Latest / Kentucky Business News / 6.11.26

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6.11.26 · Kentucky Business News

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  Speaker 1: Hello. Today, I'll be reading from business sources in Lexington
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  and Louisville, including The Lane Report and others from around
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  the Commonwealth. Your reader today is Julia Shane. As a reminder,
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  RADIOI is a reading service intended for people who are
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  blind or who have other disabilities that make it difficult
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  to read printed material. Our first article comes from the
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  June fifth, twenty twenty sixth edition of The Lane Report
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  and is titled Southwest and CVG Celebrate inaugural non stop
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  flight to Austin, Texas. CVG Airport on Thursday celebrated two
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  milestones with Southwest Airlines, the launch of its first non
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  stop flight to Austin and its ninth anniversary as a
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  carrier at CBG. Passengers on the inaugural Austin flight enjoyed
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  Southwest branded cookies, a custom theme song, and a prize
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  drawing for seven days of free parking at CBG. We're
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  so excited to introduce our customer base in northern Kentucky
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  and Cincinnati to the great state of Time, Texas and
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  all the connections they can make through Austin to places
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  out West, said Noel Curry, CVEG station manager for Southwest.
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  He wore a cowboy hat and a shirt for the flight,
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  which he himself was taking. Traveling with him was a
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  Northern Kentucky Cincinnati themed gift for his counterpart in Austin,
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  New Riff Bourbon reds gear and CVG airport socks. Gates
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  agents wore similar Texas themed ensembles, and a song written
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  by a Southwest employee about the Austin Cincinnati connection played
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  over the loudspeaker while passengers waited to board. Many were
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  gleeful about the new NonStop route. I am so excited
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  about this direct flight. I have family in Austin and
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  I'm going to my niece's wedding, said Carol Norris of Troy, Ohio,
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  who was wearing a cowboy hat and a Texas T shirt.
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  We are so fired up. We picked the right day.
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  CVG held a random prize drawing for boarding, with a
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  winning passenger receiving seven days of free parking at CBG.
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  With the addition of service to Austin, Southwest has grown
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  its twenty twenty six summer schedule at CBG by more
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  than forty percent over the previous summer. In terms of
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  flight volume and sea capacity, Southwest now provides year round
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  service from CBG to Austin, Nashville, Baltimore, Denver, Orlando, and
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  Chicago at Midway, in addition to seasonal services to Phoenix,
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  with the frequency of flights increasing from twenty twenty five
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  to twenty twenty six. We're always working to identify opportunities
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  that give our customers even more choices when they travel,
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  said Daniel Jones, vice President Network Planning at Southwest. Our
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  new route between Cincinnati and Austin connects two growing cities
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  with even more potential. Southwest continues to demonstrate its commitment
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  to CpG and our region with this new Austin route,
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  said Larry Crowder, Chief executive Officer CVG. Its expanded presence
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  here now offering seven destinations with increasing frequency, reflects the
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  demand and vitality of our market. Austin is a great
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  addition as the two cities share much in common as
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  growing tech hubs and vibrant cultural centers. About CVG Airport
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  CVEG welcomed nine million travelers in twenty twenty five. The
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  airport offers more than fifty five non stop destinations with
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  fourteen airlines. It is proud to serve two non stop
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  transatlantic flights, including London via British Airways and Paris through
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  Delta Airlines. CVEG is home to two global air hubs
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  that continue to drive growth, Amazon air Hubs and dhl's
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  Express Global Superhub for the Americas. With an annual impact
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  of ten point five billion dollars on the local economy,
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  the airport drives regional growth and remains a leader in
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  aviation innovation. The next article from the Lane report is
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  titled Public Policy Where Kentucky puts its money. The twenty
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  twenty six General Assembly approved funding that targets growth, but
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  unfinished business remains. Written by Jared Smith, Kentucky's recent twenty
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  twenty six legislative session was intense, stretching to the final
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  hours before crucial matters were resolved or deferred. An exhaustive
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  account would be too long for this writing, but there
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  are a few key wins that can be celebrated. But first,
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  the state budget. State budget highlights. The Kentucky General Assembly
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  approved a two year, thirty two point four billion dollar
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  budget focusing on K twelve education, public safety, healthcare, and
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  core government services. Alongside executive branch spending cuts. Executive branch
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  spending is reduced by four percent in fiscal year twenty
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  twenty seven and three percent in fiscal year twenty twenty eight,
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  though key areas such as SEEK funding, public schools, family
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  resource and youth service centers, Medicaid, juvenile justice corrections, veterans programs,
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  and others are exempt. Education, the budget provides an additional
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  three hundred sixty nine million dollars for K through twelve
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  public education over the biennium. SEEK funding increases by two
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  percent annually, from four thousand, five hundred eighty six dollars
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  to four thousand, six hundred twenty six dollars per pupil
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  in fiscal year twenty twenty seven and to four thousand,
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  seven hundred ninety two dollars in fiscal year twenty twenty eight.
