On June 1, 2004, Fourth Street Live! first opened to the public, a 350,000-square-foot entertainment district on 4th Street between Liberty Street and Muhammad Ali Boulevard. This is the place that first opened to the public on June 1, 2004, with all stores completed for the grand opening on October 30, 2004.
City planners imagined it as a spark — a venue to attract further commercial business development while serving the city’s hotel and tourist business and the local population. Before this rebirth, the block housed the Louisville Galleria, a failed shopping mall and office complex that had opened on September 29, 1982, on the former site of River City Mall. The Cordish Companies, through Louisville Galleria LLC, redeveloped the mall from April 2003 to June 2004 to create what you see now.
Traffic on 4th Street through the complex is intentionally closed and covered for large public gatherings, from music concerts to other events, which gives the street a theatrical, communal feel when it fills. Notice the echoes of its retail past, like Borders Books and Music before the 2011 closures, in the closed, covered stretch of 4th Street.