Nov 18, 2016, 7:13am EST
Churchill Downs Racetrack plans to spend $37 million to build a three-story addition that will add 1,800 seats in luxury suites, dining areas and a third-floor grandstand.
The 77,250-square foot Starting Gate Suites will be at the north end of the racetrack, next to the Jockey Club Suites.
The project will add as many as 36 luxury suites with indoor lounge seating and a private tiered balcony. It will have capacity for 1,140 people.
Each of the three levels in the addition will have event space with dining tables with room for 576 seats. The project also will include the construction of 110 third-floor grandstand seats.
“The Starting Gates Suites project is our next step in the company’s ongoing efforts to improve and enhance the facilities and the customer experience at Churchill Downs,” Kevin Flanery, president of Churchill Downs Racetrack, said in a news release. “The demand for Kentucky Derby and Kentucky Oaks tickets remains extraordinary, with the number of reserved seating requests vastly exceeding our available inventory on an annual basis.”
Churchill Downs is the flagship racetrack of Louisville-based Churchill Downs Inc. (Nasdaq: CHDN).
Carolyn Tribble Greer manages digital operations of the news department.
Churchill Downs Racetrack targets $16 million Clubhouse renovation
The racetrack, which is owned by Louisville-based Churchill Downs Inc., said Tuesday that it will invest $16 million into the renovation of the second floor of its Clubhouse facility, a popular spot during Kentucky Derby and Oaks day and other major events.
The racetrack also is creating a new Twin Spires Club Elite Gold Room for VIP bettors that will stand beside an expanded Champions Bar that will have new covered balconies and table seating with a view of the Paddock.
Also, the Aristides Lounge — an unfinished space used for select events — will be transformed into a permanent event space with table seating and a wall of 90-inch flat-screen televisions, the release said. Furthermore, the racetrack will debut The Loft at Aristides Lounge, an enhanced dining and simulcast wagering area.
In addition to the new lounge and dining options, all decor within the renovated Clubhouse area will be a mix of modern furnishings with historical context, reflecting the past and history of the legendary racetrack, according to the release.
“Churchill Downs places the highest emphasis on customer service, and we’re listening to what our guests have told us,” Kevin Flanery, president of Churchill Downs Racetrack, said in the release. “Through recent post-event surveys, customers have steadily told us that they’d prefer better flow in our facility with less time waiting in line, more restrooms and additional food offerings.”
The project is set to start after the fall meet concludes, which runs from Oct. 30 until Nov. 27, and will be completed before the start of the 2017 spring meet on Saturday, April 29, kicking off Kentucky Derby week.
This project follows an $18 million renovation of the racetrack’s Turf Club and other premier locations completed last year by Churchill Downs Inc. (Nasdaq: CHDN).
Racetrack officials said Tuesday that $87.4 million has been spent on major capital improvements to the racetrack in the past seven years and $209.8 million since a major Clubhouse and Grandstand renovation wrapped up in 2005.
Work on the Omni Hotel downtown pushes forward
Passersbys should see the Omni Louisville gaining some height.
The more than $300 million, 30-story hotel and residence should start adding two floors a month now that the foundation is in place. Workers have installed 1,200 pillars, totaling 17 miles in length, as part the foundation that will hold up the structure.
A look inside an Omni hotel room | Courtesy of Omni Hotel and Residences
Construction “will really accelerate” once the fourth floor slabs and columns are in place, according to an update on the construction.
Well ahead of the 2018 opening, the Omni Louisville will unveil model rooms later this month to show what the hotel rooms will look like, the update states. The room design was influenced by aspects of Louisville’s culture and by city landmarks.
Also this month, work on the Second Street median will wrap up. The existing median will be removed and replaced with a double turn lane so hotel guests and residents can access the Omni Louisville once it opens.
Once complete, the Omni will be the third tallest building in downtown Louisville, after National City Tower (40 floors) and 600 West Market (35 floors). —Caitlin Bowling
Homewood Suites hotel rips up parking lot at Seventh and Market
Bill Weyland isn’t the only one in town digging around in preparation for a new hotel. Tim Mulloy and the Poe Companies have also begun pre-construction work for a new eight-story Homewood Suites hotel on the northeast corner of Seventh Street and Market Street. Thanks to a tipster for alerting us to the activity.
We spoke with Tim Mulloy about the activity on the corner and he told us that while construction hasn’t yet begun, crews from LG&E are on site installing utility vaults.
“I’m actually walking back from that site right now,” Mulloy told Broken Sidewalk yesterday. “They just started digging Tuesday.” He said the vault is an important step before general construction can begin.
Work on the vault is expected to take around eight to nine weeks. “Our construction timeline has always been to start in late October or early November,” Mulloy added. If all goes according to plan, Mulloy said the hotel could be open by February 2018.
