Louisville Real Estate News

Starks Building owner asks Colonnade to vacate by Sept. 30
by Richard Slawsky
Business First Staff Writer

The Colonnade Cafeteria, which has been serving breakfast and lunch to downtown workers for nearly 100 years, will close this fall, according to the restaurant’s owners.

The Colonnade began operating in 1913 and has been in its current location in the basement of the Starks Building since 1926.

The exact closing date hasn’t been decided, but Colonnade co-owner Chuck Krill said the building’s owner, Northbrook, Ill.-based Allstate Life Insurance Co., sent a letter to Krill’s attorney asking the cafeteria to vacate the site by Sept. 30

“We are negotiating that right now,” Krill said. “Our lease is up Nov. 30 of this year, but we will not last that long.”

Officials from Allstate and the building’s leasing agent, CB Richard Ellis/Louisville, did not return calls seeking comment on plans for the site.
Plans for building unknown

According to Jefferson County Property Valuation Administrator records, Allstate bought the 346,000-square-foot Starks Building in June 2004 for $14.3 million. Business First reported in 2004 that at the time of the sale, 58 percent of the building was vacant.

The PVA Web site lists the assessed value of the property at $10 million.

Another longtime tenant has not been asked to leave. Susan Davis, wife of Seng Jewelers LLC owner Lee Davis, said Seng Jewelers was granted a five-year extension on its lease, which expired in December.

Neither Davis nor Krill are sure what Allstate’s plans are, however.

“They have never said a word to us on what they are planning,” Krill said. “I’ve heard rumors, but I honestly don’t know what is going on.”

Krill isn’t sure what will happen to the Colonnade, he said, but he hopes to find another site for the eatery.

“We have looked downtown and are still looking,” Krill said. “A few of the locations we’ve looked at are just too expensive for a breakfast and lunch operation.”