Downtown Louisville suffers another loss with Humana's decision to vacate headquarters building

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- As Louisville's downtown tries to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, Humana's decision to move out of an iconic building on Main Street dealt another major blow to the area.

Bourbonism is booming, tourist and conventions continue to visit downtown Louisville, but office workers that support local businesses during lunch and happy hour continue to disappear.

On Monday, the sidewalks around Main Street were mostly empty with the exception of an occasional worker leaving an office building around 5 p.m. Hours earlier, Humana, the only Fortune 500 company headquartered in Kentucky, announced its plans to vacate its 27-story building at 500 W. Main Street.

The cost-cutting move leaves a massive structure to fill in downtown in an area already struggling with vacant office space. Humana no longer needs the building amid its embrace of hybrid and remote work.

Bearno's is a restaurant in downtown that used to rely on office workers. The pizza restaurant predates the Yum! Center and bourbonism, and recently moved to Third and Market.

George Timmering, a part-owner at Bearno's, is seeing fewer office workers visit the restaurant.

"Well there's not many of them, and you never know which days they're going to be working here or not," Timmering said.

Caroline Matthews and Rachel Wirth both work in downtown Louisville. They were walking to the gym on Monday evening, hours after learning about Humana's decision.

"We love working downtown," Matthews said. "It was a little bit of a shock for us, but it's been pretty quiet for the last few years."

Fewer than 10,000 people currently live in downtown. Kate Dutton is one of the downtown residents. She moved to downtown from Shelby County to attend medical school.

"There's tons of restaurants I can walk to," Dutton said. "I get my car out maybe once a week."

Dutton loves the convenience of the area. But as she walks her dog, she said there are fewer local faces than she expected. She added that it's less lively in the area than she remembered when she visited downtown as a kid.

"There's nobody walking around anymore, which is kind of sad," Dutton said.

Some businesses have left, but Bearno's is committed to the area. The restaurant decided to move after 25 years from its location by the Second Street Bridge to the corner of Third and Market.

"The exciting thing has been being so close to the convention center," Timmering said. "We look forward to many more years downtown.

Humana will empty the tower over the next 18 months to two years, consolidating its Louisville headquarters into Humana's Waterside-Clocktower campus on the east side of downtown. Last September, Louisville Gas & Electric, the investor-owned utility, said it will give up 14 floors in the building that bears its name -- LG&E Center, at 220 W. Main Street -- in 2025 when its lease is up.

The city is putting together a plan to redevelop some already existing empty buildings and lots around downtown, but that plan is still in the early stages.

Related Stories: