LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Rabbit Hole Distillery took a step forward Thursday with its plan to take over the block it occupies on East Jefferson Street in the NuLu area.
Rabbit Hole, which is majority-owned by French wine and spirits giant Pernod Ricard, has purchased a hodge-podge of buildings surrounding its distillery over the last two years and plans a campus spanning East Jefferson between South Clay and South Shelby streets.
All but two of the structures will be demolished, according to testimony at Thursday's meeting the Louisville Metro Planning Commission's land development and transportation committee.
Rabbit Hole isn't planning to produce more bourbon. Rather, the expansion is aimed at making it easier for semi-trucks to access the property for loading and unloading grain and distillate, reducing noise and eliminating truck idling on Jefferson Street, Rabbit Hole representatives said Thursday.
"The entire vision for this expansion was first and foremost to improve existing conditions," said Kaveh Zamanian, who founded Rabbit Hole in 2012 and still holds a stake in the company after the Pernod Ricard sale in 2019.
For example, the expansion will allow the company to stop barreling distillate on site, instead trucking the liquid to its rickhouses in Henry County for barreling and storage.
The plan also involves removing several curb cuts along Jefferson Street and burying the block's utilities.
The company plans tasting rooms, retail spaces and employee offices in hopes of making Louisville a waypoint for Pernod Ricard's U.S. operations.
Rabbit Hole began thinking about the expansion when the company learned that East Jefferson Street will eventually be converted to a two-way street, which would exacerbate the distillery's problems with managing truck traffic, Zamanian said.
The committee on Thursday cleared the Rabbit Hole plan for consideration by the full planning commission July 11.
The commission will recommend whether to approve a zoning change needed for the expansion, but the Metro Council will make the final decision later this year.
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