410 Bakery (you know, where Abe's Rental used to be) slated to open on Wednesday morning ... and Kopp's on fire.

Our most recent glance in the direction of 140 E. Main Street came on October 4.

Preview: 410 Bakery coming to 140 East Main Street in downtown New Albany.

410 Bakery is a modern bakery in downtown New Albany, Indiana specializing in artisan breads, french pastries, and espresso beverages.

Meanwhile, Mike Kopp is putting points on the board across the street from the new bakery.

Birdseye, here we come: Is Vincennes Street to be the next victim of non-Speck "beautification"?

The Green Mouse called the phone number, which is posted on what used to be Tommy Lancaster's Restaurant on Market Street, near Vincennes, and was told the city of New Albany has a contract for the building.

Previously, people in the neighborhood told the Green Mouse that realtor Mike Kopp was working on a plan to buy property behind the Lancaster's location, perhaps including the adjacent Market Boy. The word used was "retail," which the Green Mouse suggests we might pronounce as "suburban strip mall chain dreck."

But there's even more.

The Green Mouse passes along yet another rumor heard out on the mean streets: The city wants to "beautify" Vincennes in precisely the same utterly misguided fashion as Main Street, entirely ignoring the street design proposals made by reigning universal expert Jeff Speck in his study, and doing so all the way from Main to New Albany High School.

It's hard for me to say this, but we must be realistic in the face of these vandals: If the fate of Jeff Speck's downtown street network proposals is for them to be systematically stripped of design significance and Gahanized into unrecognizable mush -- gutted, Dugginsed, shrouded in non-transparent secrecy and timidly implemented piecemeal over a period of years -- then it might be preferable to do nothing at all, and hope we can start all over in 2019.

However, there is one mayoral candidate committed to doing it correctly ...

City jumps the gun on Coyle site, forcing Indy developer to flaunt the wrong image.

Uh huh. Nothing political in any of it. Think of the image below as Jeff Gahan's "sez you" to David White's riverfront skyscrapers, and it makes much more sense.

Yesterday the city of New Albany announced a preliminary deal to incentivize an Indianapolis investor to construct "upscale" residential buildings on the former Coyle property. The story itself can be found at the News and Tribune, so take it from Daniel. I'll begin what is sure to be an animated chat by focusing on the image used to accompany the story, and leave the dissection until we know how much this is going to cost us.

To be succinct, this is not the building planned for New Albany. Michigan Street is in Indianapolis, hence the following exchange with Mike Kopp on Twitter. I really appreciate Mike replying to my questions. Most City Hall denizens don't.

Kopp: New Downtown Apartments (photo as above)

Baylor:  But the view is in Indy, right? A bit misleading. Is there a drawing of the NA project?

Kopp: They were not expecting to do a press release so soon but provided the rendering as it is similar to what they have planned.

Baylor: Thanks. My opinion: Drawing does harm to Speck street advocacy by showing a one-way street. Avoidable error.

Kopp: But again they did not anticipate the City press release. I'm sure actual renderings will follow upon review & approval.

And then this:

Baylor: But let's go a step further: What is the developer's stance on streets? Interstates or Specks?

Kopp: I can't speak for the developer but I believe they found 2 way more favorable I would imagine public discussion by summer.

Mike Kopp left this one off the downtown checklist.

Arguably, it's nearly as important as a tanning salon. Thanks to GC for the idea.

"New Albany's first LGBT bar is now open."

Surprise: These two Main Street buildings have been sold.

Mike Kopp reports two sales on Main Street. Previously the two smaller properties were regarded as dispensable in the context of larger plans for the moldering Reisz building, but now, Mike says they'll both be rehabbed. The image is lifted from his web site.

Mike Kopp and Picasso.

Uptown Art (New Albany) got uncorked last night downtown, and begins regular operations today. It's located on Bank Street across from Bank Street Brewhouse, and adjacent to Stylin' Irish salon and Dragon King's Daughter.

Potemkin sheen, or the sheer grandeur of Bill Allen's block.

Last month at NAC: "Do we commend the building's owner for doing something/anything after these many years, or do we ask inconvenient questions about facades vs. structural soundness? Or do we just keep drinking?"

Nice. At least he's painting the plywood window coverings.

Mike Kopp posted this on Twitter earlier today. Do we commend the building's owner for doing something/anything after these many years, or do we ask inconvenient questions about facades vs. structural soundness? Or do we just keep drinking?

"Let's not build a stadium."

Where does the proposed River View development fit into a vision like this one?

In a way, thinking small is the next logical step in America’s urban renaissance. 

As we seek to situate the comparative "bigness" of River View within the burgeoning small + indie New Albanian context, it's worth recalling a post earlier this week, in which I opened with this thought: Mike Kopp's updates on Twitter are much appreciated."

Indeed, they are, and I was not being snarky or ironic in stating such. But with respect to River View, consider that Mike's three most recent announcements about prospective business openings all describe the adaptive reuse of pre-existing, older buildings not at all associated with River View, for whom he's been doing a fair amount of retail chain fishing in places like Las Vegas.

