Our co-founders began meeting in the Portland neighborhood in the fall of
2015 and founded LACE in 2017. Organizing meetings moved around
neighborhoods as they wanted to connect with residents who had been
affected by recently closed grocery stores (from 2016 to 2018, five stores
closed within the Watterson/city core), then landed in Russell for a while. We
incorporated the LCG in 2019 and kicked off a soft launch owners campaign. We organized into committees with LACE members to conduct the work of
our co-op. COVID-19 affected our ability to host our monthly in-person
owners’ meetings, and we didn’t return to that. Nevertheless, the work
continued.
Over the fall of 2021 and spring of 2022, we secured philanthropic funding
for LACE and predevelopment activities, land from the Community
Foundation of Louisville, and a $3.5M bond issuance from Louisville Metro
Government. Co-founder of LACE and LCG, Cassia Herron, resigned as
LACE’s board chair in the fall of 2021 and soon after, LACE hired executive
staff to oversee its mission, and the two entities began having problems.
LACE did not follow the plans Herron left to guide the efforts to develop the
land, build the business, and engage residents and owners in the process, and began going at the work alone. By 2023 the relationship between our co- op’s leadership and LACE had completely fallen apart and officially ended in
2024.
In 2024, our newly elected board and a handful of owners worked to regain
access to the co-op’s assets created with LACE that LACE retained control
of when the partnership dissolved. We conducted an updated market study
that maintained the property at Finzer was still the best property to pursue for
our store (along with a Louisville Metro Housing Association property in
Russell). In 2025, we learned that the Finzer site was acquired by the
Smoketown Community Land Trust. When we approached them about
building our grocery store there, they indicated they were not yet ready to
make a decision about how to use the property.
In 2025, LCG was awarded a grant for research regarding our future site. This
research was completed and shared with the LCG ownership at the February
2026 Owners Meeting. We are currently considering options for how to move
forward.
