Month: May 2016

Travel

Louisville to France: an $88,000 Memorial Day Weekend in a sunny place for shady people

An occasional look at premium travel from Louisville.

Memorial Day Weekend is upon us, and we’ve decided to inaugurate the start of summer with a beach vacation — to Monte-Carlo! No, not that tacky hotel in Las Vegas. We mean the glittering jewel of the French Rivera, made famous by the late Princess Grace, and the occasional ne’er-do-wells who’ve made it a sunny place for shady people.

The weekend weather forecast is mostly sunny, with a high only touching 80 degrees. Here in Louisville, it’ll be closer to 90. Here’s our itinerary.

When: May 26-31. Airline: Delta. Route: Louisville to Atlanta to Amsterdam to Nice, then a 40-minute drive to Monte-Carlo. How much: $13,724 per person airfare for a mix of economy and business class. About 15 hours 30 minutes flight time with layovers. Delta reservations.

What better place to stay in Monte than the Diamond Suite Penthouse at the Hotel Hermitage? It promises three bedrooms, three bathrooms, a children’s playroom — and two terraces, with drop-dead views of the yacht-swollen harbor (photo, top). Best of all, Larvotto Beach is just a six-minute ride along seaside Avenue Princesse Grace.

Gustave teddy bearHow much for the suite? A steal at $18,523 a night. Of course, this doesn’t cover various optional enhancements that include a $51 Gustave teddy bear made exclusively for younger guests (photo, left). We do the math so you don’t have to: four nights would cost $74,092. Here’s one of the penthouse suite’s terraces:

Terrace

Real Estate

$4.5 million: ‘Exquisite country estate in one of Louisville’s most prestigious neighborhoods’

An occasional look at premium homes on the market.

The address: 15 River Hill Road, 40207. Asking price: $4.5 million. Agency: Lenihan Sotheby’s International Realty. The pitch:

Features include a true chef’s kitchen supplies double dishwashers, an immense marble-topped island, stainless steel appliances, Viking gas range and a food pantry hidden by a hand-carved antique wood door. A breakfast nook looks into a cozy screened-in porch.

Latest Headlines

Ex-Hut owner loses $42M tax round; Taco tests four new layouts; and murder suspect says KFC meals used to coerce her confession
Taco Bell redesign
One of four new Taco Bell formats.

A news summary focused on big employers.

Gene Bicknell
Gene Bicknell

PIZZA HUT: Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback vetoed legislation yesterday that could have helped former pizza baron Gene Bickell, who’s contesting a $42 million state tax bill over his 2006 sale of NPC International — America’s biggest Pizza Hut franchiser, with hundreds of restaurants (Topeka Capital-Journal).

TACO BELL is testing four new store designs this summer that give restaurants a more upscale look to better compete with Chipotle and boost dinnertime traffic (USA Today). Here’s the press release. The remodeled stores will be in the Orange County communities of Brea, Newport Beach, Santa Ana and Tustin (Los Angeles Times).

UPS is rolling out a new service where customers can track packages in real time on a map (Fortune). Also, a package handler in Sacramento, Calif., was killed in a fight during a concert Sunday; Thomas Noble, 31, leaves behind a school-age daughter (Sacramento Bee).

Jeff Bezos
Bezos

AMAZON CEO Jeff Bezos yesterday promised more retail stores beyond the single brick-and-mortar outlet in Seattle, as well as new services for the company’s Prime unlimited shipping membership during the company’s annual stockholders meeting (Wall Street Journal).

KFC: A woman in South Africa accused of murdering her employer says a detective coerced her into confessing by buying her KFC, mutton curry and pies (Iol).

In other news, one of Louisville’s biggest law firms — Bingham Greenebaum Doll — has hired former Metro Council President David Tandy as an attorney and lobbyist (Courier-Journal). Lexington Mayor and businessman Jim Gray became the first openly gay major party nominee in Kentucky to seek a U.S. Senate seat when he won yesterday’s Democratic primary; he’ll face Sen. Rand Paul in November (Herald-Leader). Wall Street stocks were flat as investors waited for the release of Federal Reserve meeting minutes (MarketWatch).

Money in Politics

Metro District 8 winner Coan shows how to win big without spending big
Brandon Coan
Coan

Attorney Brandon Coan not only won more votes today than the other six candidates, but he also spent less per vote than all but two of his rivals. Coan’s expenditures averaged $18 per vote. The difference was especially stark against the $63 by the No. 2 vote-getter, philanthropist Stephen Reily.

Boulevard’s figures are based on the most recent campaign war chest totals, as of two weeks ago, from this Courier-Journal story. Reilly’s campaign budget had already set a record for a Louisville Metro Council race — even for one as highly sought as this. Here’s the breakdown:

Campaign spending

Final Business

In Barry Bingham Jr.’s will, a glimpse into one man’s faith

Boulevard occasionally examines estates and estate planning by high-profile Louisville residents.

Ten years ago, former Courier-Journal Publisher Barry Bingham Jr. died of respiratory failure, less than two months after signing his last will and testament. He was 72 years old. The 13-page document’s preamble suggests a very religious man:

Barry Bingham Jr
Bingham

“In the name of God, amen! I, G. Barry Bingham Jr., a resident of Jefferson County, Ky., in perfect health and memory, God be praised, hereby revoke all wills and codicils heretofore made by men, and do make and ordain this my Last Will and Testament in manner and form following; that is to say, first, I commend my soul into the hands of God, my creator, hoping and assuredly believing through the only merits of Jesus Christ, my Savior, to be made partaker of life everlasting, and my body to the earth whereof it is made.”

Thereafter, though, it’s all business and few other insights into a man at the center of one of the greatest family business dramas in Louisville history. The will provides no special bequests to anyone by name, perhaps instead leaving that to his widow, Edie.

Bingham’s will was recorded with the county clerk 10 days after he died April 3, 2006. It didn’t value his overall estate, including only a few financial details: His half-interest in the family’s storied Melcombe seat in Glenview was worth $2 million. And a separate list of personal property totaled another $2.2 million — including, interestingly, gold South African Krugerrand coins then worth $852,000.

A postscript: The family sold Melcombe for $3 million in 2014, reportedly to his daughter Molly.

Related: search for more public documents online at the county clerk’s office. Plus, other notable people from the Louisville area.

Executive Pay

Three Kindred executives sell 6,700 shares

They all sold yesterday at $12.14 a share, according to the just-filed notices with the Securities and Exchange Commission:

  • Benjamin Breier, CEO, sold 4,905 shares, for $59,547, leaving him with 683,357
  • Joseph Landenwich, general counsel, 889 shares for $10,792, leaving him 117,387.
  • William Altman, executive vice president for strategy, 876 shares for $10,635, leaving him 102,540.

At mid-afternoon today, Kindred shares were trading for $12.20, little changed.