New Eastern State Hospital on track
Gov. Steve Beshear
The state will begin construction in 2010 on a new Eastern State Hospital at Coldstream Research Park, Gov. Steve Beshear told the Urban County Council on Tuesday.
“We are going to end up with a first-class, state-of-the-art facility for our folks who need treatment for mental illness,” Beshear told the council.
In an historic appearance, Beshear urged the council to approve a unique funding agreement that would allow the city to issue bonds for the $129 million project even though the state would pay them off.
The council unanimously agreed Tuesday to put the financing agreement on the agenda for a first reading at Thursday’s council meeting. It will likely give final approval to the agreement next month.
Beshear is believed to be the first sitting governor to appear before the city council.
If the funding agreement is approved, Eastern State would move from its campus on Newtown Pike to the University of Kentucky’s Coldstream Research campus. Bluegrass Community and Technical College would move from UK’s Lexington campus to Eastern State’s present location. UK, in exchange, would get BCTC’s old buildings on Cooper Drive and additional parking.
Eastern State is the second-oldest psychiatric hospital in the country and its replacement has been on the state’s “to-do” list for years. Lack of funding has stalled the project but the unique agreement between UK, BCTC, the state and the city was brokered during the 2008 legislative session.
Administration and Finance Secretary Jonathan Miller said Tuesday that the construction costs for the new building will be $90 million. An additional $39 million will go toward design, moving and equipment costs.
Mayor Jim Newberry touted the agreement as a way to spur economic development. With BCTC moving into space now occupied by Eastern State, a higher educational triangle between UK, BCTC and Transylvania University would be formed, he said.
Construction is expected to begin sometime in May 2010 with substantial completion of the facility in 2012, Miller said. The facility will have expanded outpatient services and will also add other psychiatric treatments currently not available at Eastern State, officials said.
- Beth Musgrave
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Jack Rose | Apr 22, 2009 | Reply
If the present Eastern State Hospital was located somewhere in Euorpe, it would still be considered a rather new facility. Why not renovate the needed areas, which probably would be a much less cost than building a complete new facility.
Anonymous | Apr 22, 2009 | Reply
Because if you really had been inside the existing facility, and seen how old and out dated it is, you would understand that to simply renovate it would cost more than the new structures that are proposed.
Greg | Oct 26, 2009 | Reply
By renovating it they would then be required to meet all 2009 building codes. Thats not possible in a 200 year old building. The cost of a major renovation would easily be 2 or 3 times more expensive than the new building. Plus what would you do with all the patients? Either they would have to be moved, or you would be forced to do all the work in stages. Which would take an additional 10 years and even more money to do compared to building this new building.
Joe | Jan 28, 2010 | Reply
The ESH campus will be razed wholly or in part, I guess, and that means BCTC will need a new budget allotment in the near future.
Either my googling skills are amiss or there has been precious little info actually made available about this entire project.
A schematic, a budget, a timeline would be nice.