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Walsh Construction Selected for Lexington Medical Building

Walsh Construction was chosen as contractor for the $275 million Hamburg East Medical Office Building in Lexington, Kentucky.

Updated on Nov. 4, 2026 in Construction

Photograph of a partially framed steel and concrete building skeleton on graded earth, with a tower crane against a pale sky and farmland beyond.
Walsh Construction was selected as contractor on the $275 million Hamburg East Medical Office Building in Lexington, which broke ground October 15 under a public-private partnership with PMB. AI Illustration. Upload story photo >

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The 220,000-square-foot Hamburg East Medical Office Building broke ground October 15 in Lexington, with Walsh Construction named as the contractor on the $275 million project. The building is being delivered through a public-private partnership with PMB.

Why it matters

The project supports UK HealthCare's strategy to expand access to outpatient services in the Lexington area. Its planned capacity of about 300,000 outpatient visits annually by 2034 would add substantial clinical capacity locally.

The $275 million project totals 220,000 square feet and is projected to handle about 300,000 outpatient visits annually by 2034, against UK HealthCare's roughly 3 million annual visits. The source does not indicate whether the visit projection accounts for the system's other planned clinics.

The players

Walsh Construction

Walsh Construction is the contractor selected to build the Hamburg East Medical Office Building.

UK HealthCare

UK HealthCare is the health system of the University of Kentucky, which is expanding its outpatient network across central Kentucky.

PMB

PMB is a health care and real estate developer delivering the Hamburg East project through a public-private partnership.

Perkins&Will

Perkins&Will is the architecture firm designing the Hamburg East Medical Office Building.

The details

PMB will plan, design, construct and finance the building and provide operations and maintenance services under the partnership. Perkins&Will is the architect, and the project sits on about 41 acres in Hamburg that the university Board of Trustees approved acquiring in 2023.

Timeline

  1. 2023: Trustees approved acquisition of about 41 acres in Hamburg.

  2. February 2024: Site preparation work began on the Hamburg site.

  3. October 15: The Hamburg East Medical Office Building broke ground in Lexington.

  4. December 2028: Substantial completion is scheduled.

  5. Spring 2029: First patient visits are targeted.

Market Landscape

The Hamburg East project extends UK HealthCare's outpatient build-out beyond its existing Frankfort clinic and planned Newtown Pike clinic in Lexington. It adds capacity in Lexington while the system continues opening sites across central Kentucky.

Lexington patients will eventually have more outpatient options closer to home once the building opens. The timeline puts first visits in spring 2029, so near-term patients will continue using existing UK HealthCare locations.

The takeaway

Large health system expansions like Hamburg East add capacity through public-private partnerships that shift construction and operations risk to developers. Readers tracking Lexington healthcare access can watch the 2028 completion and 2029 opening as the milestones that confirm the projected visit volume.

What happens next

Substantial completion of the Hamburg East building is scheduled for December 2028, with first patient visits targeted for spring 2029.

Further reading

Explore more Lexington construction news and project coverage.

Source note: This article includes information reported by Engineering News-Record (ENR) magazine.

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