blending House. The 108-acre, $44 million project is designed to showcase the company's K-RAX Premium Barrel Storage system.

"We wanted to really showcase it so we wanted to build our own buildings," Koetter said.

Koetter said their modular system is a safer way to store bourbon barrels. Each rickhouse will store 20,000 barrels.

"We looked at a lot of property — Shelby, Henry, a lot of different counties — but we loved this piece of property," Koetter said.

Blending House Construction

The 108-acre, $44 million project is designed to showcase the company's K-Rax Premium Barrel Storage system. Aug. 22, 2023. (WDRB Photo)

But it won’t be the big bourbon companies who use this space. It was created for smaller, craft distilleries and private collections.

"The distilleries have built their facilities where they can distill more barrels, but then they are not keeping up with the barrel warehousing," Koetter said.

There will also be a 30,000-square-foot blending and bottling facility, one that will create about 20 jobs, a project Shelby County welcomes despite Kentucky rolling back its bourbon barrel tax.

"Certainly, it is a concern whenever we lose the tax revenue, especially from the bourbon industry, which is growing immensely strong throughout the commonwealth," Shelby County Judge Executive Dan Ison said.

Another reason Shelby County area was chosen is because of the county’s involvement with agriculture, especially a key bourbon ingredient: corn.

"How do we find a balance: what the company needs, what the citizens need and what adds to the quality of our life," Ison said.

The entire project does not have a finished timeline as of now, but the blending and bottling facility is expected to be completed by September 2024. 

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