New Simpsonville outlet mall construction underway

Jan. 20, 2014By Jere Downs/The Courier-Journal

By late summer, Simpsonville, Ky., may become a destination trip rather than a quick stop for highway gas.

The $80 million Outlet Shoppes at Louisville with 80 stores is expected to open July 31 just off Exit 28 of Interstate 64 — nine miles east of the Gene Snyder Freeway and some of Louisville’s wealthiest suburbs — with stores such as Saks, Coach and J. Crew.

And by the holiday shopping season, Shelby County Judge Executive Rob Rothenberger, predicts the number of shoppers “will resemble traffic in front of the Mall St. Matthews.”

It will be Kentucky’s biggest outlet mall and will rival the 85-store Edinburgh Premium Outlets about an hour’s drive north of downtown Louisville.

Rising amid American Saddlebred horse farms and high end subdivisions, the mammoth retail destination’s nine buildings are still under construction, ringed by 2,200 parking spaces. That’s more than two parking spaces for each of the 935 households in Simpsonville.

Restaurants, hotels, boutique retailers, housing developments, convenience stores and more will arrive within three years on the heels of the mall’s opening, predicted developer Perry Lyons, president of the Building Industry Association of Greater Louisville (formerly the Louisville Homebuilders’ Association). By the end of the decade, he said, Simpsonville will resemble upscale outer suburbs that have grown in areas near Springhurst Towne Centre and the Summit, which was recently renamed Paddock Shops.