Friday, July 27, 2007

UofL Expanding Downtown

Dean Charles Moyer of the University of Louisville College of Business is committed to moving his business graduate programs from the Belknap campus to downtown; the question is where will they land? Early this week the dean sent out requests for proposals to three downtown developers asking them to find the college 30,000 square feet of new space along Main Street.

The college is looking at Museum Plaza, Iron Quarter, and a yet to be announced mid rise tower on the East Main corridor. Dean Moyer wants the program to move into new space versus rehabilitated space for the ease of converting it into large open conference rooms and auditoriums.

The search for new dig in the CBD isn’t new. The college has been attempting to move the graduate programs to downtown for nearly two years. There were plans for the school to move into renovated space at the Hilliard Lyons building, but that development fell apart. They also looked into building a free standing structure at the Haymarket site, but the cost was simply too high. Dean Moyer now hopes this latest attempts proves to be the final one.

If they chose to move to Museum Plaza, they won’t be the only group of students. The Masters of Fine Arts program has already committed to locating in the soon-to-be-started project. Their space will be in the “Island” of Museum Plaza, while the business program would be housed closer to earth in the historic buildings fronting West Main Street. If the business school picked Iron Quarter, they would be the first major anchor tenant in the project.

Dean Moyer has long desired to move the graduate program to the heart of the city – explaining that is gives the school a better chance to connect with local business leaders. Hopefully this latest attempt will flesh out and the MBA program will continue to mature

1 comment:

SBC said...

hey man -

i didnt have a comment about this post, in particular -- i just stumbled on your blog and wanted to let you know that its great. believe it or not, i keep every bit as much up to date with whats going on in louisville as you do. im from louisville, too, and have been observing 'from afar' in lexington, while ive been in law school here. i just dont have a blog!

besides posting a comment i didnt see any other way to email you but if theres an address i can reach you at, i have a few more suggested links for your blog - and id like to know: do you have plans to return to town and develop yourself? i know i certainly hope to. like i said, my training is in law but im eventually hoping to find some partners (architect, planner, accountant, etc) to start a group to advise people on how to put projects together and to build some of our own. anyway, if you respond and want to email some thoughts back and forth id be interested.