Louisville entrepreneur talks about revitalizing the west Louisville community where he grew up

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Donnie Adkins grew up in west Louisville, and now he's a successful real estate investor, restaurateur and entrepreneur.

A local business magazine recently recognized Adkins as among 20 people to watch in real estate. Adkins stopped by WDRB Mornings on Monday to talk about how he helped play a significant role in revitalizing the community he grew up in.

"I'm originally from Louisville, Kentucky," Adkins said. I was born and raised in Southwick, from zero — birth — until 17 years old when they actually tore the buildings down. After that, my family moved to 2414 W. Muhammad Ali, apartment 2, the Russell neighborhood. I went to high school here, went to college here, and then I left. So that was a pivotal time in my life when I moved to Indianapolis."

Adkins said he got married in Indianapolis then convinced his new wife to return with him to Louisville.

"People always ask me: 'Why did you come back to Louisville?'" Adkins said. "Because I owed it to this neighborhood."

Adkins said his road to becoming an entrepreneur started with a janitorial service.

"The first business that I ever had in life was a janitorial business, and I parlayed that janitorial business and an MBA into owning the bar and restaurant I used to go to during college, which, as everybody knows, is Club Cedar," he said.

Adkins then became owner of Joe's Palm Room.

"So I've been in the restaurant-bar space for the last three, three and a-half years, and it has not been easy," he said. "We first bought Club Cedar during the pandemic, so that meant no customers, no banks. So my wife and I, we actually had to bankroll a lot of this out of our pockets. So all of the mistakes that we've made, all of the wins and mistakes, were squarely on our shoulders."

Adkins said education is important no matter what your future plans are.

"The first thing I would say to any young person is education is important," Adkins said. "Not only education, but I think, for adults, we need to show. They're not listening to us right now, so we actually need to show them why education is important."