In the 18 years since Phillip Morris shut down its plant at 18th and Broadway, West Louisvillians were waiting for something good to happen there. As Rev. Kevin Cosby wrote in a now famous editorial in the Courier-Journal, the one that sparked what would become a $100 million investment, the area needed a few wins.
That sequence of events is now the stuff of history. How Cosby wrote the editorial, then Passport CEO Mark Carter read it, then called Mayor Greg Fischer on a Sunday with the idea. At the groundbreaking ceremony, Carter noted the remarkable speed in which the project progressed, through the late 2016 conception of the idea, through a myriad of approvals, the hiring of an architect and construction manager, and now they’re moving dirt.
Carter said the finished plans are a huge upgrade from the original 80,000 square foot single building to the final plan – three pods encompassing 337,000 square feet on 20 acres, at a cost of $100 million.
Photos by Bill Brymer