Remember that condominiums, once River View's sole conceptual selling point (downtown residency being the object, right?), have long since been taken off the project's front burner and placed somewhere out in the yard, near the compost heap, and about as far away from the stove as humanly possible. Now there must be retail and professional occupancy in order to reach the transitional stage of rental apartments -- all of it occurring well before condos are even contemplated.

None of it seems to have mattered to the city's bedazzled politicos, who stare entranced at the glimmering artist's renditions of River View like a 12-year-old in 1972 unearthing his Penthouse from under the mattress.

The point here is this: Given the paucity of PR emanating from the realtor (not a common phenomenon), either the River View retail fishing's been pretty bad, or the catch too embarrassingly undersized to display publicly. Isn't it about time for someone to be standing on the dock, photographed with the big one?

Just curious, that's all.

Stop thinking big

Forget stadiums: Let's build a pop-up park. Smart cities know the future is cooler, cheaper -- and smaller

BY WILL DOIG
Last week, a press release from Chicago’s Office of the Mayor proclaimed something that would have sounded like a Yes Men prank just a few years ago: Rahm Emanuel, it said, has a plan to get rid of the city’s “excess asphalt.”

It wasn’t a proposal for a big new park or recreational facility, but a plan to take little bits of public space here and there — streets, parking spots, alleyways — and turn them into places for people. It was the latest example of a municipal government taking an active role in tactical urbanism, that low-cost, low-commitment, incremental approach to city building — the “let’s not build a stadium” strategy.

Open windows, sidewalks, and downtown reinforcements.

Mike Kopp's updates on Twitter are much appreciated. I have advice after reading his two most recent tweets.

As for Dragon King's Daughter, I'd recommend they inform the health department from the start that there'll be windows there intended for opening (as windows historically have been). After all, I wouldn't want DKD to be as confused as we at Bank Street Brewhouse were, when three and a half years later, it finally occurred to the healthocrats that garage doors tend to be installed for the express purpose of lifting them.

And then there's the sidewalk in front of Ryan's and Ian's new establishments on Main Street. I'm guessing it's been decades since any work was done there, as was the case at BSB, where the sidewalk hadn't been touched for more than fifty years, and yet the hooded troglodytes continue to criticize the city for "giving" businesses new sidewalks -- when in reality, the sidewalks are for everyone in the city, including the troglodytes, who evidently never leave their cars to walk.

Welcome to downtown, guys. Little by little, we win, and your presence will help quite a lot.

Tweets 

8hMike Kopp ‏@kopptherealtor

@DKDLouisville similar look and feel to the open atmosphere at Dragon Kings Daughter for Downtown New Albany location.http://pic.twitter.com/n1ZK4st2

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8hMike Kopp ‏@kopptherealtor

@FeastBBQ @TheNAExchange get new sidewalks in front of their establishments for future patrons and a safer walkway.http://pic.twitter.com/lF80aTmt

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Exciting revised sketches reveal River View's new clothes.

Oops -- my bad. It's the book I recently finished, not the new drawings of River View.

However, at Tuesday morning's Merchant Mixer meeting, Mike Kopp showed them to attendees, with the comment that the previous architect never properly finished illustrating the exteriors, which led to some people (even politicians, those most reliable arbiters of taste) having a bad impression of the project.

Mike also showed us the floor plan of the 4,800-sq. ft., top-of-the-line condo, priced at $1.2 million. He reported that within days, fresh information and visuals will be released to the public, and that all systems are go for the developers to begin accepting letters of commitment and deposits.

Degrees of separation: DNA, Kopp, Mainland, River View and the "apolitical" blues.

At NAC, we're still scratching our heads over Develop New Albany's well-documented failure, when asked, to take a stand on bridge tolls.

In sidestepping the issue, DNA cited non-profit organizational restrictions that may or may not apply to the strong probability of an involuntary tax on mobility harming DNA's "Main Street" by reducing an influx of consumer money from Kentucky, while at the same time taking money out of the pocketbooks of local residents.

Expressing such a logical sentiment about dollars and sense, especially given the ongoing and inexplicable absence of an small business economic impact study from the clerely unreliable Bridges (Tolling) Authority, could not possibly be construed as political -- could it?

It is curious, then, that after indicating an institutional reluctance to be involved with "politics," DNA now regards the controversial River View riverfront development project as conflict-free fair game for announcing an opinion.

Accordingly, DNA turned out in force at the April 4 city council meeting to show the organization's support for Mainland Property's proposed use of anywhere between $12 and $18 million in captured TIF tax revenue to build a parking garage to serve as collateral to complete the developer's for-profit condos and shops. As we've pointed out time and again, supporting a similar public-private partnership for the YMCA is one thing, and for a for-profit firm quite another ... especially when DNA's former president and current membership chair, Mike Kopp, is listed in the "about us" section at River View's website.

This is by no means "personal," even if New Albanians as a whole insist on believing that differing viewpoints constitute epic blood feuds. They do not. All I'm saying is this: There was a palpable stench when council person Bob Caesar, whose business is a member of One Southern Indiana, vigorously advocated giving economic development money to 1Si.