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  State employees. Public employees receive a two percent salary increase
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  each year alongside full pension funding. Fiscal year twenty twenty
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  seven includes a seventy eight point five million dollar contribution
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  to the Kentucky in Employees' Retirement system. Healthcare Medicaid receives
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  nearly six billion dollars in general fund allocations. The Rural
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  Health Transformation Program is allocated two hundred twelve point nine
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  million dollars in federal funds annually to expand healthcare in
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  rural areas. Additional funds address SNAP Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program
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  administration costs forty three point five million dollars in fiscal
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  year twenty twenty seven and fifty eight million dollars in
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  fiscal year twenty twenty eight, and support foster care and
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  kinship programs. Juvenile justice facilities in Jefferson County receive six
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  point five million dollars in fiscal year twenty twenty seven
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  and twelve million dollars in fiscal year twenty twenty eight.
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  Other major budget bills road Infrastructure, House Bill five oh
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  two and HJR. Seventy six, a four point six billion
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  dollars plan for road construction and maintenance, includes seventy million
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  dollars specifically for local roads appropriations bill. This bill allocates
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  roughly three billion dollars for fiscal year twenty seven. In
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  fiscal year twenty eight toward infrastructure and economic development. Projects
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  include investments in paduca's nuclear energy industry and support for
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  Louisville's Kentucky Center for Performing Arts and Speed Museum Revenue
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  Bill HB seven five seven. This law broadens sales and
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  use tax to new services, applies new taxes on fantasy
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  contests and prediction market providers twelve percent and fourteen point
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  two five percent, respectively, and revises tax exemptions for religious
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  and agricultural entities. It introduces a six percent excise tax
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  on premium cigars and updates tobacco product and vapor product taxes.
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  The bill all also sets refundable tax incentives for major
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  professional sports events, and adds regulations and fees for electric
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  vehicle charging stations. Childcare reform efforts House Bill six in
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  House Joint Resolution fifty, led by Families and Children's Chair
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  Samara Hebron, focus on expanding access to universal childcare to
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  benefit working and middle class families. Key features include one
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  improved childcare regulation, affordability and workforce support. Two data driven
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  adjustments to supply and demand. Three extension of childcare services
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  to military families stationed at Fort Knox and Fort Campbell.
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  Four Enhanced licensing and monitoring of childcare programs, and five
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  support for kindergarten readiness, including a pilot program at the
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  University of Kentucky. Workforce and prison education expansion. House Build
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  five promotes education and workforce training for incarcerated individuals through
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  a partnership between the Kentucky Community and Technical College System
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  and the Department of Corrections, authorizes a fifty one thousand,
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  five hundred thirty square foot training facility at the North
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  Point Training Centre in Bergen. The facility serves about four
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  hundred inmates annually, especially those nearing release. Goals include reducing recidivism,
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  filling labor shortages, and improving community safety. The program currently
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  supports over five hundred and fifty incarcerated individuals with more
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  than three thousand GEDs earned. Employers in Kentucky have shown
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  willingness to hire candidates with felony convictions. Training targets key
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  economic sectors, advanced manufacturing, skilled trades, aviation mechanics, heavy equipment operations,
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  and emerging technology fields. Federal financial aid, including pelgrants, will
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  support the programs. Notable bills that failed. Some significant bills
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  did not pass during the session. House Omnibus Bill SB
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  nine despite intense focus and task force discussions. The Comprehensive
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  Housing Bill failed on the final day. Tax Reform and
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  HEMP lab HB nine, proposals to reform taxation on alcohol
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  and cannabis infused beverages and establish a HEMP lab at
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  the University of Kentucky. Did not advance local control of
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  short term rentals. Contentious debate over regulating short term rental
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  platforms like Airbnb contributed to HB nine's failure. Concluding thoughts,
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  this session saw progress in education funding, healthcare, infrastructure, childcare,
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  and workforce development. However, important topics such as housing reform
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  and certain tax changes remained unresolved, signaling priorities for the
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  next legiation session. Interim work towards the twenty twenty seven
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  session begins in June. Until then, we wait for cabinets
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  to begin implementing the laws passed this year. The next
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  article comes from the June eighth to twenty twenty sixth
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  edition of Business Lexington and is titled dark Point acquires
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  Lexington data Center campus for twenty nine million dollars. Dark Points,
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  a regional provider of colorcation, cloud and interconnection solutions, has
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  acquired a twenty nine point five acre data center campus
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  at seven four to five West New Circle Road for
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  twenty nine million dollars. The sale was brokeered by Lexington
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  based Haymaker Company and closed roughly six and a half
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  months after the property was brought to market. The campus,
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  formerly owned by Lexmark, spans approximately three hundred forty three
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  thousand square feet and includes about eighty one thousand square
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  feet of existing raised floor data center space. The site
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  is fully zoned for data center use and includes an
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  on site substation, features that Dark Points says will allow
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  for faster redevelopment and expansion. The company plans to transform
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  the property into a next generation data center campus designed
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  to support AI, hyper scale, neocloud, and enterprise computing demand.
