By Jeffrey Morris
Just weeks after the university announced the Reynolds Building would be renovated into condominiums, another industrial site near campus got slated for an upgrade. Local investment group Preston Thomas Properties purchased the former Brown Lumber building, located on Fourth Street between Industry Road and Winkler Avenue, and plans to bring in more leasees and improve the building’s exterior appearance.
Built in the 1920s, the building was first used for lumber storage by the Brown Company. During World War II, it switched to making bomber planes for the war effort. However, like other industrial buildings in the South Louisville neighborhood, as industry moved out of the area in the 1970s, the building could not maintain the same capacity. It has since been used mostly for metals storage and was owned and maintained by people outside of Kentucky. The former owners did little to improve the aesthetics of the building.
The building will continue to be used as industrial storage, but it will see improvements in appearance and usage. Andrew Owen, one of the new owners, said that the main goal is to get the building used at 100 percent capacity. Currently, only 65 percent of the available space is leased out. Owen said that the exterior of the property will be better maintained than in recent years.