Granting the existence of varying interpretations of conflict of interest, is it not fair to note in the most general of senses that Mike's involvement with both the project's developer and the non-political organization touring the development is, shall we say, unusual?

Even if the answer is "no," why aren't we discussing this aloud? Let's at least hope that Mike abstained from the vote -- if there was one.

Michael Kopp

Founder and Principal Broker of Blue Sun Real Estate Services. Michael “Mike“ Kopp, has served the Indiana and Kentucky commercial real estate markets since 2003. Prior to becoming a Commercial Real Estate Professional, Mike held positions of supervisor, plant manager and general manager in the environmental field for 15 years handling hazardous and non-hazardous materials.

Mike served as President of Develop New Albany during 2009 – 2010, and as an active member since January of 2007. Develop New Albany is a not-for-profit Main Street Program, whose mission it is to preserve the history and architecture of the local downtown area and revitalize the downtown businesses. Mike encourages everyone to join Develop New Albany (or like organizations) within their communities to help build and grow their community to make it a better place to live for all.

Mike Kopp and downtown New Albany dining in the C-J.

A link I missed earlier in the week:

Restaurants revitalize New Albany; Downtown booster Mike Kopp credited along with streamlined liquor licenses, by Jenna Esarey (Special to the Courier-Journal)

... Fueling the restaurant boom to an extent was the creation of the Riverfront District. The state allows New Albany to sell the normally difficult-to-acquire liquor licenses within the district for $1,000.

“We are not creating an area full of bars,” said Kopp.

“Toast has a liquor license so they can sell mimosas with breakfast. La Rosita is relocating downtown so they can sell margaritas.”

There's a deep discussion waiting, although I'm not entirely sure there's time for it today.

Tribune Sunday shout-out to Kopp, DNA.

Southern Indiana Realtor now president of Develop New Albany; Kopp hits the ground running, by Daniel Suddeath (News and Tribune)

Mike Kopp’s eyes grow wider and his words come out a little faster when he talks about the potential for downtown.

Chosen as president of Develop New Albany in January, Kopp’s passion for seeing the city’s core bloom is hard to hide.

“My soul interest is building a better downtown,” Kopp said.

Damned spell check … it doesn’t tell you when you’ve correctly rendered the incorrect word, but the transposition has me thinking: A better downtown may not be my “sole” interest, but certainly better beer is a “soul” interest, and combining the two seems like a reasonable career move for me.

I’m also a member of develop New Albany’s board, and the organization has made substantive progress during the past two and a half years. As with the city itself, there’s plenty of room for improvement, and much yet to be done; however, permit my observation that DNA’s board is filled with hard-working, civic-minded people who believe in progress and are giving it their all. Without that, there’s little point to any of it.

What every reader needs to understand is that this community’s singular, signature failure remains an almost genetic unwillingness to organize for strength and to cooperate across boundaries, which sometimes are tribal or political, but more often are purely imaginary, and infuriatingly subject to injections of malice and mistrust at the proverbial drop of a hat.

It’s senseless … and somehow enduring.

Meanwhile, the anonymous troglodytes prattle on about the city being broke, as though this constitutes a unique excuse to vegetate, and yet our primary deficiencies as an urban aggregation must be reckoned in inexplicable absences of willpower and imagination, not strictly in dollars.

Organizations like DNA, the UEZ and the city’s own development offices aren’t perfect. But they’re trying. Efforts are underway to place all these mechanisms at one table for the purpose of cracking skulls and curing the dysfunctions of finger-pointing and sniping, so that we might get on with the business of accomplishing something while the window of opportunity remains ajar. I for one applaud these efforts, and hope perhaps they might serve as inspiration for the city’s neighborhoods to do the same.

I’m optimistic.

If not, we wouldn’t be making the investment in downtown. You see, we've been able to round up the money, and still the prime component is the willingness to plan and the desire to succeed. Without the fire in your belly, the money's destined to purchase failure -- and failure's just not an option.

C-J's Moss sees good things downtown, and Bistro New Albany celebrates Year One.

Two days after your correspondent spent an informative hour and a half with the amazing Mike Kopp – time well spent to scan a future that still eludes fully half the current city council – the Courier-Journal’s Dale Moss devoted his Sunday column to the undeniable New Albanian renaissance that Mike is doing so very much to facilitate:

Downtown New Albany shows signs of vitality; Restaurant, other businesses a step in the right direction.

Kopp, 44, is a New Albany native who sells and leases commercial real estate. If he wins all for downtown that he envisions, a street should be renamed in his honor. He's talking a regional arts center and a plaza and condos. A jazz club is also in the plans.

The restaurant in question is the Bistro New Albany, which coincidentally will be celebrating its first year in business tonight, on Monday evening, April 30, from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. All readers are invited to come and celebrate.

Owner, chef and occasional misfit clown Dave Clancy will be providing free appetizers, and there'll be a cash bar for beer (including NABC - note that I'll be buying a few rounds of progressive pints for the like-minded), wine and BNA's recently acquired and steadily growing selection of top-shelf spirits. Go here for a current beer list.

See you there? I hate to miss the NBA playoffs, especially after last night's stellar Golden State triumph over the heavily favored Mavs, but BNA is more important for New Albany.