City, state leaders celebrate ‘game-changing’ project in Lexington
State, community and University of Kentucky leaders gathered Thursday to celebrate the opening of the reincarnated Central Bank Center.
“It is a fantastic day in Lexington . . . ,” Mayor Linda Gorton said.
Gov. Andy Beshear said the $310 million Central Bank Center expansion project would be “game-changing for Lexington and it’s game-changing for the commonwealth of Kentucky. It starts with a $100 million economic impact every single year.”
More than one speaker suggested that among the beneficiaries would be the University of Kentucky men’s basketball program.
“It’s beautiful,” Congressman Andy Barr said. “It creates a magnet for downtown Lexington. Obviously, it increases the capability of our city to attract more significant conventions and exhibitions, which means more restaurant and hospitality and hotel business.”
Bob Elliston, the Lexington Center Corporation board chairman, said that impact was already being felt. The recent Elton John concert was the highest grossing event in the history of Rupp Arena, he said, before adding that the same could be said of two other events in the past five years.
The inside of Rupp Arena will not be different than last year. But Beshear called the area in which UK’s home court will be encased could serve as “a recruiting tool.”
“Not just for the basketball players who will be playing in Rupp,” the governor said, “(but also) for companies, for individuals, for remote workers (and) those who come here to see what Kentucky is all about.”
The ceremony, which included a champagne toast, took place in the new Rupp Arena lobby on the structured third level. Opposite the High Street entrance was a wall of glass overlooking Triangle Park.
On a wall inside the lobby was the original center court portion of the floor upon which UK played its Rupp Arena home games from 1976 through 2001. A plaque indicated that UK had a win-loss record of 328-36 in that time. Games played included the memorable 1985 Final Four in which Villanova upset defending champion Georgetown and the 1986 women’s Final Four.
“Certainly a camera shot when everyone comes to Kentucky,” UK Director of Athletics Mitch Barnhart said of the center court displayed on the lobby wall.
Lexington Center President and CEO Bill Owen said the center court had been stored at the Straus Tobacconist store in the adjoining Hyatt Hotel lobby since being replaced by a new court in 2001. “Three stacks of 11 panels,” Owen said of the storage arrangement of the original center court.
Barnhart also spoke of the new Central Bank Center having an impact beyond Kentucky basketball.
“This is a gathering spot when you’re not having games,” he said. “It’s a spectacular place to have a banquet, a spectacular place to entertain people and show Lexington at its finest.”
Planning for the reinvention of the Central Bank Center began more than 10 years ago. It began during the administration of Gov. Steve Beshear, the current Kentucky governor’s father.
When asked how he felt about completing a project begun by his father, the younger Beshear said, “I love my dad. . . . We’ve done all this as a family.”
Beshear expressed pride in being able “to see his work through, whether that is here at Rupp Arena or it’s seeing the impact that expanded Medicaid made during the pandemic.”
The project is not completed. Gorton noted that the Lexington Center Corporation is weighing four proposals for reinventing the parking lot area across High Street from Rupp Arena.
Of what has already been done, the mayor said, “the transformation of this area is fantastic.”
