Resch, Sprigler, Bass and Donaldson present plans for Union Restaurant & GameYard, a new downtown Jeffersonville entertainment center.

Not quite the resonance of CSN&Y, but give them time. Also not to be confused with Pints&union, mind you.

Back in August we had a look-see.

Steve Resch plans a new entertainment venue in Jeffersonville.

Unnoticed Ironies, Volume 3,465: While everyone loses their minds about parking for this new venue, (a) considerable housing is being erected nearby within walking distance, and (b) the prime force "driving" folks to downtown Jeffersonville continues to be the Big Four pedestrian/bicycling bridge.

Plans surface for new downtown Jeffersonville entertainment venue, by John Boyle (Bill Hanson's Tom May's Pulpit)

JEFFERSONVILLE — The vision for a new downtown entertainment venue is becoming more clear now that the proprietors have released their plans.

At Tuesday's Jeffersonville Board of Zoning Appeals and Plan Commission meeting, developers Steve Resch and Chad Sprigler revealed plans for a project that will sit near the corner of Pearl and West Chestnut streets, directly adjacent to Parlour.

"What we're bringing to the table is an asset to Jeff," Resch said. "It's going to be a destination to bring people downtown. You can tell by the drawings that we've put a lot of thought, time and effort into it. We're going to throw the right amount of money at it to make it a good project."

The sprawling layout for Union Restaurant & GameYard will comprise two houses sitting on West Chestnut St., the parking lot that separates them and an empty yard behind one of the houses.

The parking lot will be transformed into a green space that will be lined with astroturf. In place of the grassy void will be a 3,922 square foot structure, which will serve as the main dining and gaming area for the venture.

"It's not a nightspot," Resch said. "It's a family-oriented, communal-type restaurant. We want to be user-friendly to everybody. There are games, food. It's different than a typical bar or restaurant."

Though Resch and Sprigler own the buildings, Bobby Bass of Southern Hospitality is partnering with Levi Donaldson as the owner of the concept being brought to the location. Bass and his wife are behind other popular operations in the area, including MESA in New Albany ...

Steve Resch plans a new entertainment venue in Jeffersonville.

An old satellite image. 

And all they can think about is their cars.

Last week the Jeffersonville newspaper broke a Jeffersonville story. Given that today most readers are bedazzled or engraged by visiting oligarchy, let's revisit.

New entertainment venue to replace downtown Jeffersonville parking lot, by John Boyle (Tom May Content Multiplier)

Developer Steve Resch, owner of Resch Construction, is planning to open the venue near the corner of Pearl and West Chestnut streets, just behind Parlour. Right now, Resch said not many details are available, as he is still in the planning stages, having hired architects to do landscape and structural work on the properties.

If Jeffersonville is anything like New Albany, there is ample parking in reality, if not in the perception of people who'll drive to the end of a fifty-foot driveway to pick up the snail mail.

I don't know Rita Fleming, but her words here should be inscribed on John Rosenbarger's forehead.

One of the buildings was sold to Resch by Rita Fleming, president of the Jeffersonville Main Street board of directors. Though recognizing that parking is indeed an issue, Fleming said that the city is walkable and pedestrian-friendly — attributes it should continue to focus on as more developments pop up.

“When you think of downtown in any city, there’s always a question of parking," Fleming said. "When you put it in perspective, downtown people expect to walk 10 feet to the doors of where they're going. If you’re in a mall during holiday season, you’re going to walk a lot farther than that, and people don’t complain. Certainly for individuals who have trouble going longer distances, it’s an issue. We’re a very walkable community. We’re pedestrian friendly. Maybe we should start thinking about how we can make our community more bike and pedestrian friendly so people will come to our area without undue hardship, even as our city continues to flourish."

Gahan's ears are afire.

Perhaps the only predictable parking problem shared by both cities is the propensity of business owners and their employees to use customer spaces for their own vehicles.

Resch noted that from his perspective, the lot is mostly used by Parlour employees and some of its patrons. Once everything is all said and done, he doesn't believe its absence will cause any problems. “It is a good project," Resch said. "It’ll be an asset and a destination for downtown Jeff.”

Best wishes to Steve, Jacob and their great crew.

NA Confidential's belated Top Ten list of posts for June, 2019.

Thanks for reading NA Confidential, where we enjoy reconnoitering the neglected periphery for uniquely local perspectives on life in New Albany. Our New England getaway was in progress during the first part of July, when I usually compile the top ten lists, and then I got busy with other tasks. Consequently for June, 2019, I'll list only the top ten posts sans honorable mention, in ascending order.

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947

LIVE TO EAT: There's nothing quite like German beer with German food, so get over to the Gasthaus and see what I mean.

