Store at new West End track facility pledges to reinvest in Louisville community

The Thorntons that just opened at Louisville's Norton Healthcare Sports & Learning Center isn't just a convenience store.

Instead, according to officials with Thorntons and the Louisville Urban League, it's another investment in the community.

The new Thorntons convenience center is now open after a ribbon-cutting ceremony Tuesday, with Georgia's Sweet Potato Pie Co. samples from local business owners Dawn and Deyago Urrutia provided to those in the crowd.

The store, which stands at the new track and field complex in Louisville's West End, is the first of its kind for the Louisville-based gas station and convenience store chain, Thorntons officials said. It won't sell gas. But it will feature local products, like those from Georgia's Sweet Potato Pie Co., and all profits from sales at the store will go to the Louisville Urban League to "promote community equity and empowerment."

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The Louisville Urban League in February opened the Norton Healthcare Sports & Learning Center, an ultramodern track center with other athletic amenities and classrooms for educational courses, at 30th Street and Muhammad Ali Boulevard, on a 24-acre site that sat vacant for years.

Those behind the $53 million project, including urban league President Sadiqa Reynolds, have said they hope it serves as a centerpiece of the west Louisville community, with the ability to host concerts and other events while drawing a larger audience to the West End.

The Thorntons is inside the complex, with a door facing the street for pedestrians outside to enter. Several ping pong and chess tables are built into the concrete nearby, along with a poem from local writer Hannah Drake titled "While We Were Building" inscribed into the pavement.

In a statement, Thorntons President and CEO Simon Richards thanked Reynolds and the Louisville Urban League and said the company looks forward to serving the West End.

"This much-anticipated store provides Thorntons with a sustainable way to give back and invest in the neighborhood," Richards said.

Lucas Aulbach can be reached at laulbach@courier-journal.com, 502-582-4649 or on Twitter @LucasAulbach.