LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Big changes are coming to the downtown Louisville campus of Jefferson Community & Technical College (JCTC). The state’s largest community college announced a $90 million redevelopment that will make the school feel more like a university.
Phase one of the project will turn its parking lot at the corner of 1st Street and Broadway into a parking garage, green space and science building. The new parking garage will also have 8,000 square feet of retail space. Work on the garage is expected to being within the next few weeks.
Once the new science building is completed, JCTC will demolish the Hartford building next to I-65 and build a math building in its place.
The entire project is expected to take five years.
JCTC President Dr. Ty Handy explains their green space was a must for this project.
“Forty-two percent of our student body are underrepresented minority students, and so we are the most diverse institution in the state of Kentucky, and so we just need a space that feels like a college and this investment is what’s going to get us to that point,” Handy said.
He adds this green space will be the second largest park in downtown behind Waterfront Park.
For JCTC professor Jami Leckie, this redevelopment will mean so much to her students.
“Our current labs are out-of-date right, and they’re small and the new labs will be considerably much larger than the current labs that we have,” Leckie said.
Leckie has been with JCTC for the last 10 years, and says the news of what’s to come led her to apply — then become — the Dean of Natural Sciences. She also had a say in how the new building she’ll be teaching in will look like.
“I have been on all of the design meetings,” Leckie added.