At Mall St. Matthews, Suite 1493 already has a name on it. Barnes & Noble's store page lists the café, the toys and games section and the vinyl bins, plus a local phone number. Under the address, 5000 Shelbyville Rd, it says "Opening November 2026."
In August that same storefront was promised for October. The Courier Journal's item, last updated Aug. 12, put "October 2026" in its headline. Now it's October 12 and the date has moved back a month.
A one-month slip for a bookstore is a small thing. It's also how the whole Shelbyville Road corridor looks right now. Closings this year came with dates attached. Openings came with a month, or a year, or just a "Coming Soon" tag. If you're planning your November and December around this stretch, the dates you can count on mostly belong to the city's events in Brown Park, not to the malls.
The Bookstore Taking Over the Zappos Space
The new Barnes & Noble isn't building from scratch. 102.3 The Rose reported in mid-August that it's going into the space where the Zappos Unboxed store closed in March. That report also pointed out that the Plainview Barnes & Noble is about 3.5 miles, or roughly 10 minutes, away.
Plainview isn't going anywhere. Barnes & Noble's store locator still lists the location at 801 South Hurstbourne Parkway with regular hours, and lists Mall St. Matthews separately as a new store. So once Suite 1493 opens, the east end will have two Barnes & Noble stores a short drive apart. The Shops at Paddock store at 4330 Summit Plaza Drive is also on the locator with regular hours.
The Zappos closing was reported as having already happened in March. The bookstore replacing it has already moved its opening month once. That same pattern holds across the rest of the mall.
Who Else Is Still Behind a "Coming Soon" Sign
The same August report listed four more Mall St. Matthews tenants marked "coming soon": Beanstalk Crystal & Quill, EZ Relaxation, Luxura Aesthetic Medical Spa and Pei Wei Asian Express. Two months later, here's where each one stands on the mall's own directory and in local reporting.
| Business | Where | Status as of Oct. 12, 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Barnes & Noble | Mall St. Matthews, Suite 1493 | Store page says "Opening November 2026"; August coverage said October |
| Beanstalk Crystal & Quill | Mall St. Matthews | Directory still says "Coming Soon" |
| EZ Relaxation | Mall St. Matthews | Directory still says "Coming Soon"; Oxmoor's directory lists an EZ Relaxation near Von Maur as "Now Open" |
| Luxura Aesthetic Medical Spa | Mall St. Matthews | Directory still says "Coming Soon" |
| Pei Wei Asian Express | Mall St. Matthews | "Coming Soon" tag removed, but no opening has been confirmed |
| Shake Shack | Oxmoor Center, 7900 Shelbyville Road | Expected "in 2026," no day or month announced |
Pei Wei is the hardest one to read. Its directory entry has lost the "Coming Soon" tag, but it hasn't picked up a "Now Open" tag either, and no news report says it has opened. The EZ Relaxation listings are confusing in their own way. Oxmoor's directory shows a location near Von Maur as open, while Mall St. Matthews still shows its own as coming soon. Neither directory says whether these are two separate locations.
One opening this year did come with a real date. The Courier Journal reported in late January that Five Below was set to open Feb. 6 at Mall St. Matthews, near Palmetto Moon, Garage and Lolli & Pops. That's exactly the detail every opening in the table above is still missing.
Oxmoor's Shake Shack, and the Neighbor That Left First
Farther east on Shelbyville Road, just past the St. Matthews city line, Oxmoor Center is waiting on the most-watched opening on the corridor. WLKY reported in January that Shake Shack would open its first Louisville restaurant at Oxmoor "sometime in 2026." It won't have a drive-thru. It will have two entrances, one inside the mall and one outside. And Shake Shack said Louisville would open before its Jeffersonville location.
By April 29, the Courier Journal said construction was underway and pinned down the spot. It's on the north side of the building, across from Shady Rays and right next to Nike.
Then Nike left. Louisville Business First reported in July that Nike had closed its Oxmoor Center store. The landmark the Courier Journal used to place Shake Shack closed before Shake Shack opened. As of today, nothing we found gives Shake Shack an opening day. The only timeline on record is still "2026," and there are about 11 weeks left in the year.
The Closings Had Dates
Look at the other side of this year's ledger and the reporting gets much more precise.
- Zappos Unboxed, Mall St. Matthews. Closed in March, according to the August radio report.
- PinkTag, Oxmoor Center. Left and reopened in Prospect, per Louisville Business First's January report.
- Nike, Oxmoor Center. Closed, in Business First's July report.
- Crumbl Cookies, St. Matthews. Closed, in Business First's Oct. 6 report.
Each closing showed up in the news within a defined window, and each one left a specific space behind. Zappos's old storefront now has a new name tied to it, Barnes & Noble, and Shake Shack is going in right next to where Nike was. The corridor is filling back in, just on a later schedule than the signs suggest.
The Holiday Calendar That Does Have Dates
Holiday plans here work better if you build them around events with fixed times and treat the new storefronts as a bonus if they're open by then. Between now and early December, these are the dated items on the St. Matthews calendar, in order.
- Oxmoor Farm bourbon heritage tour, Friday, Oct. 16, 10 to 11:30 a.m. The City of St. Matthews says Metro Councilwoman Paula McCraney is hosting, and you have to register in advance.
- Halloween in Brown Park, Saturday, Oct. 17, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. It's at the corner of Kresge Way and Browns Lane, and trick-or-treating starts at 11:30 a.m., according to Chamber St. Matthews.
- Photos with Santa at both malls, starting around Nov. 20 and 21. At Mall St. Matthews, the set is near Express, and the booking page shows time slots starting Nov. 21. At Oxmoor Center, it's near Dick's Sporting Goods, with slots starting Nov. 20. Both say walk-ups are welcome daily until closing. Neither page calls those dates Santa's first day, so check before you go.
- Light Up St. Matthews, Saturday, Dec. 5, 3 to 6 p.m. The city's seasonal events page lists it for the first Saturday in December, which lands on Dec. 5 this year. Brown Park lights up at 6 p.m.
A few details about Light Up are worth knowing ahead of time. The city says there will be free cookies and hot chocolate, train rides, letters to Santa, and live music. Most of it happens under a big tent, so it goes on rain or shine. Free parking is at 4003 and 4007 Kresge Way, with a signaled crosswalk into the park. The Santa photo line gets cut off early so Santa can be on stage by 6, and the city asks families to come early. The Chamber's Light Up page lists a different schedule: a noon start, lights at 6:15 and a 6:30 drone show. It doesn't say which year those times are for. The city's 3-to-6 times are the ones above. They could still change, so check them the week of the event.
For more on the Lexington Road and Willis Avenue changes, see our summer roundup, What's Actually New In St. Matthews This Summer. Upcoming dates across the area are on our community events page.
What to Watch Between Now and Light Up
The Barnes & Noble store page has a firm month now, but no day. Santa's booking slots near Express start Nov. 21, so the bookstore could open before or after the Santa set goes up. If November slips too, the holiday season at Mall St. Matthews will start with the same lineup it has today. The other three "Coming Soon" tags on the directory, Pei Wei's unexplained status and Shake Shack's "2026" are all worth checking again before Dec. 5, when Brown Park lights up at 6 p.m. right on schedule.
Shelbyville Road has a lot of announced openings that are still waiting on a date. Your home's value works the same way. Until someone looks at what's actually selling near you right now, it's just an estimate. If you'd like a real number before the holidays, Weston Faulkner can pull current sales from your part of St. Matthews and walk you through them. Get Your Free Home Valuation.