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  Current plans call for an initial capacity of approximately twenty
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  to thirty megawatts, with long term expansion potential reaching seventy megawatts.
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  The future campus is expected to support high density computing
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  environments with up to two hundred kilowatts per rack, along
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  with infrastructure for both traditional air cooled systems and direct
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  to chip liquid cooling technology. Lexington gives us a rare
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  combination of existing infrastructure, a supportive power environment, and the
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  ability to scale in a meaningful way, said Scott Willis,
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  president and CEO of dark poor Points. As AI, neocloud
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  and hyperscale demand continue to reshape the market, customers need
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  sites that can support larger power footprints, denser deployments, and
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  long term growth Lexington gives us that platform. Dark Points
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  said that Lexington's location between major connectivity markets including Ashburn, Virginia, Chicago,
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  and Atlanta also factored into the acquisition. The company cited
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  support from Kentucky Utilities, LG and E, and local economic
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  development partners as helping create a faster path to market
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  than a typical greenfield project. The transaction represents one of
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  the larger commercial real estate sales in Lexington in recent
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  years and reflects growing demand nationwide for data centers and
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  digital infrastructure facilities driven by cloud computing and artificial intelligence.
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  Haymaker Companies Andy Haymaker, Mike Wilder, and Jack Hamilton represented
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  the seller in the transaction. Additional redevelopment planning is underway,
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  with dark Points expected to finalize ready for service dates
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  in the coming months. The next article comes from the
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  June ninth, twenty twenty sixth edition of the Lexington Times
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  and is titled FCPS Board Okay's land sale for Freedom
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  Train Plaza expansion. The Fayette County Board of Education approved
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  the sale of property at Lexington Middle School on June eighth,
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  clearing the way for the Lexington Freedom Train Committee to
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  expand an educational plaza honoring abolitionists Lewis and Harriet Hayden.
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  The board voted to sell a one one hundred sixty
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  eight square foot parcel to the Lexington Fayett Urban County
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  Government for fifteen hundred dollars. The land sits at the
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  corner of North Limestone and East Fourth Streets in front
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  of the school, where the monument to the Haydens was
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  unveiled last year as part of the city's commemoration of
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  its history and the couple's role in the abolitionist movement.
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  The June eighth meeting, a planning session ahead of the
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  board's June twenty second action meeting, also addressed several proposals
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  set for board consideration later this month, among them a
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  request to designate Tates Creek High School's International baccalaure Diploma
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  program as a Gifted and Talented option in leadership. Tates
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  Creek has offered the ib program since two thousand seven,
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  providing a rigorous international curriculum recognized worldwide. The board also
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  reviewed a recommended rezoning plan to accommodate the opening of
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  Helen case Wade Elementary on Greendale Road in August of
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  twenty twenty seven. The new school is named after Case Wade,
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  who became the first African American student to attend a
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  white high school in Lexington when she enrolled in summer
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  classes at Lafayette High School in nineteen fifty one. Superintendent
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  Demetrius Liggans reviewed more than three dozen items on the
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  consent agenda. Under separate consideration were proposed updates to the
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  twenty twenty six twenty seven Student Code of Conduct. The
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  board also approved cafeteria meal prices for twenty twenty six
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  twenty twenty seven. Chief of Staff Tracy Bruno presented updates
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  on how legislation from the twenty twenty sixth session will
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  affect FCPS, including changes to non traceable communications between staff
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  and students and standardization of school board sizes to five
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  members across Kentucky. The board is expected to vote on
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  June twenty second on proposed industrial revenue bonds for the
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  renovation of Rose Tower apartments and a residential development on
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  Midland Avenue. Community members may attend the school board meetings
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  at the John D. Price Administration Building at four five
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  zero Park Place. The next article comes from the June fifth,
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  twenty twenty sixth edition of Louisville Business First and is
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  titled Gray Media Buy's WDRB building for three point four
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  five million dollars. Gray is the parent of WAVETV, which
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  acquired WDRB from Block Communications Incorporated. Written by Joel Stennett,
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  the building that's home to WDRB news has a new owner,
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  albeit a familiar one. Wdrb's headquarters at six to four
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  West Muhammad Ali Boulevard was sold in May to Atlanta
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  based Gray Media Incorporated for more than three point four
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  five million dollars, according to a deed filed with Jefferson
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  County Clerk's Office. The WDRB building was previously owned by
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  Pennsylvania based Independence Television Company. Built in nineteen eighty, the
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  thirty twenty square foot WDRB building is two stories and
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  cis on one point two seven acres. It houses wdrb's
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  newsroom and three television studios. Gray Media's purchase of wdrb's
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  building is the latest development in the eighty million dollar
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  acquisition of Block Communication Incorporated's broadcast television stations, which include WDRB.