AT&T says Churchill Downs DAS handled record amount of peak data usage during Derby
by Ben Munson |
May 10, 2016 4:56pm
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AT&T (NYSE: T) and DAS provider Mobilitie have released some numbers for mobile data usage rates at Churchill Downs during the Kentucky Derby, including what the companies are calling a record of 815 GB used during a single hour.
The record for peak hourly usage occurred between 6 p.m. and 7 p.m. EST during the race and includes data that ran over the DAS network as well as over AT&T’s nearby Cells on Wheels (COW) and cell sites. Overall, the companies say AT&T customers near Churchill Downs burned through 11.4 terabytes of data during the weekend. The total means data use has grown 430 percent over the past four years.
The updates Mobilitie this year made to the underground server room and its managed distributed antenna system on site were designed to boost capacity by 50 percent. It ended up supporting more than twice the amount of data (4.3 terabytes) that ran over AT&T’s network last year.
The neutral-host DAS constructed by Mobilitie consists of more than 290 antennas and more than 1 million feet of fiber optic cable running through the venue.
In addition to AT&T, T-Mobile (NYSE:TMUS) also used Mobilitie’s DAS at Churchill Downs to support its customers mobile data usage.
For the entire Derby weekend, AT&T and Verizon (NYSE: VZ) saw a combined 20.15 terabytes of data — a total of Verizon’s 8.75 terabytes and AT&T’s 11.4. As Mobile Sports Report points out, that’s a big increase over the 2 terabytes AT&T customers used and the 1.37 terabytes Verizon customers used during the Kentucky Derby weekend two years ago.
Churchill Downs DAS Room
Horse racing in Kentucky dates back to 1789, when the first race course was constructed in Lexington. Almost 100 years later, in 1875, Churchill Downs officially opened its gates in Louisville, and began its tradition as “Home of the Kentucky Derby” and the longest continually running sporting event in America.
Calhoun Construction served as the Construction Manager/General Contractor building a DAS Room for their new telecommunications system. As the General Constractor we self-performed the metal stud framing, drywall hanging and finishing, ceiling, and paint. Maintaining an aggressive schedule and was able to complete the buildout prior to the start of the racing season.
AT&T (NYSE: T) and DAS provider Mobilitie released some numbers (after the 2016 Kentucky Derby) for mobile data usage rates at Churchill Downs during the Kentucky Derby, including what the companies are calling a record of 815 GB used during a single hour.
The record for peak hourly usage occurred between 6 p.m. and 7 p.m. EST during the race and includes data that ran over the DAS network as well as over AT&T’s nearby Cells on Wheels (COW) and cell sites. Overall, the companies say AT&T customers near Churchill Downs burned through 11.4 terabytes of data during the weekend. The total means data use has grown 430 percent over the past four years.
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Square Footage: 500 sq ft
Year Completed: 2016
Project Location: Louisville, KY
Contract Type: Construction Manager/General Contractor
In Construction: Louisville’s Omni Hotel now airborne as columns rise into sky
It’s been well over a month since we checked in with construction at the Omni Louisville Hotel in Downtown Louisville, and in that time the 30-story tower has risen off the ground. These things go fast when there’s minimal ground or subterranean work like an underground parking garage. So expect some dramatic concrete work to quickly rise up this summer.
The construction site as of last Thursday was distinctly vertical, resembling a sort of concrete hair growing upward from the former Water Company Block bound by Second Street, Liberty Street, Third Street, and Muhammad Ali Boulevard. Many columns will hold up the second floor ballroom space, which will have distinctly fewer columns. To bridge the enormous ballroom spaces and support the roof, a large steel structure will eventually be installed. Meanwhile, the L-shaped tower will continue to rise around the ballrooms.
Omni Louisville
The more than $300 million Omni Louisville Hotel includes 600 hotel rooms, 225 apartments, two convention ballrooms, and a mix of retail that includes a coffee shop, speakeasy with a bowling alley, restaurants, and an urban market. An enormous above ground parking garage will also be built on the site of the old Water Company Headquarters on Third Street, but so far its construction has been slower to start. (You can check out all the apartment buildings comprising Louisville’s current urban apartment boom here.)
The structure was designed by the hospitality division of Texas-based HKS Architects and interiors are the work of Dallas’ waldrop + nichols studio. Birmingham, Ala.–based Brasfield & Gorrie is serving as the project’s general contractor. Check out the latest interior and exterior renderings of the project from our coverage of the project’s ceremonial groundbreaking on January 29.
Omni Louisville Hotel
Omni Louisville Hotel
Omni Louisville Hotel
Omni Louisville Hotel
Omni Louisville Hotel
Omni Louisville Hotel
Omni Louisville Hotel
Omni Louisville Hotel
Omni Louisville Hotel
Omni Louisville Hotel
Omni Louisville Hotel
Omni Louisville Hotel
A newsletter from Omni sent to the Courier-Journal and Business First reports that construction progress is moving along on schedule to make its spring 2018 grand opening. That newsletter described what’s clearly visible on the site: that work on the structure’s auger-cast foundation is progressing and vertical support columns are rising off the ground. Omni Project Manager Jeremy Dawkins said construction activity will pick up this month as the tower conspicuously rises into the sky.
