Company with 2 apartment complexes in Lexington is looking to build a third
A company with two student apartment complexes in Lexington is applying for its third multistory building in a growing area of downtown’s edge.
Core Spaces, which owns two apartment complexes called The Hub on South Limestone and South Upper Street, has submitted a development plan for a seven-story complex at 532 South Broadway. The complex would replace the Clean Sweep Car Wash that has operated at the property since the early 2000s.
The Core Spaces proposal features 278 units with 717 bedrooms. A separate parking garage with 750 spaces is proposed to be built at 300 Cedar Street, which is currently a surface parking lot. The development would sit directly across from The Lex student apartment buildings.
The plan does not require a zone change, so it will not go before the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Council. The Urban County Planning Commission will vote on the project sometime in August.
If the plan is approved, it would be the second student housing apartment complex slated to arrive in the developing area.
A 326-unit, 974-bedroom student apartment complex in the nearby Davis Park neighborhood was recently approved by the planning commission and the council.
The area will see plenty of growth in amenities, too. Davis Park will eventually be the home of the Lexington Children’s Museum’s new building. Several properties just across Bolivar Street from the Core Spaces proposal will host a performing arts district built by the University of Kentucky.
The Core Spaces proposal on South Broadway is not the only one the company has tried to get approval for in recent years. The company filed for a zone change to build a complex at the intersection of Rose and Maxwell streets in 2025.
The council disapproved the zone change request in November following fierce opposition from area residents and the Bluegrass Trust for Historic Preservation, who argued the Maxwell Street corridor — where two separate student apartment complexes have been approved in the last two years — is being taken over by high-density private student housing.
UK’s increasing enrollment coupled with Lexington’s slow housing growth has put additional pressure on neighborhoods around campus and downtown.
A 2024 housing study from EHI Consultants found Lexington needs 22,549 additional housing units. Of those, 4,739 should be for student housing, the study found.
While many of the projects result in demolishing buildings that have long been rented to students, opponents argue the demolition of existing buildings destroys a neighborhood’s character and results in the loss of some of Lexington’s cheapest apartments.
While several have been approved, some student apartment complexes like Core Spaces’ Maxwell proposal and a project at Woodland Triangle have been felled by neighborhood organizing.
