UncategorizedUniversity of Kentucky Announces Naming and Vendors for Mixed-Use Facility
LEXINGTON, Ky. (March 5, 2020) —A first ever mixed-use parking, education and retail facility designed to fuel innovation and foster creativity has, since 2019, been transforming the corner of South Limestone and Winslow Street. The new structure will be home to 900 new parking spaces, University of Kentucky esports, a flexible innovation zone and approximately 10,000 square feet of private retail space.
University officials announced that, per the results of a campuswide vote, the facility will be named “The Cornerstone,” reflecting the building’s role as a gateway to an emerging innovation district that will further link the university and city. The project is scheduled to be completed in fall 2020.
Further, officials also announced that the unique, multi-vendor dining area on the ground level will be named The Cornerstone Exchange, a place for the campus and community to exchange ideas, exercise innovation and experience local food and drinks. The Cornerstone Exchange dining area is committed to featuring homegrown, Kentucky-based companies, and the university is thrilled to announce that the first three establishments are local favorites: West Sixth Brewing, A Cup of Common Wealth and Rolling Oven.
“We are very excited to announce both the name The Cornerstone, which underscores the importance of this facility as a doorway to our campus, and our relationship with these local businesses,” said UK Executive Vice President for Finance and Administration Eric Monday. “Each of these organizations has a strong connection to, and engagement with, the local community. They reflect the kind of supportive, collaborative environment we plan to create in this space.”
Monday said the vision for The Cornerstone is to leverage the open-format space and use of technology to maximize student success, enhance a sense of community and bring together the university and city. Moreover, the space will foster outcome- and solution-driven thinking and design, connect people with different passions and interests and provide new pathways for career development in entrepreneurial fields.
The space’s esports theater will include 100 retractable theater-style seats and an esports gamers lounge will offer more than 50 PC-based gaming units and multiple console-play areas; however, the flexible use of the facility will allow the community to engage in a variety of activities.
Executive Director for Strategic Analysis and Policy Melody Flowers said, “The Cornerstone Exchange communal dining area provides additional opportunity to build community and collaboration.”
“We know that some of the most meaningful relationships are built while people break bread,” Flowers said. “This facility will feature multiple components, including dining space and innovation space. We look forward to continuing our quick progress in transforming this integral, forward thinking part of campus in partnership with Signet Real Estate Group.”
After completion, Signet will maintain and operate the retail/dining space; UK will operate and maintain the innovation zone, esports center and parking structure.
“From the beginning of this partnership, Signet and UK have endeavored to create a unique retail environment for students, staff and the Lexington community,” said Signet Real Estate Group Vice President of Development Spencer Hyatt. “The Cornerstone Exchange will bring together a diverse offering of the best-in-class local operators in a collaborative atmosphere. We are truly excited to have Rolling Oven, A Cup of Common Wealth and West Sixth Brewing as our first tenants and anchors for this project.”
“We’re proud to be part of The Cornerstone project at the University of Kentucky,” said Ben Self, co-founder of West Sixth Brewing. “It’s very exciting to be an anchor of another locally focused food collaborative space. Growing up in Lexington, I’m keenly aware of the role that our flagship university plays in our city, and I’m particularly excited to deepen our partnership with UK. With the deep roots we’ve formed focusing on distributing our beer exclusively in Kentucky — especially in Lexington where we started — it made perfect sense for us to partner with the university to open our third taproom in Lexington, and fifth throughout Kentucky.”
In addition, by adding more than 900 new parking spaces, the combined number of spaces increases to roughly 2,300 between the existing garage and the new structure. This is a significant step in the right direction to achieving the university’s Transportation Master Plan and adding much needed parking capacity to campus.
The Cornerstone Exchange is leased exclusively by retail specialists Colleen Barr and Greg Leveridge with Block + Lot Real Estate. Known as a Lexington boutique, full-service real estate company, Block + Lot has built its reputation on impactful commercial real estate brokerage throughout Central Kentucky, making this exciting project a natural fit. Please contact Colleen or Greg at 859-309-0099 with inquiries and interest in The Cornerstone Exchange.
UK’s new food hall will be the first place on campus to get a beer
The new food hall coming to the University of Kentucky campus has a name. And something that no other place on campus has: Beer.
The university announced on Thursday that the mixed-use building going up on the corner of South Limestone and Winslow Street will be called The Cornerstone.
And the first three tenants of The Cornerstone Exchange, the ground level dining area featuring Kentucky companies, will be West Sixth Brewing, A Cup of Common Wealth coffee shop and Rolling Oven, a pizzeria.
While beer is available at UK’s Spindletop Hall and The Boone Center, which are membership associations, alcohol is not publicly available anywhere on campus or in Kroger Field football stadium or at Rupp Arena basketball games, except in suites.
The Cornerstone is scheduled to be finished this fall. Besides the food hall, it will have 900 new parking spaces, 10,000 square feet of retail andthe university’s 100-seat esports theater.
The name was chose by a campus-wide vote.
“We are very excited to announce both the name The Cornerstone, which underscores the importance of this facility as a doorway to our campus, and our relationship with these local businesses,” said UK executive vice president for Finance and Administration Eric Monday, in a news release. “Each of these organizations has a strong connection to, and engagement with, the local community. They reflect the kind of supportive, collaborative environment we plan to create in this space.”
The esports theater will include 100 retractable theater-style seats and an esports gamers lounge will have more than 50 PC-based gaming units and multiple console-play areas. But the space may be used for more than gaming; according to the release, “the flexible use of the facility will allow the community to engage in a variety of activities.”
The university will operate and maintain the innovation zone, esports center and parking structure.
The retail and dining area will be operated and maintained bySignet Real Estate Group.“The Cornerstone Exchange communal dining area provides additional opportunity to build community and collaboration,” said Melody Flowers, executive director for strategic analysis and policy in the release. “We know that some of the most meaningful relationships are built while people break bread. This facility will feature multiple components, including dining space and innovation space. We look forward to continuing our quick progress in transforming this integral, forward thinking part of campus in partnership with Signet Real Estate Group.”
Leasing for The Cornerstone Exchange will be handled by Colleen Barr and Greg Leveridge withBlock + Lot Real Estate.
Signet Real Estate Group’s Spencer Hyatt said The Cornerstone Exchange “will bring together a diverse offering of the best-in-class local operators in a collaborative atmosphere. We are truly excited to have Rolling Oven, A Cup of Common Wealth and West Sixth Brewing as our first tenants and anchors for this project.”
Ben Self, co-founder of West Sixth Brewing, said they are excited to open their third taproom in Lexington on campus.
“We’re proud to be part of The Cornerstone project at the University of Kentucky,” Self said. “It’s very exciting to be an anchor of another locally focused food collaborative space. Growing up in Lexington, I’m keenly aware of the role that our flagship university plays in our city, and I’m particularly excited to deepen our partnership with UK.”
Cup of Common Wealth posted news of the expansion — this will be the coffee shop’s third location — on Instagram, saying “Guys we have such an exciting announcement to make! This coming fall, we’ll be opening up a new coffee shop over on the corner of Winslow and Limestone on UK’s campus! The building will have a huge parking structure, and esports facility, some multi-use spaces, and a whole bunch of your favorite local businesses. Our good friends, @westsixth and @rollingoven are going to be in that space with us. We’re excited to into this with them, and hopefully make our family just a little bit bigger!”
Signet Real Estate Group, a Signet LLC company, is a full-service development and project management firm in the areas of higher education, health care, research and public-private-partnerships. The company transforms complex development challenges into collaborative opportunities through a creative, flexible and customized approach. Since the firm’s inception, Signet and its family of companies have successfully managed and currently have in progress more than $4.5 billion in real estate development and construction throughout the U.S. More information on Signet can be found atwww.signetre.com.
About West Sixth Brewing:
Founded in 2012, West Sixth Brewing is an award-winning brewery based in Lexington, Kentucky, operating two taprooms in our home city, a farm in Frankfort, and a Louisville taproom opening in the NuLu neighborhood in spring 2020. We produce a wide variety of beers that we distribute throughout Kentucky and across the Ohio River in Cincinnati. We’re driven by brewing high quality creative beers, making positive social impact on the communities we’re a part of, and creating an awesome place to work for our team. Learn more atwww.westsixth.com
About Rolling Oven:
Based in Lexington, Kentucky, Rolling Oven began as a food truck like you’ve never seen before — a twenty-foot shipping container converted into a mobile pizza kitchen—serving Neopolitan-style pizza and sandwiches cooked in our traditional Italian wood-fired brick oven. From traditional offerings like the Pepperoni and Supreme pizzas, to gourmet choices like the Prosciutto Speciale, Potato and Chorizo, and Pizza Bianca — Rolling Oven has a menu sure to please any pizza lover. All of our pizzas are made-to-order, using the freshest ingredients we can find. Learn more atwww.rollingoven.com
About Cup of Common Wealth:
Here at A Cup of Common Wealth, our goal is to make everyone who comes into our shop feel like they’re a part of our family. Our mission statement is, “Embrace Community. Serve Others. Create Culture,” which we live by, and hope to bring to everyone in Lexington and beyond. We use our space to share stories, bring new people together, reconnect with old friends, and bond over something we are all familiar with — a good cup of coffee. Learn more atwww.acupofcommonwealth.com
The University of Kentucky is increasingly the first choice for students, faculty and staff to pursue their passions and their professional goals. In the last two years, Forbes has named UK among the best employers for diversity, and INSIGHT into Diversity recognized us as a Diversity Champion three years running. UK is ranked among the top 30 campuses in the nation for LGBTQ* inclusion and safety. UK has been judged a “Great College to Work for” two years in a row, and UK is among only 22 universities in the country on Forbes’ list of “America’s Best Employers.” We are ranked among the top 10 percent of public institutions for research expenditures — a tangible symbol of our breadth and depth as a university focused on discovery that changes lives and communities. And our patients know and appreciate the fact that UK HealthCare has been named the state’s top hospital for four straight years. Accolades and honors are great. But they are more important for what they represent: the idea that creating a community of belonging and commitment to excellence is how we honor our mission to be not simply the University of Kentucky, but the University for Kentucky.
