Texas Roadhouse has purchased Wright Tower, the 15-story, salmon-pink Louisville landmark long known as one of the city's most distinctive — and most debated — pieces of skyline, paying $12 million for the building at 6100 Dutchmans Lane. The deal, recorded in a Jefferson County deed dated August 7, adds the tower to the steakhouse chain's properties along the same corridor that already houses its corporate headquarters.
According to The Courier-Journal, the purchase is documented in a county deed dated August 7. The building sits at 6100 Dutchmans Lane, according to In-Rel Properties.
The tower is on the same Dutchmans Lane corridor as Texas Roadhouse's corporate headquarters and support-center buildings. Last August, Texas Roadhouse spent $25 million to acquire its corporate headquarters and support-center buildings at 6040 and 6050 Dutchmans Lane, a purchase announced alongside Louisville Metro Mayor Craig Greenberg, according to the city's own announcement posted on LouisvilleKY.gov. Wright Tower's location on the same street places it alongside those properties.
A Tower With Decades of Identity Crises
Long before it carried the Texas Roadhouse name anywhere near it, the building went through a string of identities of its own. The building's design dates to 1966, according to a post from the Society of Architectural Historians. Its location places it in Louisville's eastern suburbs.
The tower carries the Frank Lloyd Wright name today, but it was designed by William Wesley Peters of Taliesin Associate Architects, whom the Frazier Kentucky History Museum describes as Wright's protégé.
The building's design has been discussed in historical accounts, including one published on OoCities.
From ‘Pink Monstrosity’ to Kaden Tower to Wright Tower
The building's appearance has long drawn attention. Its salmon-pink color makes it distinctive.
The building was known as Kaden Tower before it was renamed Wright Tower in September 2023 to honor Frank Lloyd Wright and his firm's design influence, according to real estate services firm SRS Real Estate Partners. Before that renaming, In-Rel Properties was identified as the tower's landlord by SRS Real Estate Partners.
Ruth's Chris Is a Tenant in the Tower
Ruth's Chris Steak House is a tenant in the building, according to In-Rel Properties.
What Texas Roadhouse plans to do with the tower's existing office tenants, and whether the steakhouse chain intends to move its own staff into the building, remain open questions that have not been addressed publicly. The future of Ruth's Chris in the building is similarly unclear following the ownership change.
The purchase comes as Texas Roadhouse, which has more than 800 restaurants system-wide in 49 states, one U.S. territory and 10 foreign countries, continues maintaining its presence in the neighborhood it calls home.
