This 125-year-old Highlands church eyed for a boutique hotel. What the project looks like

A Louisville family with deep roots in the business community is looking to expand its hospitality portfolio with a new project in the Highlands.

The former Highland United Methodist Church, 1140 Cherokee Road, would become a 26-room boutique hotel with preservation of the building’s exterior and sanctuary a priority, said project developer Star Auerbach.

The proposed project is a joint venture with her father, Rob Auerbach, who co-founded Rainbow Blossom, a natural food market, in 1977 alongside his wife Pumpkin Auerbach.

“I just think this space is so beautiful, and I’m so excited about saving this,” Star Auerbach said during a recent tour of the property.

The Cherokee Triangle property allows the father and daughter, who also own Stellar Suites, 822 E. Market St., to add a site to their portfolio of short-term rentals that includes a large gathering space.

Guests of the 11-room Stellar Suites in NuLu, especially corporate groups and wedding parties, often give feedback about enjoying the rooms while wishing it had more space for meetings and events.

The former church’s sanctuary, now free of pews, is intended to provide just that. Here's what to expect.

What will the proposed boutique hotel look like?

Lit by ornate chandeliers and natural sunlight through stained-glass windows, the space is envisioned to host small gatherings, such as work meetings, to larger events, such as weddings.

The cornerstone of the church was laid in 1895, and the building later served as a refugee center for those displaced by the historic 1937 flood, according to church records.

Attached to the century-old church is a 1960s educational building addition in which Star Auerbach plans to locate the bulk of the 26 guest rooms, spread across its three floors.

The layout of the educational building, which is divided into large, open classrooms, lends itself into hotel suite conversion, she said. And the large, airy sanctuary, with its distinctive choir loft, pipe organ and wooden arches makes for a dramatic backdrop for events.

The main entrance planned off Patterson Avenue will be accessed through a fixed-up courtyard. A breakfast room and warming kitchen will be situated off the front entrance space.

Space beneath the sanctuary will feature more suites, conference rooms, a lounge and a full kitchen, she said. As for parking, an adjacent lot across the alley will offer 20 spaces for hotel guests.

How long will this new boutique hotel project take?

The proposed boutique hotel is not the first attempt to repurpose the church building. Louisville developer Jeff Underhill, president of Underhill Associates, previously bought the property in 2022 from the church for $575,000 and had plans to turn it into 19 apartments.

Underhill Associates remediated asbestos and went through architectural, structural and civil engineering work, according to the firm’s website, and got the property re-zoned for multi-family use.

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Historic tax credits couldn’t be fully secured for the project, however, due to the way the sanctuary was set to be divided, making the project unworkable, the new developers said in rezoning paperwork filed with the city.

Star Auerbach, a Highlands resident, would drive past the church on her drive into Nulu. When she saw a for sale sign go up on the property last year, she called her father, and the next day they were touring the site.

The Auerbach’s Fast River LLC bought the property (including the parking lot at 2013 Patterson Ave.) in September 2023 for $925,000, deed records show.

The church building property is valued at nearly $514,000 and the parking lot at nearly $62,000 by the Jefferson County Property Valuation Administration.

The project is still in the early stages and, pending some key city approvals, Star Auerbach anticipates construction to start sometime this summer and last one year.

She is seeking historic tax credits to help transform the property and is also in the re-zoning process, seeking to rezone the site from R-8 (multi-family residential) to OTF (office/tourist facility). She declined to share an investment total, though public filings describe it as a “multi-million-dollar restoration” project.?

Anne Lindauer, president of the Cherokee Triangle Association, said support for the project "appears to have grown" between an initial neighborhood meeting in November 2023 and another meeting in early January.

"The meetings have been instructional and open," she said. "Some neighbors are dubious, however, especially those that reside in the contiguous block. The biggest request I have heard is please don’t demolish the building."

Like The Bellwether Hotel a block away down Bardstown Road — another historic adaptive reuse project — this new hotel would opt for self-check-in and wouldn’t have a staffed front desk.

But Star Auerbach said staff would be just a phone call away, and the hotel would offer the reliability of quality of a traditional hotel with the flexibility that short-term lodging services can provide.

“It’s the comfort and ease of an Airbnb, but sometimes you don’t know what to expect because it could be in a weird moldy basement,” she said, laughing. “It’s consistent, clean, with extraordinary service.”

While the hotel won’t be church-themed, Star Auerbach pictures clean design and modern accommodations that will reference the building’s history, leaning into its defining characteristics where it makes the most sense.

“I think there’s a way to have clean, bright staples and put a splash of vintage in the rooms,” she said.

She’d like to incorporate the few church pews that remain inside, and she also plans to save the sanctuary’s wooden floors and reassemble the pipe organ.

“It’s definitely a theme that people will be expecting,” she said. “I think this space will be uplifted and just bring out what's already here.”

Growth & development reporter Matthew Glowicki can be reached at [email protected], 502-582-4000 or on Twitter @mattglo.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Century-old Highlands church could become boutique hotel, event space