Western Kentucky University’s School of Nursing is about to get a big boost with a proposed expansion of Commonwealth Health Corp.’s campus.
Commonwealth Health is proposing to construct a 77,163-square-foot building adjacent to The Medical Center complex that would be used mostly for WKU’s School of Nursing. The project is in the Tax Increment Financing district, an area that starts at WKU’s main campus, extends downtown to the new Southern Kentucky Performing Arts Center and over to U.S. 31-W By-Pass, and includes the large Medical Center campus.
“This takes quite a commitment both on the part of The Medical Center because it will own the building and on the part of WKU because we will have a long-term lease of the space,” WKU President Gary Ransdell said. “Western will have access to a new academic building, and we will be able to double the number of nursing students, which is huge for health all across Kentucky.”
Ransdell expects that graduates of the program will find employment not only at both of Bowling Green’s hospitals but in Glasgow, Caverna, Owensboro, Elizabethtown, Hopkinsville and elsewhere.
WKU would lease 80 percent of the building and move all of its nursing program and the new doctors of physical therapy and practical nursing programs to the building. The space also would contain faculty offices and the necessary lab space, Ransdell said.
It’s not clear what CHC or The Medical Center would do with the remainder of the building. CHC staff members familiar with the project were out of town and could not be reached for comment.
Ransdell said details of how many new faculty members would be required for the enlarged program are still being worked out.
WKU’s first classes in the new building are expected to begin in fall 2013, so bids for the project are expected to be sought soon.
The design of the project will be up for review Thursday by the TIF Design Review Committee, and then later that evening the City-County Planning Commission of Warren County will consider the detailed development plan for the nearly four acres needed for the project. A variance of the required property line setback for construction will also be sought.
Planning staff approved both a preliminary drainage and landscape plan and determined that a traffic impact study is not required for the project. The new building would have 189 parking spaces, while just 111 are required.
The project, which has been two years in the planning stage, is ready to move forward because it is apparent that the TIF district will meet its $150 million investment requirement, Ransdell said. That means new tax revenues in the district can be used to pay for the infrastructure development of projects.
Sixty percent of the new tax revenue generated by The Medical Center and as a result of Western’s move to the area between U.S. 31-W By-Pass, Chestnut, Park and High streets and First Avenue will be used to help pay for this particular project, Ransdell said.
Western will pay an annual lease on the space – an amount that won’t be determined until construction bids are made – using the anticipated increase in tuition the university will receive, Ransdell said. That money in turn also will be used to pay off construction debt.
The move will allow Western to grow the number of baccalaureate-seeking nurses from 80 to 160, Ransdell said.
“We are (constantly) turning away qualified applicants because we just don’t have the room now,” said Robbin Taylor, WKU vice president for public affairs.
When the program is moved out of the Academic Complex, Taylor said there will be other programs eager to take over the space on the crowded main campus.
Doug Gorman, chairman of the Warren County Downtown Economic Development Authority, is pleased the project is coming to fruition.
“It is a culmination of the benefits and the hard work that has gone into the TIF that are making it possible,” Gorman said.
Gorman said it’s great for the community because the project involves the partnership of two of its largest employers – CHC and WKU.
“And it’s very exciting for the future of health care in our area,” he said.
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