Anyone who follows urban development in Louisville knows how difficult it is to get anything built, but that’s exactly what Dave Christopher, President and Founder of AMPED (Adventurous Minds Produce Extraordinary Dreams), did in November, with the opening of the new tech and learning center, an impressive nearly $10 million and 13,000 square-foot-three-story building taking over the block at 17th and Market Street.
The facility is the latest realization of Christopher’s dream to help develop opportunities for young people as well as the neighborhood. We recently toured the new tech center and as amazing as it is, Dave has even bigger plans. Looking out down Market Street from the corner of the third-floor training room, he muses: “What can we do? What should be here? How can we have something like a farmers’ market, one that’s always open. The idea is to develop the land and get it back to somebody who lives in the community.”
AMPED also has a recording studio and youth music programs, and Dave has plans to develop properties on the surrounding blocks with hopes of building a new studio nearby.
The small business incubator wing of AMPED also recently secured a partnership with Republic Bank to guarantee loans for Black and Hispanic entrepreneurs in West Louisville.
Dave’s own drive and pursuit of knowledge led him to this moment. “You can work for someone, or you can you work for yourself, and I did both…at the same time,” Dave said. “I was working at UPS and running my own tech company. The hours were worse at UPS so I quit. Now I get to decide what to wear to work.”
He has a portrait of his father in his office, which includes the quote: “If no one will hire you, hire yourself”. “That’s where I get my confidence, my lack of fear,” he said. “My father was disabled, had stomach cancer and was a diabetic. He was in a car crash, which left a scar like a harelip, so he grew a bushy mustache.”
Learning technology was something that always came easy to Dave. “When I was a kid, I’d fix stuff, like TVs, radios,” he said. “The tube TV, I had no idea how it worked, but I looked at the back, noticed one of the tubes was darker. Then found a fuse that fried, got replacements and fixed it. My mom thought I was a magician!”
Since 2017, AMPED has been an authorized trainer for the CompTIA, an IT and cyber security certification which is necessary to launch a career in those fields. And now, on the third floor, overlooking the entire West End and downtown, there are three connected training rooms, which can hold up to 115 people combined, and which are AI-assisted, including microphones everywhere and a camera that follows you around.
Dave said that the course focuses on two parts: first hardware and hard drives, and then networking protocol. The standards are high, and if you can’t keep up, you must exit the class. “But you can still study and keep materials,” Dave said, noting that it’s still an encouraging vibe, but seats in the program are valuable. “We will still pay for the test.”
In addition to the tech and learning center – as well as a conference room and meeting space for rent — the building also houses L Home, a financing company associated with the West End TIF program, LIBA (Louisville Independent Business Alliance), and the main office as well as primary facility of Play Cousins Collective, which offers a variety of child services and activities which support working parents.
But there’s more: a playground next to the building, designed in conjunction with Claude Stephen’s team from Bernheim Forest and Arboretum, and the MELANnaire Marketplace, a year-round marketplace curated for Black entrepreneurs, business professionals, and small business owners. Dave said it was a pop up, but now this is their permanent location.
And in another move in respect to the neighborhood, Dave preserved some of the bricks from the previous building, the HUB department store — which has a rich history in Louisville — and used them for the front desk backdrop at the main entrance.
When you dream in color you can’t live in black and white.
That inspirational statement is painted high on a ceiling in one of the many modern conference and training rooms and clearly reflects Dave’s own mentality and vision for AMPED.
“I’ve had students ask me, ‘What is it about technology that gets you excited?’” he said. “It’s because I know something that other people don’t, and that represents freedom. I want to always continue to learn, because that’s where the love and joy comes in. I know that when it comes to technology and computers, there’s nothing I can’t learn.”
