Central Bank Center

The Central Bank Center in Lexington, Kentucky is a civic center and gathering place that includes the Rupp Arena, Hyatt Regency Hotel, and a retail mall. The idea for the center started in 1967 with a feasibility study and was funded by a combination of private and public money, totaling over $65 million. Construction began in 1974 and the center was officially named in 1975. The basketball arena was named after coach Adolph Rupp and the Hyatt Regency gained regency status. Hello, everyone, and welcome to another edition of Businesses and Organizations of Lexington, Kentucky. I'm your host, Kyle Rantz. This is a podcast where we discuss the history and community purpose of businesses and organizations here in Lexington. On today's episode, we will be discussing the Central Bank Center, formerly known as the Lexington Center. The Central Bank Center is located at 430 West Vine Street in downtown Lexington and has served as a civic center and gathering place for the people of Lexington since opening the doors in 1976. So what makes up the Central Bank Center? Well, the Central Bank Center is, since it was dubbed the Convention Center, Rupp Arena, where Kentucky men's basketball team plays, the Hyatt Regency Hotel, and the Retail Mall. As always, we start with the history of our business or organization and how it has impacted our city. The idea of the civic center has been in the minds of the people of Lexington for 50 years prior to 1967, when the mayor of Lexington at the time conducted a feasibility study. This feasibility study would be to determine economic impacts for the city as well as the usability for the citizens of Lexington, as Andrew Echtol, the senior editor of the Lexington Herald-Leader wrote. Once the feasibility study was completed, the news on the civic center went quiet until it all began way back in 1971, as Lexington Herald-Leader, staff writer, D.J. Fitts-Maurice wrote. This is when things began to heat back up, and in 1972, the wait, hold on, this is the most important part, let me take a deep breath. The Lexington Fayette County Recreational Tourist and Convention Commission was formed. Now that we have that long-winded name out of the way, back to the scheduled programming. This commission was formed to conduct more intensive feasibility studies on the funding of the civic center. This project would need a mixture of private and public funding to make this project a reality. But how much money in 1972 would be needed to build a civic center? Well, the entire project would be north of $65 million to complete. $15 million of that would be invested by private investors, leaving the taxpayers of Lexington the other $50 million, as written by Darlene Bowden, a staff writer for the Lexington Herald-Leader. As Fitts-Maurice would write, once the funding was in place, it was time to make a 50-year-old pipe dream for the city become a reality, and construction was set to begin on June 21st of 1974 as the official groundbreaking ceremony took place. The funniest part of the groundbreaking date for me is that it would not be until April of 1975 before the public was even able to see what the civic center would look like when an elaborate scaled design was released. I feel like it's odd that I continue to mention the center or civic center a lot. Well, it was not until December of 1974 until the center had its official name. Its name would be the Lexington Center, as Andrew Actall would lay out. Now that the Lexington Center construction was up and running, the news of advancements and growth became more frequently. Actall would provide the timeline. In January of 1975, the most anticipated part of the Lexington Center received its official name. The 23,000-seat basketball arena was named after legendary Kentucky men's basketball coach Adolph Rupp. The arena would be named Rupp Arena. Soon after, the Hyatt would be under construction. This hotel would be operated by the Hyatt Corporation. This version of the Hyatt's newest addition to the family would even gain regency status, making it labeled as an elite version of the Hyatt Hotel, Rupp Fitmorese.