Molina Healthcare to donate long-vacant site in west Louisville for JCPS middle school

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — The rusty steel skeleton that has towered above Broadway in Louisville’s west end will finally come down after five years, as Jefferson County Public Schools plans to build a middle school on the long-vacant site at 18^th Street and Broadway.

Molina Healthcare, the Long Beach, California health insurer, will donate the 20-acre site to the Louisville school district, which plans to construct the permanent location of Dr. J. Blaine Hudson Middle School, officials announced Friday.

The move marks a new chapter for the former site of a Philip Morris cigarette factory in the California neighborhood, returning the property to taxpayer hands after more than two decades of failed attempts at redevelopment under two previous Louisville mayors.

Ten years ago, Walmart said it would build a SuperCenter there before backing out. Then, the now-defunct Passport Health Plan started construction of an office building, only to abruptly stop work in 2019 amid financial difficulties. The site, including the frame of the building, has languished since.

JCPS aims to break ground on the middle school later this fall and finish construction of the school by 2026, Superintendent Marty Pollio said.

The project is expected to cost $50-$60 million. Pollio said the school district also will have to pay "in the millions" to remove the partially built structure started by Passport.

Assuming the plan moves forward — no certainty, given the tumultuous history of the site — Molina’s donation will return the prominent property to public ownership nearly 25 years after it was given to the city for a nominal $100.

Under two previous mayors, the city managed to lose control of the property — allowing private actors to sell it off — all while failing to achieve any development.

Molina ended up with the property in 2022 as part of a 2020 package deal in which the investor-owned company eased its way into Kentucky’s Medicaid managed care market. Molina bought the remnants of the financially distressed Passport Health Plan, including the then-300,000 low-income members who were covered by the original Passport.

Molina never articulated plans for the site beyond achieving a “community focused” development, and it has continued to languish. In the end, the company decided to give away the site it paid $8 million for in 2022 as part of the overall Passport takeover.

“Ultimately it’s really about just doing the right thing for the community,” said Ryan Sadler, president of the Passport by Molina Healthcare plan. “Not that there’s not immense value in here, but we know the community needs it more than we do.”

The school will be the first middle or high school construction in west Louisville since the 1950s, JCPS Superintendent Marty Pollio said at Friday's announcement in front of dozens of students, business and political leaders and residents.

“I'm so glad that you all are here today to see this historic, historic day," said Jeronda Majors, Hudson's principal, speaking to students in attendance. "We recognize that we are making history and our impact will be for generations to come."

Hudson Middle is located in a temporary space on 17th Street.

JCPS is also planning an administrative office on the west Louisville property in the development’s second phase, which is a few years off, Pollio said Friday.

And while the school district will own the site, Molina will still have a presence. The company plans to open a "one stop help center" — its first in Louisville — and eventually move that center into the new JCPS-led development.

Tumultuous history

Tobacco giant Philip Morris closed its cigarette plant on Broadway in 2000 and later sold the property to the city for $100. In 2006, former Mayor Jerry Abramson’s administration gave the property to Louisville-based Newbridge Development for no payment.

In exchange, Newbridge — created by local construction company owners Frank and Teresa Bridgewaters — agreed to tear down the old buildings and market the land for redevelopment.

With the Walmart deal in sight, then-Mayor Greg Fischer's administration made a $1.1 million no-interest loan to Newbridge in 2013 to buy adjacent parcels needed to lure the large retailer.

But the $25 million store never materialized, as Walmart withdrew the plan in 2017.

WDRB later revealed that Newbridge spent only about $357,000 of the city’s $1.1 million on adjacent land purchases. The rest of the money was never accounted for.

Enter Passport, a nonprofit organization founded by local providers such as the University of Louisville, Norton Healthcare and the former Jewish Hospital & St. Mary’s Healthcare.

Passport decided to build its headquarters and a “health and wellbeing campus” on the site in 2017, paying Newbridge Development $7.1 million for the property.

With so little progress on the site and the sting of losing Walmart, Fischer’s administration was eager to see the Passport plan come to fruition. The administration agreed not to demand repayment of the $1.1 million loan from the Bridgewaters’ company despite reporting showing less than half of it had been used for the stated purpose of buying land for Walmart.

“We think the global ending of everything is in the best interests of all, and given what is here, is worth where we are,” Jeff Mosley, a top Fischer official, told WDRB in 2017.

But there was no “global ending of everything,” as the Passport plan was halted in its tracks. The nonprofit started its office building in 2018 but stopped work the following year as it ran into financial troubles. Passport agreed to a fire sale to a company it worked with called Evolent Health, which eventually shepherded Passport to Molina in 2020.

The half-started Passport site in west Louisville came along with Molina’s purchase of Passport, but the real estate didn’t immediately follow into Molina’s hands.

As it turned out, Newbridge Development wasn’t out of the picture. In 2022, what was left of the original Passport organization paid Newbridge $2.27 million to settle a lawsuit in which Newbridge claimed it was owed additional funds under the 2017 sale.

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