LFUCC to possibly relocate Government Center

Lexington, Ky. (WTVQ) — The Lexington Fayette Urban County Council is hoping to relocate from the current Government Center downtown.

“Actually this has been in discussion for many many years here with councils and mayors about if we should stay in our current government center or not,” said 1th District Councilmember Jennifer Reynolds.

Reynolds says the council discussed the idea back in 2019, but then COVID hit and they had other priorities.

Recently both the administration and the council have been looking into either relocating or doing something new to the current building.

“Because really this building is very old and isn’t really fitting our needs very well and we feel like it’s not the best use for tax payer money,” said Reynolds.

Believe it or not, the current Government Center has been used for the last 40 years.

“We feel there is the right opportunities at the right time that’s going to allow us to move more with this,” said Chris Ford, Commissioner of General Services. “We have a request for proposal, an RFP, that is out now on the market.”‘

The RFP asks developers to send in ideas to redevelop a property for the new potential government center.

Even if the center does move the plan is to keep it downtown.

“We feel that it is now time to centralize and consolidate our three downtown buildings into one modern accessible city hall for Lexington,” said Ford.

The RFP is scheduled to end around February 9th.

“We’ll look at the different options and proposals that people have made and we’ll go from there trying to make the best decision for everyone.” said Reynolds.