Med Center sets first beams on new High Street Tower
Published 6:00 am Saturday, January 18, 2025
Kelley Construction Inc. construction crews work on setting the first steel beams on the new High Street Tower at the Medical Center at Bowling Green on Friday, Jan. 17, 2025. The five-story patient care tower that will provide a new location for Women & Children’s Services at Med Center Health, as well as expanded space for the emergency department, surgery, endoscopy and additional medical and surgical beds, is on track to be completed by summer of 2026. GRACE MCDOWELL / DAILY NEWS
Kelley Construction Inc. construction crews work on setting the first steel beams on the new High Street Tower at the Medical Center at Bowling Green on Friday, Jan. 17, 2025. The five-story patient care tower that will provide a new location for Women & Children’s Services at Med Center Health, as well as expanded space for the emergency department, surgery, endoscopy and additional medical and surgical beds, is on track to be completed by summer of 2026. GRACE MCDOWELL / DAILY NEWS
Kelley Construction Inc. construction crews work on setting the first steel beams on the new High Street Tower at the Medical Center at Bowling Green on Friday, Jan. 17, 2025. The five-story patient care tower that will provide a new location for Women & Children’s Services at Med Center Health, as well as expanded space for the emergency department, surgery, endoscopy and additional medical and surgical beds, is on track to be completed by summer of 2026. GRACE MCDOWELL / DAILY NEWS
Med Center Foundation Project Manager Lee Carroll speaks as Kelley Construction Inc. construction crews work on setting the first steel beams on the new High Street Tower at the Medical Center at Bowling Green on Friday, Jan. 17, 2025. The five-story patient care tower that will provide a new location for Women & Children’s Services at Med Center Health, as well as expanded space for the emergency department, surgery, endoscopy and additional medical and surgical beds, is on track to be completed by summer of 2026. GRACE MCDOWELL / DAILY NEWS
Kelley Construction Inc. construction crews work on setting the first steel beams on the new High Street Tower at the Medical Center at Bowling Green on Friday, Jan. 17, 2025. The five-story patient care tower that will provide a new location for Women & Children’s Services at Med Center Health, as well as expanded space for the emergency department, surgery, endoscopy and additional medical and surgical beds, is on track to be completed by summer of 2026. GRACE MCDOWELL / DAILY NEWS
Kelley Construction Inc. construction crews work on setting the first steel beams on the new High Street Tower at the Medical Center at Bowling Green on Friday, Jan. 17, 2025. The five-story patient care tower that will provide a new location for Women & Children’s Services at Med Center Health, as well as expanded space for the emergency department, surgery, endoscopy and additional medical and surgical beds, is on track to be completed by summer of 2026. GRACE MCDOWELL / DAILY NEWS
Kelley Construction Inc. construction crews work on setting the first steel beams on the new High Street Tower at the Medical Center at Bowling Green on Friday, Jan. 17, 2025. The five-story patient care tower that will provide a new location for Women & Children’s Services at Med Center Health, as well as expanded space for the emergency department, surgery, endoscopy and additional medical and surgical beds, is on track to be completed by summer of 2026. GRACE MCDOWELL / DAILY NEWS
Kelley Construction Inc. construction crews work on setting the first steel beams on the new High Street Tower at the Medical Center at Bowling Green on Friday, Jan. 17, 2025. The five-story patient care tower that will provide a new location for Women & Children’s Services at Med Center Health, as well as expanded space for the emergency department, surgery, endoscopy and additional medical and surgical beds, is on track to be completed by summer of 2026. GRACE MCDOWELL / DAILY NEWS
Kelley Construction Inc. construction crews work on setting the first steel beams on the new High Street Tower at the Medical Center at Bowling Green on Friday, Jan. 17, 2025. The five-story patient care tower that will provide a new location for Women & Children’s Services at Med Center Health, as well as expanded space for the emergency department, surgery, endoscopy and additional medical and surgical beds, is on track to be completed by summer of 2026. GRACE MCDOWELL / DAILY NEWS
