UK Cancer and Advanced Ambulatory Building — Markey Cancer Center

The last steel beam went up on July 16, 2026. The University of Kentucky’s $781 million Cancer and Advanced Ambulatory Building topped out on South Limestone in Lexington, across from the Albert B. Chandler Hospital, roughly two years after breaking ground in April 2024. Walsh Construction is the general contractor, HGA Architects and Engineers is the designer, and Champlin Architecture of Cincinnati is associate architect. Patient care starts in 2028.

Project Scope

The building runs 550,000 square feet with an adjoining 2,400-space parking structure. Its job is consolidation: Markey Cancer Center services are currently scattered across six separate campus locations, and this building pulls chemotherapy infusion, radiation medicine, gynecologic oncology, breast care, and hematology and bone marrow transplant under one roof. A new Comprehensive Spine Center brings orthopedics, physical medicine and rehabilitation, neurosurgery and anesthesiology into a single clinic model. One full floor is dedicated ambulatory surgery, with eight operating rooms configured for endoscopic and cancer procedures. Shelled space is built in for future expansion, which is a deliberate response to demand: Markey’s outpatient visits have grown 57% over the past decade. UK HealthCare is funding construction, with state and private money supporting the Markey programs that will occupy the space. Eric Radloff, a Walsh Group vice president who leads its healthcare business, spoke at the topping out.

Why It Matters

Markey is Kentucky’s only National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center, one of 58 in the country, in a state that carries some of the worst cancer incidence and mortality rates in the U.S. Six locations for one cancer program is a logistics problem patients absorb as extra trips, extra parking and extra days. Consolidating it is the point of the building, and everything else follows from that. For the regional market, a $781 million academic medical project topping out on schedule is also a reminder that healthcare capital spending in the Southeast hasn’t slowed the way office construction has.

Project Team & Details