![]() ![]() This 13,000-square-foot facility repurposed the former home of the much-loved Jay’s Restaurant, which had been vacant for several years. The first critical step in this process of redevelopment is the creation of Chef Space. We decided that if we were going to have a real impact on a community, we had to focus on creating places for residents to live and work.” “If you look around any healthy neighborhood, you see homes and businesses. Kevin Smith, president and CEO of Community Ventures, explains. One way the organization achieves results is through large-scale community improvement projects that focus on sustainable growth through housing and economic development in one concentrated area. The goal is to address the problems of rundown housing, lack of healthy food options and high unemployment.Ĭentral to the mission of Community Ventures is empowering Kentuckians through asset building. Community Ventures has $8.5 million currently invested and aims to bring sustainable growth through both commercial and residential development. With its years of neglect and immediate proximity to downtown, Russell is a clear choice for revitalization. The wide-range problems include housing, lack of jobs and a high crime rate. The median household income of Jefferson County as a whole is 220 percent higher than Russell’s $14,457 median. Residents suffer from a community that is destabilized by unemployment, food deserts and predatory lending. ![]() Unfortunately, years of disinvestment have led to economic and social challenges for the area. The streets of Russell are now lined with vacant properties and boarded homes. In recent years, however, many of the area’s middle-class residents have left for neighborhoods on the south and east ends of Louisville. From the turn of the century to the 1960s, Russell was a well-established and popular African-American neighborhood in Jefferson County, once known as “Louisville’s Harlem.” Theaters, restaurants and nightclubs lined the streets. However, in Chef Space, a kitchen incubator in Louisville, Ky., this is often a daily occurrence.Ĭhef Space is a fully licensed commercial kitchen that is now home to local businesses including Caldwell’s Quirky Cookery, a jam and preserves company that makes unique flavors like mint julep and Em’s Delights, a pastry company owned by an industrious 17-year-old!įor Community Ventures, a Kentucky-based nonprofit, Chef Space is the first step in a larger plan to revitalize the Russell Neighborhood, just downhill and west of Louisville’s vibrant city center. It’s not often that one would find a pastry chef, barbecue grill master and dietary expert working out of the same kitchen.
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