Officials broke ground Thursday on the Commonwealth Center for Biomedical Excellence — a new building that will rehome the NKU Chase College of Law and the UK College of Medicine’s Northern Kentucky campus.
The center is owned by the Northern Kentucky Port Authority and is being built on a parking lot in downtown Covington the authority bought from the Butler Foundation.
“We will start real work early in July, and the project will be completed in October 2028 with the schools then moving in,” said authority Executive Director Christine Russell after the groundbreaking.
The two colleges were previously about seven miles from the riverfront, in Campbell County. NKU President Cady Short-Thompson said the move puts them at the center of Greater Cincinnati.
“This location is central to the region's top law firms, courthouses, and Northern Kentucky Bar Association, providing great access for our students,” she said.
The port authority received funds for the center from the Kentucky General Assembly in a one-time spending package approved in 2024. The money was broken into two installments in the last two years: $10 million during the 2024 fiscal year for planning and $115 million for construction in the 2025 fiscal year.
The project takes the two colleges out of Highland Heights — moving jobs and payroll tax receipts out of Campbell County.
“Leaders in society have to invest in the future, not dwell in the past,” said state Sen. Chris McDaniel, R-Kenton, at the groundbreaking, adding the center will provide healthy competition and cooperation between the two colleges.
The project has been mired in controversy. Last year, a Lexington-Herald Leader investigation found that most of the work on the project was done in secret and without public input. The newspaper found that only McDaniel, Kenton County Judge-Executive Kris Knochelman, unelected Kenton county officials, and NKU and UK figureheads knew of the project before funding was approved.
This left Campbell County, Highland Heights and Covington officials in the dark. One state representative from Newport, Matt Lehman, even introduced a bill to change how port authorities work, but it didn’t pass in this year’s legislative session.
The schools expect to hold the first classes at the new center in January 2029.
Read More