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  The deal closed on May seventh and marked one of
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  the most significant shifts in Louisville's local television market in years,
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  bringing Fox affiliate WDRB under the same ownership as NBC
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  affiliate Wave. It is not clear if Gray Media intends
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  for WDRB and Wave to continue operating in separate buildings
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  or has plans to move them under the same roof
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  Gray Media did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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  As part of the integration of WDRB into Gray Media,
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  the company name j Height as the next general manager
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  of WDRB, Wave and WBKI in Louisville. According to a
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  post from Gray last month, Height most recently served as
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  general manager of WFIETV, the NBC affiliate serving Evansville, Indiana,
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  known on air as fourteen News. Gray said Height has
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  more than twenty five years of broadcast experience across news sales,
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  digital platforms, and audience development. Louisville Business first reported in
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  May that John O'Brien was out as Wave general manager.
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  Earlier that week, Bill Lamb, wdrb's general manager and president
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  of Block Communications Broadcast Division, also announced he would depart
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  following the transaction. The WDRB deal was made possible after
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  a US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit ruling
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  last year struck down a Federal Communications Commission rule that
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  had prohibited common ownership of two of the top four
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  stations in a single market. Gray has described the Louisville
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  deal as creating a new Big four duopoly in the market.
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  The company has said the acquisition is part of a
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  broader plan to integrate operations across its stations, including sharing
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  local news coverage, weather resources, and reporting personnel. The leadership
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  change also comes amid other movements at the stations. Former
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  wd RB anchor Scott Reynolds returned to Waive on May
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  eighteenth to co anchor the four PM newscast with Dawn
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  g WDRB is a news partner to Louisville Business First.
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  The next article from Louisville Business First is titled U
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  of L's Bradley consulted on sports Legislation, written by Stephen Schmidt.
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  University of Louisville President Jerry Bradley had reason to smile
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  recently when US Senators Ted Cruz, Republican from Texas and
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  Maria Cantwell, Democrat from Washington, unveiled the Protect College Sports Act,
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  new legislation aimed at reforming college athletics governance. There's probably
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  no perfect bill that's going to make everybody happy, Bradley
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  told Business First. There's a lot of debate on the
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  employability of student athletes. These are very highly political issues.
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  At the end of the day, we need legislative action
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  to give proper governance to what's an ungovernable thing right now.
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  Bradley participated in several meetings with Cantwell and other senators
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  who worked on the bill, including Senator Eric Schmidt, Republican
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  from Missouri, joined by fellow presidents and trustees from other universities.
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  He said the proposed bill is much broader than its predecessor,
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  the Score Act, which died in the US House of Representatives.
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  The new legislation includes clauses dealing with revenue enhancement and
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  spending caps that a Score Act lacked. Key components include
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  giving the NCAAA and College Sports Commission authority to enforce
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  third party name, image and likeness deals, allowing the CSC
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  to enforce spending caps, limit student athletes to five years
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  of eligibility, and preventing the creation of a super league.
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  When discussing the CSC's increased oversight on nil deals, Bradley
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  said the organization would ensure deals fit under a number
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  of rubrics, the two biggest being that they have a
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  true business purpose for the athlete and that athletes are
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  being paid with a range of compensation that is reasonable.
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  Bradley's involvement in reform efforts intensified after he took office
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  in late March twenty twenty five, just weeks before the
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  final judgments were unveiled in the House versus ncaa antitrust lawsuit.
