LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg gave his State of the City address Thursday afternoon, highlighting downtown's progress and growth, like the recent news of the iconic Humana Tower.

Greenberg released renderings on X of the proposed $700 million renovation of the Humana Tower on West Main Street into a 1,000-room convention center hotel.

"The next chapter for a site that is the crown jewel of our skyline yet risks being the symbol of a dying downtown," Greenberg said Thursday.

In addition to the hotel rooms, the project calls for restaurants, 100,000 square footage of meeting space and a 40,000-square-foot ballroom, bringing more people to downtown and creating jobs. It'd be the second-largest hotel in Louisville.

"It will strengthen Downtown, our entire city, and the Commonwealth of Kentucky," Greenberg said in his post.

According to our partners at Louisville Business First, Poe Cos. signed a letter of intent to purchase the building and the land just south of the tower, including The Exchange and Vincenzo's. 

In February 2024, Humana announced it would vacate the building in a cost-cutting move. Humana said at the time it no longer needed the building as it embraced hybrid and remote work amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The company announced plans to sell the tower a year later.

Construction on the new Humana Tower is expected to begin sometime in 2027. 

This comes just three months after Yum! Brands announced its moving over 500 employees to a new headquarters downtown.

Another way Greenberg talked about strengthening Louisville is by bringing crime down.

To do that, Louisville Metro Police Department is continuing to monitor its Sustained Focus Improvement areas. Those are neighborhoods the department puts extra resources towards to reduce violent crime.

LMPD saw a drop in homicides, non-fatal shootings, aggravated assaults, robberies, rape and overall violent crime in these focus areas last year compared to 2024.

"Most progress we celebrate, but we aren't content, we'll continue to learn from our work and use it as motivation to keep improving to keep making Louisville safer every year," Greenberg said.

Other things mentioned at the State of the City were the 10-year deals the city secured with music festivals Bourbon & Beyond and Louder Than Life. As well as new improvements to the west and south end neighborhoods.

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