I've spent the last few evenings looking at 30-year-old slides of Europe; prior to this, last December's photos in Munich and Bamberg were organized. Through it all, periods of thirst have been handled with the help of Wernesgruner, a pilsner brewed in eastern Germany near the Czech border, which we've been keeping around the house.

It occurs to me that even if dinner is pickled herring from the Baltic areas of Germany and not sauerbraten or sausages from Bavaria, German beer remains the default accompaniment to German food. Make the argument for wine if you will. I like my chances of finding the ideal beer.

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1,004

At The Aggregate, a discussion of the ethics and legality of Slick Jeffrey's 4-H Fair propaganda blitz.

As we've pointed out numerous times in the past, the campaign finance cash Jeff Gahan collects from pay-to-play special interest donors and the tax proceeds we all pay into local government are often co-mingled to the point of pea soup fog. Too many voters shrug it off. They shouldn't.

The problem is compounded by the mayor's ego, which has long since swelled past the dimensions of a dirigible. He genuinely believes the press clippings generated by his own propaganda commissariat, and he can't tell the difference between the city and himself.

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A solid preview of The Standard Plate & Pour, coming to the former Gospel Bird footprint.

Good things happen when writers aren't bound by the imperative to write to a 3rd-grade level and produce text capable of being read in two minutes. The newspaper's editors give recent hire McAfee almost1,000 words, and she uses them quite well, producing one of the better Tom May Content Coagulator restaurant previews in a while.

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Following up: Kudos to the city for the cleanup.

I'm told the city dispatched a crew to pack away the garbage and construction debris from the alley behind Pints&union, and they're to be thanked for doing so -- as is the health department for coming yesterday to have a look.

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1,270

Egg on City Hall's face yet again as fly-by-night rasslers exchange body fluids in Vinod Gupta's building.

So there's a health emergency in a rotting building and City Hall is clueless, but if Blevins stick a key in the ignition of a garbage truck just a few steps away, ordinance enforcement is there in seconds. You know, in New Albany it's really hard to tell where the incompetence ends and the corruption begins.

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1,280

A sign of things to come at Schmitt Furniture, as exterior restoration continues.

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1,484

River City Winery's sly Facebook tease about a move to Jeffersonville.

I blame it entirely on Mike Moore.Conversely, RCW provides no further information apart from the revised logo, and these things take time.

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1,485

It's the business of being in business: Matt McMahan explains the Cox's-to-Boomtown Kitchen story ... then drops the mic.

Consequently it's refreshing to have Matt McMahan tell the story, which he did earlier today on Facebook. Whatever one's opinion about Matt (and there are many, as with me) his grasp of dollars and sense in a small business context cannot be denied. Big Four was successful, but the purchasing group couldn't hold it together, so Matt brokered a different outcome.

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1,548

Department of City-Owned Chicanery: Why did the city pay $300,000 for this (now) vacant lot at the corner of Culbertson and E. 5th?

According to Elevate, the city of New Albany purchased the property in January for $300,000. There are derelict houses on all sides, and even the assessed value of a mere $47,800 seems too high -- so why has the city paid more than six times the assessed value to own it?

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What Steve Resch has in mind for the Jimmy's Music Center building downtown.

It's one small step for man, and one giant leap for mankind.

What Steve Resch has in mind for the Jimmy's Music Center building downtown.

1970

1983.

It's one small step for man, and one giant leap for mankind.

Music venue, office space planned for downtown New Albany, by Brooke McAfee (Hanson's Folly)

NEW ALBANY — A live music venue, a bank and office spaces are some of the new additions coming to Market Street in downtown New Albany through a new redevelopment project.

The Jimmy's Music Center location at the corner of Market Street and Pearl streets is in the process of some major changes. Developer Steve Resch, owner of Resch Construction, purchased the space in November, and he is building offices in the historic building, along with a concert venue and bar in the basement.

Jimmy's Music Center remains open in a smaller space in the same location at 123 E. Market St., and owner James Gaetano is planning to eventually relocate the music shop to another downtown space. A space at the corner of the building's first floor has already been leased to New Washington State Bank, and the other side (where Jimmy's Music Center is now operating) will be a retail space. The second and third floors will be used for office space.

Joe Phillips, owner of Pints & Union, plans to open a live music venue called Misery Loves Company, or the MLC Club, in the downstairs area. The idea of starting a live music venue has been floating around in his head for about five years, he said, and the concept for the upcoming business was inspired by Jimmy Can't Dance, a jazz bar located beneath Another Place Sandwich Shop in Louisville ...

