Beshear made his stop at the Market Street site for a ceremonial bill signing and news conference. The two bills he signed were both related to cybersecurity, and the governor’s office wanted to bring attention to the measures in a high-tech setting.
Beshear called The Nucleus, an eight-story building that opened late last year, “No. 1, successful, and No. 2, exciting.” The building is the first planned by the UofL Foundation as part of a downtown research park, which is being constructed on the site of the former Haymarket property. The park is being developed by Nucleus: Kentucky’s Innovation Center, which is the foundation’s economic development arm.
The park “not only pushes Louisville forward, it pushes all of Kentucky forward,” Beshear said.
University of Louisville President James Ramsey, who hosted the news conference, said it was “a big thrill” and “a big honor” to have the event at The Nucleus. He told attendees that the developing research park will help the university in its teaching, community engagement and economic development roles, while improving the community’s quality of life.
The park also will assist start-up businesses and help the city to recruit and retain companies and workers.
The bill-signing event was held in space that houses the XLerateHealth LLC business incubator. Representatives of Interapt LLC, one of the companies in the XLerate portfolio, were on hand for the news conference. Interapt is a Louisville-based software-development firm.
Interapt CEO Ankur Gopal fitted the governor with a Google Glass computer, and Beshear took photos with some of the start-up company’s employees.
