Louisville’s Humana Tower slated for two-tower, 1,000-room convention hotel redevelopment starting in 2027

A landmark office tower is being repositioned for tourism and convention growth

Downtown Louisville’s 27-story Humana Tower at 500 W. Main St. is slated to be converted into a dual-tower, approximately 1,000-room convention-oriented hotel complex under a redevelopment plan announced Feb. 3, 2026. The proposal centers on reusing the existing postmodern tower—widely recognized for its Michael Graves–designed exterior—while adding a connected new-construction component on the same block.

The redevelopment is being advanced by Louisville-based Poe Companies, with public statements placing the overall project cost in a range of roughly $600 million to $700 million. Construction is expected to begin in 2027, with an estimated timeline of three to four years for completion.

Project scope: rooms, ballrooms, and meeting space

Plans described publicly frame the project as a convention center hotel intended to expand Louisville’s ability to host larger meetings and citywide events. The program includes hotel rooms paired with significant event infrastructure designed to serve conventions and large gatherings.

• Approximately 1,000 hotel rooms across the redevelopment
• More than 100,000 square feet of meeting space
• A roughly 40,000-square-foot grand ballroom, along with additional ballroom/meeting areas
• Food-and-beverage components, including restaurants
• New-building elements planned to connect with and complement the existing tower’s architecture

Developers have also indicated they are in discussions with multiple major hotel brands, and that a final flag/brand had not been selected at the time of the announcement.

Why the building is available: Humana’s departure and downtown office vacancy pressures

The tower has been in transition since Humana’s decision to leave the building as it consolidated employees into other downtown facilities and reduced its overall office footprint amid hybrid and remote work trends. Humana announced in February 2024 that it would vacate the Main Street tower, and later moved toward selling the property. The building has since been largely empty, adding to the broader challenge of filling large-format office space in many U.S. downtowns.

Separately, the tower’s redevelopment context includes prior, publicly disclosed structural concerns that became part of litigation tied to design and construction work dating to the building’s early-1980s origin. Portions of that dispute were reported as partially settled in 2025.

Downtown implications: convention competitiveness, adjacent properties, and timing

If executed as described, the project would become one of Louisville’s largest hotels and would sit near key downtown destinations, including Museum Row, the Belvedere, and the KFC Yum! Center. Civic leaders have positioned the hotel as a capacity play—intended to strengthen Louisville’s competitiveness for conventions that require a large, centrally located headquarters hotel.

The plan is scheduled to move into pre-construction and design phases in 2026, with construction targeted to start in 2027 and continue for several years.

Publicly discussed deal structure elements include contractual arrangements and property control for parts of the surrounding block associated with the project’s new construction. Detailed architectural renderings and final brand selection were still pending at the time the redevelopment was announced.

As next steps, anticipated milestones include finalizing property transactions, selecting a hotel brand, completing design work, and defining any public participation that may be sought for a project of this scale.