A heifer is down: Comfy Cow joins Feast BBQ on list of "former" downtown New Albany businesses.

Comfy Cow's last day of business is today. It's hard to determine which "closing soon" rumor began making the rounds first, Comfy Cow or Feast, and it no longer matters. Business decisions are business decisions, and the globe keeps spinning.

But: Are we to discern a worrisome trend?

No; at least not yet.

However, and you can call it what you will, a food and drink shift (or adjustment, or rationalization) obviously is underway downtown as April approaches. As with "craft" beer, the bubble isn't bursting, but the landscape is being reformatted.

Yesterday over at Everything Tom May, Danielle Grady conducted post-mortems for Feast and the Glass Gypsy, a shop at Underground Station. Steve Resch's viewpoint hits the center of the target, at least to me.

BIZ CLOSINGS: Three businesses, including Feast BBQ New Albany, call it quits in SoIn

... (Feast BBQ owner Ryan) Rogers declined to comment further when the News and Tribune reached out, but developer Steve Resch, who renovated Feast’s building and sold it to Rogers, said that the restaurant was doing well.

"They closed that because they want to concentrate on the Louisville market,” he said. “Feast was still profitable" ...

... Resch sold Rogers the Feast building two years ago, the developer said. When Resch bought the structure in 2010, it had been vacant since the mid-1980s. He renovated it, just like he’s done with the current Wick’s Pizza, Bella Roma, Bank Street Brewhouse, Gospel Bird, Theatreworks of SoIn and Hull & High Water buildings.

While some Southern Indiana businesses are closing, Resch believes that the area and its restaurant scene are still thriving. Another developer, Matt Chalfant is working on a building that will soon be home to a restaurant from the owner of The Exchange, Longboard’s Taco & Tiki. Resch is also renovating an old bar along Market Street that will become Pints & Union, a United Kingdom-inspired pub.

Interior views of 110 E. Market St., once Ace Loan, now being transformed by Resch Construction into The Root coworking center.

Looking up from the 2nd to 3rd floors.

Yesterday I chanced upon Steve Resch as he emerged from his work-in-progress at 110 E Market Street, the former Ace Loan & Sporting Goods, now being renovated to become The Root coworking space.

He was holding a prescription booklet and vial from the 1920s, artifacts left behind by the pharmacy that once operated upstairs, as well as a discarded theater ticket from 1897.

Steve let me peep inside as the second and third floors, unused for half a century prior to reclamation, are being cleared of debris.

Urban layers: The ancient unknown courtyard behind The Root (where Ace Loan used to be) has been opened to access -- eventually.

And another Resch project to the left.

Two new stairways are being built.

Facing Market Street from the 2nd floor.

The mysterious courtyard in back.

Ground/1st floor.

1st floor looking east toward the future pub.

A few views from Hull & High Water's soft opening. Regular business hours begin on Thursday at 4:00 p.m.

Hull & High Water is located at 324 E. Main Street, and if you've been around long enough to recall previous incarnations of this building, be prepared for bedazzlement. Steve Resch always does quality work, but this one is something special. Note the interior "fish tank" art, courtesy of David Thrasher. The long haul begins tonight ...

The newspaper glances belatedly at the former Ace Loan and Good Times buildings.

What the Green Mouse knows, he isn't telling. Not yet. Meanwhile, NA Confidential previously gave consideration to both of these buildings.

June 2016

You know, that building where Ace Loan & Sporting Goods used to be (110 E Market St).

December 2016

Has time run out for Good Times? If so, what's next at 114 East Market?

Just imagine if the downtown furniture stores had windows. A boy can dream ...

Old Ace Loan & Sporting Goods store in New Albany to be converted, by Danielle Grady (Son of Cooking School Coming Soon)

Local developer also bought Good Times Bar & Grill

NEW ALBANY — A local developer has plans for the old Ace Loan & Sporting Goods location in downtown New Albany.

Steve Resch, who bought 110 E. Market St. a few years ago, plans to convert the building into a multi-tenant office space for professionals such as realtors or accountants.

“It’s basically geared toward people that want office space and want a building to work out of and only need one or two offices or a cluster of space,” Resch said.

You know, that building where Ace Loan & Sporting Goods used to be (110 E Market St).

Atypically, the New Albany Historic Preservation Commission has little to say about 110 E. Market Street, identifying the former Ace Loan & Sporting Goods as an Italianate commercial building of 1880s-era construction.

During the past year, Steve Resch's crew has been busy rehabilitating this structure.

Late 2014 (Google street view).

Late summer 2015 (NAHPC).

June 2, 2016.

And, a glance into the ground floor interior.

