Wednesday, January 17, 2007

B&W Tower's new Tenant


Wednesday it was announced that Smoothstone, one of Louisville's fastest growing private companies, will abandon it's corporate headquarters along West Main Street for larger digs in the Brown & Williamson Tower. They will take the first two floors of the tower as well as space located in Fourth Street Live which was originally slated for a fitness club. That club later declared bankruptcy and was never opened. The space in Fourth Street Live has been vacant ever since the opening in 2004.

The B&W Tower, which was largely vacated by the tobacco giant in 2004 after a merger with North Carolina based R J Reynolds Tobacco Company, has seen it's floor fill up this past year. In fact, nearly 65% of the space that was ;eft by B&W has now been absorbed. In 2006 Atria Senior Living also committed to taking the top five floors, or nearly 75,000 square feet of space, after leaving the Hilliard Lyons Centre. Hilliard Lyons moved to the PNC Plaza in late 2006, and now the building bearing their name is seen as a residential/retail rehab opportunity.

Smoothstone, a communications company, reportedly also scouted for space in Atlanta and Chicago before being offered tax incentives to stay and expand in Louisville. Under their current plan they will increase their number of employees from the current 50 to 125. Pay will be in the range of 75,000 to 150,000 dollars per year.

In a fairly mediocre economy, it is good to see a local company expand and create dozens of good paying jobs - which is something Louisville needs desperately.

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