The construction newsletter went on to note that the project will require over two million linear feet of wire and half a million feet of conduit, according to Evelyn Strange, president of Louisville-based Advanced Electrical Systems (AES).
If you see anything noteworthy at the Omni Louisville Hotel Site or anywhere else around town, drop a note in our tipline or to tips@brokensidewalk.com.
When you'll start seeing major progress on Louisville's Omni Hotel
Jun 2, 2016, 12:13pm EDT
If you have passed the future home of the Omni Louisville Hotel lately, you probably noticed all the commotion on the site.
Crews have been on the site, bounded by Second, Third and Liberty streets and Muhammad Ali Boulevard, for a few months now, but it has only been lately that we have seen vertical progress.
Jeremy Dawkins, Omni project manager, said in a new Omni newsletter that the project is still on track for a spring 2018 opening.
The project’s general manager, Birmingham, Ala.-based Brasfield & Gorrie, also has tasked contractor F.A. Wilhelm Construction Co. Inc., of Indianapolis, to establish the vertical support columns that have begun dotting the construction site in the last week or two.
“Beginning in June, visual progress will start being made as the project officially begins to go vertical with construction of each floor,'” Dawkins said in the letter.
Evelyn Strange, president of Louisville-based Advanced Electrical Systems Inc., Omni’s prime electrical contractor, said AES is taking its electrical power for the Omni and its parking garage from five dedicated LG&E underground vaults.
But Strange noted in the newsletter that a challenge is working in this type of setting and its limited space because of the sheer number of hotel rooms and apartments planned.
AES has worked on major projects in Louisville before, including the KFC Yum Center and Ford Motor Co.’s Kentucky Truck Plant expansion.
As we have previously reported, the 30-story, 853,000-square-foot hotel and luxury apartment complex will have about 612 hotel rooms and 225 luxury apartments, an urban food market, multiple restaurants, meeting and conference center space and a speakeasy with bowling lanes, among other amenities. (Check out the attached gallery to see how it will look.)
The project has been estimated to cost nearly $300 million, with the city and the state partnering with Omni to cover the costs.
Marty Finley covers economic development, commercial real estate, government, education and sports business.
Churchill Downs Broadcast Control Room
Horse racing in Kentucky dates back to 1789, when the first race course was constructed in Lexington. Almost 100 years later, in 1875, Churchill Downs officially opened its gates in Louisville, and began its tradition as “Home of the Kentucky Derby” and the longest continually running sporting event in America.
Calhoun Construction Services served as the Construction Manager/General Contractor for the Churchill Downs Broadcast Control Room . The project consisted of demolition of the existing space, mechanical, electrical and architectural revisions to accommodate the new control room. The new Broadcast Control room houses the equipment and crew to produce simultaneously the “Big Board” and Churchill Downs Simulcast shows, and provide camera and data signals to NBC and NBCSN for their production of the Kentucky Derby.
[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_2″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid” saved_tabs=”all”]
Square Footage: 1,568 sq ft
Year Completed: 2016
Project Location: Louisville, KY
Contract Type: Construction Manager
Timeline Photos
[/et_pb_text][et_pb_gallery admin_label=”Gallery” fullwidth=”on” show_title_and_caption=”on” show_pagination=”off” background_layout=”light” auto=”off” hover_overlay_color=”rgba(255,255,255,0.9)” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid” gallery_ids=”3606,3605,3604,3603,3602,3601,3600,3599,3598,3597,3596,3595,3594,3593,3592,3591,3590,3589,3588,3587,3586,3585,3584,3583,3582,3581,3580,3579,3578,3577,3576,3575,3574,3573″ orientation=”landscape” module_class=”frame” /][et_pb_image admin_label=”Image” src=”http://www.calhounconstructs.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/churchill-logo.png” show_in_lightbox=”off” url_new_window=”off” animation=”off” sticky=”off” align=”left” force_fullwidth=”off” always_center_on_mobile=”on” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid” alt=”Churchill Downs logo” title_text=”Churchill Downs logo” use_overlay=”off” module_class=”frame” /][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][/et_pb_section]Stonehenge Condominiums
Stonehenge Condominiums is located in convenient St. Matthews, near expressways, malls, parks, restaurants and recycling facilities.
Owners are encouraged to stay involved in the management of their property. Stonehenge is an owner-managed community.
Calhoun Construction Services is serving as a trade contractor performing masonry repairs to the existing condominiums.
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Square Footage: N/A
Year Completed: 2016
Project Location: Louisville, KY
Contract Type: Trade Contractor