Strange but true: Ace Loan & Sporting Goods operated for 52 years, until the spring of 2015, and the owner never once went upstairs or down. In fact, the stairs going up either removed completely or enclosed.

Steve Resch's vision for 110 E. Market is to entice Indiana University Southeast to establish a fine arts center downtown, with gallery space on the ground floor and classrooms on the second and third floors. He has spoken with officials at IU Southeast as well as local arts groups, and there is qualified optimism.

It's an idea worth pursuing, and we wish him luck in achieving it.

Gospel Bird scores praise in the CJ, then reveals a new restaurant/distillery idea for Main Street.

Formerly the WE Studio, soon to become Concrete Jungle. 

New Albany is Southern Indiana's Food District, and the week before Derby has been filled with positive media, some of it generated entirely unexpectedly.

Bernie Sanders dines in New Albany as local Democrats join Hillary at an Applebee's somewhere.

Bernie Sanders at The Exchange pub + kitchen, Tuesday, May 3.

Meanwhile, it's all Gospel Bird. The patio is open, and will be served by the restaurant's refashioned Airstream bar once health department approval is obtained. Until then, servers will find a way to put a drink in your hand.

The Courier-Journal's praise for Gospel Bird is effusive.

Gospel Bird is a don’t miss, by Nancy Miller (Special to the Courier-Journal)

Unlike a sponge that soaks up every trend, (Eric) Morris and (Ethan) Ray do their own thing, marrying a casual sensibility with revved up inventiveness. Don’t take my word for it, although I speak only the truth. The eating is believing. I’m a Gospel Bird believer. Hallelujah.

Rating: 3 ½ of 4 stars

Then there's this bombshell. Who knew that Steve Resch had designs on being a distilling magnate?

As Gospel Bird soars, Eric Morris eyes opening of Concrete Jungle restaurant and distillery, by Steve Coomes (Insider Louisville)

... And as the future of New Albany’s downtown unfolds, Morris envisions even greater traffic. He says an unnamed developer from Nashville wants to erect a seven-story building (either a hotel or condo complex) across the street from his restaurant, and developer Steve Resch wants to build a restaurant and distillery a literal stone’s throw from Gospel Bird.

And he wants Morris to run it.

“I have no plan to open a bunch of restaurants, but Steve came to us with this idea and we wanted to do it,” Morris says. The building is located at 324 E. Main St. “We came back to him with our ideas, and he said he loved it.”

The business will be called Concrete Jungle, Morris says, adding it has literal and symbolic applications.

Just think how much better all these positive developments would come together if they were connected by complete, calmed, two-way streets.

We welcome Staggers, Morris and the Gospel Bird with open arms and our senseless one-way streets.

Others among us recall it as Connor's Place.

Do you remember the businesses previously located in this spot?

I've known about this project for a while, but was pledged to silence and kept the vow. Someone owes me, but make no mistake: The Gospel Bird is big news for downtown New Albany's dining scene.

The new and expanded Bread and Breakfast will be only a few steps away at Underground Station, as will Ian Hall's Brooklyn and The Butcher at the corner of Bank and Market. Another new watering hole about to open is the Red Dragon Pub, located on Main Street in the approximate space formerly occupied by Cafe 27.

The story is folded into IL's Monday morning business tout, so click the link and scroll down. Just imagine the multiplier effect of these business start-ups with a functional street grid.

Louisville chefs head to New Albany to open their next restaurant, by Caitlin Bowling (Insider Louisville)

Chefs Eric Morris and Dustin Staggers are heading across the river for their next concept.

It’s been a whole two months since the Staggers crew opened its second Epic Sammich Co. store, so it was about time for them to announce a new venture.

Here it is: Tentatively called Gospel Bird, the restaurant will be the love child of Morris’ Loop 22 and Staggers’ time at The Monkey Wrench. Gospel Bird is a term for fried chicken that is eaten on Sundays, the traditional church-going day.

The menu will feature dishes including butter beans, rotisserie chicken, cauliflower grits, chicken-fried rabbit and Brussel sprouts. It will cover the South, from the Appalachian Mountains to the low country to New Orleans and hints of Florida — and include some ingredients from New Albany’s farmers market.

“We are just trying to make country food,” said Staggers, noting that all the fried items on the menu will be fried in a cast iron skillet.

Wednesday night ONLY: "Balloonacy: Lost in Inflation," at 110 E.Market.

Several of Steve Resch's buildings-in-progress have served as temporary venues for art. This is the most recent, at the former pawn shop on Market (across from Comfy Cow).

It's Wednesday night only, so plan accordingly.

