The Village in St. Matthews was scheduled to be opening right around now, but as you can see the parking lot on St. Matthews Avenue just off Shelbyville Road is still full of cars. The mixed-use project is being developed by Burdorf’s owner Allan Morris who is responsible for relocating the home and office furniture center from Distillery Commons to downtown St. Matthews in 2001. The planned three-story building will have retail on the ground floor and apartments and condos above with a rooftop garden.
The building formally faces St. Matthews Avenue but will share a parking lot with the Burdorf Center and will be accessible from both sides. In all, there will be 6,800 square feet of retail with 16 one- to two-bedroom apartments above with three floor plan options. The building is being designed by Brandstetter Carroll Architects of Lexington.
Originally planned to break ground last March, a major retailer interested in the project fell through and construction on the building now hinges on finding one or two retailers for the space. The developers are still excited about the project and expect to break ground next Spring.
The town center of St. Matthews is currently overrun by the massive Shelbyville Road and its mega-intersection with Chenoweth Lane, Westport Road, and Breckenridge Lane. Several years back, a traffic circle with a possible monument in the center was proposed after a traffic study, but St. Matthews business feared the loss of eight parking spots and nixed the idea.
Despite the many urban buildings lining its streets, St. Matthews still must build on its pedestrian character, filling in parking lots and widening sidewalks. The Village in St. Matthews project promises to propel this effort as it attempts to spread commercial activity from the corridor’s linear framework onto a more urban grid that allows for the dispersing of local traffic and enhancement of the pedestrian realm. Hopefully we’ll see bulldozers next year.
- Brandstetter Carroll Architects (Official Site)
This development is badly needed. St. Matthews is indeed beautiful, but is becoming summarily overrun by the Shelbyville Road/Breckenridge Lane corridors. This development would help reinstate a community feel in a very commercialized area of St. Matthews.
Christopher, I agree this development could really help to create a town feel for St. Matthews. There's been a lot of great things happening already, such as several projects at Lexington and Frankfort, but often when you get off the main road, the urban realm starts to deteriorate quickly. The location on St. Matthews Avenue is a great one right in the heart of downtown St. Matthews. Hopefully this one will move forward at some point.