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Following Last Year’s Downtown Blaze, Work On Old Forester Tourist Destination To Begin
By Richard Thomas
The necessary work permit was finally issued on Tuesday, January 19th, for Brown-Forman’s project to build a tourist destination for Old Forester on downtown Louisville’s Whiskey Row.
This project was delayed by a three-alarm fire last July in the two buildings adjacent to the lot. Brown-Forman had originally project completion of the Old Forester destination by autumn of this year, but in the aftermath of the fire they pushed that back to sometime in 2017.
The permit describes a roughly 70,000-sq. foot facility, using the existing historic facade and occupying four floors. More permits will need to be issued at a later date for other details, such as the restaurant intended for the destination. Construction will be done by Louisville-based Messer Construction Co.
Like the neighboring Evan Williams Experience, the Old Forester project should be looked at as both a functioning micro-distillery and a tourist attraction. Old Forester is intended to produce 100,000 cases of bourbon per year, much as the Evan Williams Experience turns out a barrel’s worth of bourbon per day.
