Newly expanded Sports Center Garage opens Aug. 12
LEXINGTON, Ky. (Aug. 12, 2026) — The newly expanded Sports Center Garage (PS #7) is opening Wednesday, Aug. 12, providing an additional 1,200 new parking spaces on South Campus.
The garage is located at the corner of Complex and Sports Center drives and has been closed over the last two summers (2025 and 2026) to enable contractors to work freely throughout the structure. This ensured that the work was completed prior to the start of the Fall 2026 semester.
A one-level vertical expansion was added to the original structure, plus a five-level horizontal expansion to the west. Additional entrances and exits were constructed off Complex Drive, making the garage accessible by Complex as well as the original entrances and exits off Sports Center Drive.
Developed by Signet Real Estate Group, the project is part of a public-private partnership that included an estimated 40,000 square-foot expansion to the adjacent Johnson Student Recreation Center. The garage and the recreation center are physically connected by an overhead pedestrian bridge.
This project represents a key step toward addressing parking needs, while offsetting parking losses associated with the Chandler Hospital expansion project.
UK Transportation Services strategically allocated most of the new spaces in the Sports Center Garage to residential students to avoid traffic congestion on Complex and Sports Center drives, which have limited capacity. Students typically arrive and depart at varying times throughout the day, helping distribute traffic more evenly. Employees generally follow similar work schedules that create more concentrated periods of traffic.
Shifting residential student parking into the expanded Sports Center Garage facilitated the reassignment of the North and South Red Lots to employee periphery parking, more than offsetting the losses associated with the demolition of the University Drive Garage (PS #1) and the permanent loss of spaces in the Garrigus and Ag Greenhouse parking areas.
"The expansion of this garage represents a significant investment in improving the campus experience for our students, employees and visitors,” said Lance Broeking, executive director of UK Auxiliary Services and Transportation Services. “These additional parking spaces will help meet current demand while supporting the university's continued growth and major capital projects. We're excited to reopen the garage in time for the start of the fall semester."
As the state’s flagship, land-grant institution, the University of Kentucky exists to advance the Commonwealth. We do that by preparing the next generation of leaders — placing students at the heart of everything we do — and transforming the lives of Kentuckians through education, research and creative work, service and healthcare. We pride ourselves on being a catalyst for breakthroughs and a force for healing, a place where ingenuity unfolds. It's all made possible by our people — visionaries, disruptors and pioneers — who make up 200 academic programs, a $1.02 billion research and development enterprise and a world-class medical center, all on one campus.