LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- A dying shopping center at the intersection of Taylorsville Road and Breckenridge Lane is getting a new life, and it all started with free chicken.
KFC opened a new flagship restaurant Thursday at 2945 Breckenridge Ln. in Hikes Point. The first 50 people in line won free chicken for a year.
Customer Jory Rhodes started waiting in line at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday. The doors opened 10:30 a.m. Thursday.
"I probably got two hours of sleep," Rhodes said. "I just brought a pillow and blanket and slept in the car."
The KFC is the first of several new additions to the struggling shopping center at one of the area’s busiest intersections, near the Watterson Expressway and Interstate 64.
A CVS recently broke ground next to KFC and plans to open before the end of 2019.
The embattled Kmart building, just across from CVS, was one of four area Kmarts to close three years ago. The space has yet to be filled.
Steve Lowry of McMahan Groups, which owns the property, said the group was forced to change the plans for the building three times.
"We've gone through several different tenants," Lowry said. "We had leases signed with some retail tenants, dress clothing stores. Then we had leases signed with a large office tenant here in Louisville, and that office tenant was bought out by another company, so they went away."
Lowry said he hopes to announce a deal to open a mixed retail and office space in the building by the end of the year but he's not certain who the new tenants will be.
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