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  That settlement established a twenty point five million dollar limit
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  that universities could share directly with chosen student athletes. The
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  best analogy I can tell you is, it's just like COVID,
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  Bradley said, It's like you didn't know what the next
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  week or day would bring. Given the systematic struggles that emerged,
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  Larry Binn's chair of the University of Louisville Athletic Association,
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  suggested that he Bradley athletic director Josh Hurd co write
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  an OpEd addressing the needed reforms in college athletics. The piece,
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  titled from the Sidelines, Not the Arena, College Athletics is
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  Running out of Time, quickly found a national audience. The
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  trio was invited by the Night Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics
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  to speak at its spring meeting recently, we spent about,
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  I'd say three or four weeks going back and forth
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  with different versions of it, Bradley said. Since that appearance,
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  Bradley said he has received positive feedback from fellow presidents
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  in the Atlas Lanet Coast conference, adding they were also
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  generally very supportive of the legislation. The next article from
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  Louisville Business First is titled Magnolia Bakery Opening in NEWLU
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  written by Joel Stennett. A bakery featured in Sex and
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  the City is coming to newlu. Magnolia Bakery will open
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  its first Louisville store late this summer at six to
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  zero East Market Street inside the Zen six to two
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  zero development. Franchisee Alex Nessenthaler told Business First. Founded in
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  nineteen ninety six in New York City, Magnolia Bakery has
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  been featured in Sex and the City, Saturday Night Live,
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  and The Devilwaares Prada. The bakery is known for its
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  red velvet cupcakes and banana pudding. Nessenthaler, a Louisville native,
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  discovered the bakery while living in New York, where she
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  worked as head of North American retail for Tory Burch.
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  After moving back to Louisville, she learned about the opportunity
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  to own a franchise. The fifteen hundred square foot location
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  will be Magnolia's second franchise store. Construction has begun and
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  is expected to cost two hundred twenty five thousand dollars,
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  according to a permit filed with Louisville Metro Planning and Design.
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  The next article from Louisville Business First is titled Gavauden
• 25:21
  Cancel's two hundred fifteen million dollar project in Ohio, written
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  by Brian Planet. Gavauden has canceled a major Cincinnati area expansion.
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  The company is abandoning plans for a two hundred and
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  fifteen million dollar liquids production facility in Reading, Ohio that
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  was expected to create three hundred jobs. According to reporting
• 25:45
  from our sister publication, The Cincinnati Business Career, the project
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  had been billed as Gavauden's largest ever investment in North America.
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  Gavauden also operated the since Color Plant at one nine
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  zero one Pain Street in Louisville, where a November twenty
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  twenty four explosion killed two employees. Injured eleven others in
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  damage nearby homes and businesses. We have made the difficult
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  decision not to proceed with developing the site at Reading,
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  Ohio because more remediation will be required than we anticipated.
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  Carla Landon, Gavawden's head of North American Communications set in
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  a statement, our assessment of the site evolved as we
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  began our physical build and have explored the market for
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  other potential sites. We believe there is a more straightforward
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  path to achieving our expansion goals in North America. Landon said,
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  we are grateful for our partnerships with the City of
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  Reading and local authorities and will do everything we can
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  to help facilitate a swift sale to a new buyer.
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  We remain deeply committed to enhancing our operational capabilities in
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  North America. North American headquarters are located in Cincinnati, where
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  it employs five hundred seventy six. Gavauden bought the twenty
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  five acre site in December of twenty twenty four from
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  the Port of Greater Cincinnati Development Authority for two million dollars.
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  A City of Reading statement posted to social media so
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  the city remains committed to working with Gavauden or any
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  company to maximize the best use for the site. A
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  runaway chemical reaction and critical safety failures caused the deadly
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  twenty twenty four explosion at Gavauden since Color Facility in Clifton,
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  according to a final report issued by the US Chemical
• 27:41
  Safety and Hazard Investigation Board on May twenty seventh. The
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  CSB is an independent federal agency that investigates industrial chemical
• 27:51
  incidents and issues safety recommendations, but does not have enforcement authority.
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  This concludes the reading of the most recent business news
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  in Lexington, Louisville, and around the state. Your reader today
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  has been Julia Shane. If you have any questions or
• 28:07
  comments about this program, please give our Lexington Studios a
• 28:10
  call at eight five nine four two two six three
• 28:14
  nine zero. Thanks for listening, and now please stay tuned
• 28:18
  for readings from the Kentucky series here on Radio I