JD Sports + VisionWorks Join Towne Mall, Sabor Cubano Coming to Radcliff

Key Takeaways

• JD Sports and VisionWorks are both joining Towne Mall — JD Sports as a Finish Line rebrand, VisionWorks relocating in from its current Namaste-adjacent building into a 7,000 sq ft front-diagonal spot.
• Two new restaurants are opening in the next two weeks — a German-American cafe at 109 N. Mulberry in downtown Elizabethtown and Sabor Cubano in Radcliff.
• Papa John's #3 is now confirmed by a 62-side sign — coming to the Central Hardin / Leitchfield Road area near Ride-Wright Tire.
• Wawa watch: signs are UP at the Elizabethtown location near Cool Springs (summer open), and the Radcliff store is now in the bidding stage.
• The "the mall is dying" narrative is officially over — Tim Aulbach's renovation has landed five-plus new tenants in under two years.

Summary

Nate Bryan's Business Buzz this week covered five distinct Hardin County retail and restaurant stories — and four of them point in the same direction: name-brand chains are choosing Hardin County over surrounding markets right now, and Towne Mall is the biggest landing pad of all.

The pace is striking. Tim Aulbach's mall renovation has now stacked JD Sports, VisionWorks, Home Goods, Sierra, and Malibu Jacks into the property in under two years, plus larger relocations for Victoria's Secret, Bath and Body Works, and a rebranded American Eagle / Aerie. Two distinct new-restaurant openings — one downtown, one in Radcliff — round out the week, with a third Papa John's location and continued Wawa progress on top.

Full Article

Nate built this week's Business Buzz around what he called a "mall double-drop" — two name-brand tenants joining Towne Mall in the same season. JD Sports is moving into the Finish Line space; same parent company, so this is effectively a rebrand and a bigger store after the broader mall remodel. JD Sports owns Finish Line outright, and Nate's read — based on what he saw at Louisville Mall locations — is that the rebrand brings a wider product mix and more square footage. VisionWorks is relocating into the mall from its current spot next to Namaste Indian Cuisine, taking a 7,000 sq ft front-diagonal location near the entrance. The bigger footprint matters because VisionWorks needs back-of-house space for lab work and storage, and the new spot has it. It also relieves the persistent parking complaint at the Namaste-area cluster — "that should definitely help the parking for VisionWorks but also for Namaste," Nate said, "because some of the parking will free up over there too."

The bigger context Nate kept circling back to: Tim Aulbach's eight-figure investment in the renovation. "Tim Aulbach has done such a great job turning the mall around," Nate said. "That's five-plus new tenants in under two years. The fact that we've gone from 'the mall is dying' to all these moves — that's not a coincidence." Britten McDowell weighed in from the small-business operator angle: "It's so much easier when you have your own entrance, control your own hours, your own signage. The new mall layout gives that to a lot more tenants."

On the restaurant front, two new spots are opening in the next two weeks. The first is 109 N. Mulberry in downtown Elizabethtown, opened by Janine Wassel — a cookbook author who's appeared on Louisville TV. It's a German-American cafe (the formal name was still being finalized at airtime). The building has a long downtown history: it was Backstage Cafe, then Black Sheep General Store, and the original A Sweet Retreat got its start there. It's across from the Hardin County History Museum, around the corner from the new prom store. The second opening is Sabor Cubano in Radcliff, taking over the old Fed Up Barbecue space. The owners already run a popular Cuban food truck — Britten and Phil both pointed out that Cuban food has been on Hardin County's "we don't have one of those" list for years, alongside German.

Britten's framing on whether the market can support both: "If you're going to do it, do it right. We have lots of coffee shops, but Vibe thrives. Lots of pizza places — Impellizzeri's does great. The market here will support quality. Quality wins." Nate added that Janine has put serious time into the launch — she's not rushing it, and she's done the menu work, the staff work, and the brand work. "That's not somebody trying to fill a 200-seat dining room with 10 waitresses. They're doing it small, doing it right, and they've put the time in."

The third confirmation this week: a 62-side sign is now up for Papa John's third Hardin County location, in the Central Hardin / Leitchfield Road area near Ride-Wright Tire. Scott pushed Nate on whether the pizza market is saturated, and Nate's old-school read held up: "If I'm opening a restaurant and I see ten Mexican places, you know what I'm probably going to open? A Mexican restaurant — because I only have to be better than five of them. The demand is obviously there." Each Papa John's covers a different delivery radius — the existing Hardin location takes part of Vine Grove, the Radcliff store covers Radcliff, and the Central Hardin site fills the gap.

Finally — Wawa watch. Signs are now UP at the Elizabethtown Wawa at Cool Springs (across from Produce, near Lugilisco). Summer open is the working assumption. The Radcliff Wawa at the corner of Dixie and Vine — across from Five Star and Walgreens — is now in the bidding stage. Wawa's Kentucky pattern has been: focus on one location, finish it, move to the next. With Etown's signage up, Radcliff likely follows this year.