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UK hopes to renovate arts building as part of new development

By Beverly Fortune bfortune@herald-leader.com

The University of Kentucky plans to partner with a developer for a project that will redevelop five acres fronting on South Broadway and include renovating its long-neglected Reynolds arts building.

The Reynolds Building is one of four that UK intends to sell, together with five acres of adjacent land on the west edge of campus. An optional acre behind the Taylor Education Building is also available.

The university hopes for a project that includes a small hotel, parking, some housing, retail, restaurants and public spaces.

Part of the deal includes extensive renovations to the Reynolds Building, home to art department faculty and student studios. The developer will be required to lease the building back to the university.

With UK's funds cut by the legislature, spokesman Tom Harris said the university lacks the resources on its own to modernize the Reynolds Building, which lacks centralized heat and air conditioning and has restrooms dating to the early 20th century.

The university wants to partner with a developer to control how the entire site is developed, Harris said. “This will give us the type of development we want to see next to our campus,” he said.

The development together with the Newtown Pike extension will create a new front door for the university, Harris said. “This has been our back door for years.”

The push to renovate the Reynolds Building gained momentum in 2007 after art professor Ross Zirkle, who had made its revival a personal cause, died of cancer.

“The building itself is like a freedom of spirit,” said artist Arturo Sandoval, whose studio has been in Reynolds for 35 years. “It allows students to work freely without thinking the building is too precious, too clean.”

Its large open spaces and high ceilings give students an open mind, he said. “And it gives them an opportunity to make things on a larger scale.”

A feasibility study three years ago concluded that it was more cost-effective to renovate the building than to construct a new arts building.

“It's the best of both worlds,” said Benjamin Withers, chairman of the art department. “The Reynolds building can be retained, renovated and it's the most cost effective.”

Community input will be sought as the university and developer consider ideas for the project, he said.

An asking price for the property has not been established because what UK says it wants is not just about a price tag.

“It's about the lease-price of the Reynolds Building back to the university and what the development incorporates,” Harris said. “We'll wait and see what we get back.”

Preliminary development plans, including purchase price for the property and the university's lease-back price for Reynolds, are due to UK on Oct. 15.

Developer Bill Lear, whose Center Court condominium project is nearby on South Upper and Bolivar streets, called the project “a very innovative approach.”

“I'm glad to see the university do something a little out of the box,” he said.

The site is bounded by South Broadway on the west, the campus on the east, Scott Street on the south and Bolivar Street on the north.

Upon completion, it would join several major student housing projects that have been built along South Broadway and nearby Angliana Avenue, with more in the offing. Ground was broken in June for The Lex with 266 apartments, townhouses and retail space.

Developers — not yet named publicly — have an option to buy the Kentucky Eagle Distributors building and 13 acres on Angliana for student housing.

Privately owned buildings, including offices of the Burley Tobacco Growers Co-op Association and the Central Kentucky Ag Credit headquarters, are included on the UK site.

“We don't own those properties, but it makes the most sense for a developer to go from Scott Street to Bolivar and incorporate all those buildings and land,” Harris said.

Brian Furnish, general manager of the burley co-op, said his company has been approached by different people over the last two months about selling the building and adjoining parking lot.

“There's not been anything definite proposed,” he said, adding, “Basically, we're happy where we are and don't want to move.”