LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- The former Brown & Williamson building at 4th and Liberty streets will soon get a multimillion-dollar makeover, upgrades meant to keep existing tenants and attract new ones to the downtown Louisville high-rise.
KennMar, bought 401 S. 4th Street in April 2023 for $9 million. Doug Owen, senior vice president of real estate brokerage JLL, the building's leasing agent, said his team hopes to refresh what is now known as the 401 S. 4th Street Tower.
"You want that employee to fee like there's other places they can work within the facility outside of just their office or their cube," he said Tuesday. "As we watch that demand come into downtown, one of the chief things employees and employers want are amenities."
Those amenities will include a revamped and updated lobby. complete with an outdoor patio and coffee shop. The building will also have new lounges and common areas with TVs and a state-of-the art gym, all for the tenants that are often looking for a smaller office footprint but higher quality.
"What we found during COVID is there is a very strong demand to want to work outside," Owen said. "And so outside spaces are now becoming very important."
About eight floors of the 26-story tower at South 4th and West Liberty streets are available for lease, according to a real estate listing, in keeping with the roughly 25% vacancy rate for "Class A" office space in Louisville's Central Business District.
Owen said KennMar's plans signify the "flight to quality" in the office market. With high rates of vacancy, building owners who invest in their properties are the ones attracting tenants.
This is just the latest downtown office building to be geared toward not only retention of tenants but bringing in new ones. The nearby 500W building poured $40 million into its renovation last year, it, too, focusing heavily on amenities. The decision to remodel was made prior to the COVID-19 pandemic stripping down a chunk of the downtown workforce, but years later, nearly $40 million in renovations transformed the building in the hopes of returning it to its days of full capacity.
"I think this is really good news, showing the strength that people are still interested in being downtown Louisville and in downtowns in general," said Jeff O'Brien, executive director of economic development for Louisville Metro Government.
While JLL won't yet say much the 4th Street tower renovation will cost, it's working with the city's $3 million lease and parking incentive program for new businesses.
"That is how we want to be: partners with our tenants and with their businesses to help employ retention, help employ attractiveness, and help the return to work for the employer," Owen said.
The renovations are set to begin in April with completion estimated by the end of 2025.
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