Main Street mystery, new restaurant-same address as Mortons?

Main Street mystery: Is the St. Charles Exchange opening at 626 W. Main St. replacing Morton’s steakhouse?
By Staff | Published: February 16, 2012
This is out of the blue.
We just saw a blog post on Eater.com that says two Philadephia drinking and dining operations are collaborating on The St. Charles Exchange, a new restaurant in Louisville, Kentucky.
And the address mentioned is 626 W. Main St., which happens to be the same address as the Louisville location for Morton’s Steakhouse.

Link:
http://insiderlouisville.com/news/2012/02/16/main-street-mystery-is-the-st-charles-exchange-opening-at-626-w-main-st-replacing-mortons-steakhouse/

Another interesting point in the article is that they are planning in opening in April. If they were going to be in a new section of the building news they would obviously have to have construction well underway by now. Has anyone seen any construction going on in that area? If that I think the rumor about it replacing Morton's could be true.

The city has issued three permits (building, electrical, HVAC) for the St. Charles Exchange, with a total work cost estimated at $700,000. I know nothing about restaurant construction; does that sound like they're taking over the Morton's space, or renovating a different space? The permits were all issued within the last week or so.

$700,000 is kind of in the middle. It doesn't seem high enough to build a completely new high end restaurant even in an existing building but it sounds too high to just change over a restaurant like Morton's which I'm sure already has high end equipment. Also if the opening date of April is accurate there is certainly not enough time to build a new restaurant from scratch.

I do know that Morton's has been closing some restaurants aroud the country, but I have no idea about the one here.

Brown-Forman owns the building. Everyone shares the 626 W. Main Street address. There are some BF folks working there. They are probably putting the restaurant in the area on the first floor corner across from 21 C or in the area just east of that space, which was where the Lewis and Clark BiCentennial display was located.

from website "In 1999, Brown-Forman returned to its roots by purchasing and restoring two historic buildings on Main Street. The transformation of the Bernheim and St. Charles buildings resulted in the creation of contemporary downtown office space known as 626 West Main."

FWIW- I walked past Morton's today and they seem to bepretty well. Interesting though that a corporation whose target audience makes at least six figures is selling $7 burger bites.

Apparently Morton's will remain open. The original post at Insider Louisville has been updated:

UPDATE: Minutes after this story was posted, Jennifer Montgomery, the Louisville-based publicist for The St. Charles called to say its owners stressed “that The St. Charles will not replace Morton’s. The two restaurants will operate in the same building.”

FWIW- I walked past Morton's today and they seem to bepretty well. Interesting though that a corporation whose target audience makes at least six figures is selling $7 burger bites.

Not to tout a chain or anything, but Morton's bar menu is da bomb.

Official website for the restaurant: http://www.stcharlesexchange.com/

Official website for the restaurant: http://www.stcharlesexchange.com/

Looks fantastic!

Official website for the restaurant: http://www.stcharlesexchange.com/

Looks fantastic!

Definately looks interesting - looking forward to giving it a try.

Certainly looks interesting and the architecture looks spectacular!

thier website is already one of the best in town, and that's without a menu! this place looks very interesting.

WOW!!!! Beautiful graphics and photos. What a wonderful thing it would be to have that kind of high level talent to create a concept. I look forward to experiencing the restaurant.