The vacant Goody’s Department Store will get a $1.4 million renovation and see new life as a Liquor Barn, dubbed The Ultimate Party Source.

The business is expected to open in November and will soon begin hiring about 30 employees, according to Roger Lee Leasor, director of community and government relations.

Leasor, who has been with the company for 41 years, was in town this week meeting with vintner Rex Reid. The Liquor Barn prides itself on promoting Kentucky wines.

“We were Kentucky Proud before the Kentucky Proud program,” Leasor said.

In fact, it was named the Kentucky Department of Agriculture’s top Proud retailer two years in a row.

“If there is a Kentucky wine, we will sell it,” Leasor said. “I think there are like 100 to 120 Kentucky wineries.”

That is only a small portion of the 5,000 wines the store will open with. Within a year, the inventory should boast as many as 8,000 wines, he said.

“Our first year in Louisville, I think we brought in at least 200 wines that had never been seen before in Louisville, and we will do that here as well,” he said.

And the beers – don’t get Leasor started on talking about all the craft beers the store will have.

In the center of the 25,000-square-foot store, there will be a station with about 20 beers on tap where customers can have growlers filled to take home with them or pay for tastings.

“We expect to get a lot of one-ofs from breweries because of the good relationships we have developed with them,” Leasor said. “They often make kegs only for their pubs that aren’t released to the public. But we may be able to get one of them. So when they are gone, they are gone.”

The store will also have 1,000 varieties of beer in bottles.

“But this won’t be a bar,” he said.

Wine tastings also will be held in conjunction with food and wine classes that will be in a meeting room, equipped with cooking equipment.

“We want to put alcohol in context,” Leasor said. “It’s not the good life, but an ingredient in the good life.”

The store will have about 200 kinds of bourbon as well as other hard liquors, and will have as much food, such as cheese and other items, as state laws will allow. There also will be a limited amount of party supplies, including balloons, he said.

Liquor Barn is Kentucky born and bred, and until three years ago also was owned here. Now its parent company, LSGP, is in Canada.

“But we are still very much a Kentucky store,” he said.

It has six Lexington stores – three barns and three smaller Liquor Barn Express stores – four stores in Louisville (three barns and one express), and the newest store is in Danville. The Bowling Green store will be patterned after that.

So why Bowling Green?

“That’s easy,” Leasor said. “The population, demographics and the university. There is a hunger there for this type of store.”

Leasor said Western Kentucky University faculty and staff members would likely be one of the target demographics, not the students.

The location, near the Greenwood Mall, also is ideal, he said.

“It’s really just a no-brainer,” Leasor said. “It’s a great place.”