{"id":2394802,"date":"2026-04-29T17:00:23","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T17:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2394802"},"modified":"2026-04-29T17:00:23","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T17:00:23","slug":"uk-moving-forward-with-cooper-connector-plan-for-entertainment-district-near-kroger-field","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/uk-moving-forward-with-cooper-connector-plan-for-entertainment-district-near-kroger-field\/","title":{"rendered":"UK moving forward with ‘Cooper Connector’ plan for entertainment district near Kroger Field"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Big changes are coming to the area around Kroger Field, including the removal of the first home for the Bluegrass Community and Technical College. <\/p>\n

During Tuesday morning\u2019s Champions Blue LLC Board of Governors Meeting, Kevin Locke, who serves as UK\u2019s associate vice president of planning, design and construction, detailed the plan for moving forward with the \u201cCooper Connector\u201d layout near Kroger Field. Four layouts were proposed back in February<\/a>, with UK opting for the plan that will replace buildings currently occupied by BCTC on Cooper Drive. <\/p>\n

\u201cFood and beverage, that would serve as the anchor use for this scheme,\u201d Locke told the board. \u201cThis location needs genuine energy, with multiple retail spots creating critical mass, rather than an isolated, one-off destination. And with the right mix of food, entertainment, and access, this corridor will come alive and attract private investors as well as become an asset for the university, staff, and surrounding community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Locke added that the location for a hotel conference center, which would be included in the \u201cCooper Connector\u201d plan, is still being studied and will be worked on over the next several weeks. A BCTC spokesperson told the Herald-Leader<\/a> that the school, which was originally established in 1976, will vacate the current campus\u2019s location by the end of the year. BCTC still has other campus locations spread throughout central Kentucky. <\/p>\n

The Cooper Connector proposed entertainment district, via UK Athletics<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Locked also discussed the plans for a multi-use facility, which would include a new basketball practice facility. The idea first came to life back in September<\/a>, although a location for the multi-use facility is still being determined. Locke added that it could be included with the \u201cCooper Connector\u201d plans, or built near Historic Memorial Coliseum, which will also undergo (and already is undergoing) a major facelift.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor the Historic Memorial Coliseum district, a mix of retail and various housing types, both student market-rate housing, as well as structured parking, is considered the most desirable for this location,\u201d Locke said. \u201c\u2026More conversation study is needed, as we hope to answer that question in the coming weeks as well. So we are still on track for completing the study in the summer of this year.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.on3.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Big changes are coming to the area around Kroger Field, including the removal of the first home for the Bluegrass Community and Technical College. During Tuesday morning\u2019s Champions Blue LLC Board of Governors Meeting, Kevin Locke, who serves as UK\u2019s associate vice president of planning, design and construction, detailed the plan for moving forward with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2394803,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2394802","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/UK-moving-forward-with-Cooper-Connector-plan-for-entertainment-district.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2394802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2394802"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2394802\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2394804,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2394802\/revisions\/2394804"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2394803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2394802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2394802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2394802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}