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BALLOONACY: Lost in Inflation

Indiana University Southeast's Fine Arts Program is hosting an art installation in downtown New Albany. 'The Pawn Shop', as we endearingly call it, is our chosen venue for our Social Sculpture class, which encourages the act of creating artwork within the community. This collaboration is our way of breathing new life and repurposing this historic building so that we may invite the public to be immersed in an interactive space.

The installation will include over 1000 balloons to fill the space and handmade 16 mm video will be projected on top of the balloons, allowing the viewer to move within the artwork. Joy Luck will provide refreshments.

BALLOONACY: Lost in Inflation will take place on Wednesday, October 28th at 110 Market Street, New Albany, Indiana. This is a ONE NIGHT EVENT open from 7:00 – 9:00 pm.

Visit our Facebook page to see other work from our artists.

ARTISTS
Amelia Wise
Michael Kopp
Paul Robey
C.J. Bowyer
Aliccia Kasper
Liz Walker
Angie Howard
Bethany Barton
Cody Presley

Further Info:
Brian Harper, Associate Professor of Fine Art, IU Southeast
Email: harperba@ius.edu

New Albany's "Person of the Year" for 2014 revealed amid pomp, circumstance and fickle fingers of fate.

The votes have been counted, and now it's time to reveal New Albany's Person of the Year for 2014. This being New Albany, it's a purloined idea:

Person of the Year (formerly Man of the Year) is an annual issue of the United States newsmagazine Time that features and profiles a person, couple, group, idea, place, or machine that "for better or for worse ... has done the most to influence the events of the year."

Finalists for 2014, based on your responses:

• Heroic Non-Incentivized Downtown Developers ... Chalfant, Resch, Carters, among others. They're rehabbing buildings, and the city's industrial park-centric economic development team has almost nothing to do with it.
• Jeff Gahan … during three years on the job, municipal government's daily operations bear the mayor's stamp: Inward, paranoid and hermetic. Agoraphobia never had it this good, but his hologram is the hardest working computer-generated image in show business.
• Our local Democratic Party … but logically speaking, can non-corporeal bodies capture corporeal awards? Quick, someone find a theologian, a ham-fisted censor, Connie Sipes or even Walt Disney. Meanwhile, let your mind's eye conjure an ongoing implosion.

There were creative write-ins, but after all ballots were scrubbed clean of hanging chads, the winners are ...

Heroic Non-Incentivized Downtown Developers ... Chalfant, Resch, Carters, among others. They're rehabbing buildings, and the city's industrial park-centric economic development team has almost nothing to do with it.

Several voters commented that these genuine "doers" comprised the only real choice, and I agree.

Previous winners:

2011: The Sherman Minton Bridge.
2012: Bill Allen and his Dilapidated Main Street Paint Job
2013 (tie): Houndmouth and Quality of Life

On the Exchange Pub + Kitchen's new location downtown.

The Exchange pub + kitchen opened this week for dinner service only (5:00 p.m.) at the new location is 118 W. Main, across from the YMCA, and adjacent to Feast BBQ.

Yesterday I stopped by to check it out, and was told that lunch hours probably will start after the holidays. However, in this instance, as with all question, get the answers straight from the Exchange itself by calling (812) 948-6501.

What I've heard so far about the food and drink has been uniformly excellent, and a word must be said about the build-out and ambiance: Arguably, this is Steve Resch's greatest rehab/design work. The Exchange's classy new digs take a back seat to none on metro Louisville, and in addition, there's a great view of the modernist Y and Sherman Minton Bridge on the other side of Main. In this space, both Steve's and Ian Hall's vision comes to fruition.

Exchange pub + kitchen draws ever closer to launch.

The Exchange pub + kitchen is readying for its debut downtown, perhaps as soon as next week. I dropped in yesterday with Veronica (Bell's Beer), Drew (Falls City) and Aaron (Cavalier Distributing) following another fine lunch at Feast BBQ. This may be Steve Resch's most stunning rehab yet, with plenty of exposed brick and reclaimed wood, including his trademark big-ass 130-year-old poplar boards.

There's also a Big Ass Fan -- literally and figuratively.

Stay tuned for more information on Exchange's opening times.

Resch to buy Shrader Stables property.

Deal struck for Shrader Stables, by Daniel Suddeath (News and Tribune)

The New Albany Redevelopment Commission has reached a deal to sell the Shrader Stables property to Resch Construction, Deputy Mayor Carl Malysz confirmed Wednesday.

Malysz said details of the transaction would be divulged during a Jan. 12 commission meeting.

As is mentioned in the article, Steve Resch has been involved with the renovation and adaptive reuse of several downtown New Albany buildings, including NABC's Bank Street Brewhouse.

Here's hoping for another success story.