LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – The University of Louisville’s budding Health Equity Innovation Hub will take up residence in a mostly vacant downtown office building that used to belong to Louisville-based Humana Inc.
Humana donated the nine-story office building at 515 W. Market Street to U of L’s real estate foundation late last month, according to Jefferson County real estate records. In recent weeks, the Humana logo was removed from the building’s façade.
The company, Louisville’s biggest corporate headquarters, wanted to see the building put to good use as it shrinks its downtown office footprint to accommodate a lasting shift toward many employees working remotely at least part of the time, said Douglas Edwards, Humana’s senior vice president of enterprise associate and business solutions.
Edwards added that the West Market Street building’s location in the shadow of the Humana Tower, the company’s main headquarters, will foster connections between corporate employees and university researchers.
“If this allows us, because we’re in close proximity physically, to work more closely together on some of the things that we’re both invested in when it comes to health equity, I think that's a great thing,” Edwards told WDRB News.
The Market Street building marks U of L’s second recent expansion into downtown with a health-related research facility. Late last month the university announced its “New Vision of Health Campus” to be located in a pair of historic buildings on Muhammad Ali Boulevard.
The Market Street health equity hub will be distinct from the New Vision campus, but there will be "similarities between, interaction among and cooperation with the work being carried out in each" of the two research locations, according to U of L spokeswoman Jill Scoggins.
U of L in February announced the Health Equity Innovation Hub in partnership with Humana, which committed $15 million to the effort between the company and its foundation. The hub’s focus will be on “groundbreaking research, talent development, entrepreneurship and innovation, with a deliberate focus on health equity, social determinants of health and digital health and analytics,” U of L said.
At the time, officials said there was no physical “hub” for the innovation hub, but that the work would be in multiple locations around the city.
U of L did not make anyone available for interview about the plan for the Market Street building. In a written statement, U of L interim President Lori Stewart Gonzalez said the university appreciates the donation and looks forward to sharing more information in the future.
Humana purchased the Market Street building in 2013. It was used for general administrative space rather than dedicated to any particular arm of the company, Edwards said. A portion of the company’s pharmacy business was based there in the past, he said.
The building remains in “great shape,” Edwards said, but no more than 100 Humana employees were based there following the shift to remote work during the pandemic.
The donation of the building valued at $9 million is in addition to the $15 million that Humana and its foundation previously committed to the health equity hub, Edwards said.
“We said, what could we do that could really kind of influence both bringing the health equity hub to life and, ensuring that we’re being thoughtful about our footprint downtown -- people are working differently, we don't need as much space as we did -- but also, showing our commitment to downtown,” Edwards said. “We felt that this was a really unique opportunity.”