Kelley Construction Inc. construction crews work on setting the first steel beams on the new High Street Tower at the Medical Center at Bowling Green on Friday, Jan. 17, 2025. The five-story patient care tower that will provide a new location for Women & Children’s Services at Med Center Health, as well as expanded space for the emergency department, surgery, endoscopy and additional medical and surgical beds, is on track to be completed by summer of 2026. GRACE MCDOWELL / DAILY NEWS
Med Center Foundation Project Manager Lee Carroll speaks as Kelley Construction Inc. construction crews work on setting the first steel beams on the new High Street Tower at the Medical Center at Bowling Green on Friday, Jan. 17, 2025. The five-story patient care tower that will provide a new location for Women & Children’s Services at Med Center Health, as well as expanded space for the emergency department, surgery, endoscopy and additional medical and surgical beds, is on track to be completed by summer of 2026. GRACE MCDOWELL / DAILY NEWS
Kelley Construction Inc. construction crews work on setting the first steel beams on the new High Street Tower at the Medical Center at Bowling Green on Friday, Jan. 17, 2025. The five-story patient care tower that will provide a new location for Women & Children’s Services at Med Center Health, as well as expanded space for the emergency department, surgery, endoscopy and additional medical and surgical beds, is on track to be completed by summer of 2026. GRACE MCDOWELL / DAILY NEWS
Sunny skies lit the way for crews to raise the first steel beams on Med Center Health’s High Street Tower, a project that will see an expansion of the Medical Center at Bowling Green’s services once it opens next year.
MCH Project Manager Lee Carroll described the beam raisings as a “major milestone” for the site.
“We’re super excited today, setting the first beam of our project,” Carroll said. “We’ve had some challenges, weather challenges over the past few months (but) we were able to work through that to get our site and foundations in, which led us to where we are today.”
High Street Tower represents the largest single investment in Med Center Health’s nearly 100-year history. When the 180,000 square-foot, five-story High Street Tower opens in the summer of 2026 it will provide space for The Medical Center’s Women & Children’s Services, which are currently housed in the hospital’s main building.
These services will include labor and delivery, post- and ante-partum care, suites for caesarean services and an emergency department dedicated solely to obstetrics. A Level III neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) — the only one in the region — will also be there.
“Those services will move over into this building, which will allow us to backfill and continue to grow in the hospital,” Carroll said.
Carroll said the project has a forecast cost of around $119 million, and it is currently on track to meet that budget. He said Med Center Health is covering the cost of construction.
Lousiville-based Kelley Construction is handling the project.
High Street Tower will connect with the hospital’s D Tower, where the emergency room is located. Other floors will allow for future emergency department expansion and growth in surgery and endoscopy, according to MCH.
Carroll said future use of the old space for women’s services has not been decided yet, and while total staffing numbers are not known, he is “sure” some new jobs will be added.
“The total square footage, the amount of room, I’m sure (they) will,” he said.
Ground was broken on the site in June last year. Dr. Jeffery Nemec, a Medical Center physician and head of the hospital’s OB/GYN program, said then that the new facility would be “a landmark event.”
“I’ve been here 26 years, so I’ve seen, right from the day I walked through the door, growth and expansion of the level of care we’ve been able to provide,” Nemec said. “With this, we just continue moving in that direction.”
Speaking at the groundbreaking on the need for the expansion, Nemec said issues with space had come up.
“There are times that we’ve had laboring patients out the hallway because we did not have physical rooms for them to be in,” Nemec said. “The fact that we are going to have that added space will allow us to continue caring for the patients we have … . It’s overall going to be just a wonderful thing for women’s health care.”
Summer 2026 will also mark the 100th anniversary of Med Center Health.
About Jack Dobbs
Jack covers city government for the Daily News. Originally from Simpson County, he attended Western Kentucky University and graduated in 2022 with a degree in journalism.
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