As the summer heat gets into full swing, our economic development work is also heating up. A few weeks ago, our Health Enterprises Network (HEN) led a group of 22 individuals and 15 organizations from Louisville and Lexington to the world’s largest convening of the Biotechnology industry – BIO 2023 in Boston, MA. Our unified brand, Trifecta Kentucky, was meant to not only play on our region’s ties to horseracing, but also highlight our three main assets – life sciences, logistics, and lifestyle.

With help from &well and many partners, our coalition created a state-of-the-art booth to showcase what our region does best to the nearly 17,000 attendees and other 400 exhibitors. Participating organizations included: The University of Kentucky, the University of Louisville, UPS Healthcare, Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport, CDW, CommerceLexington, Louisville Metro Government, DesiCorp, Kentucky Science and Technology Corporation, &well, Healthyr, and Xlerate Health.

We left the convention with more than 100 new economic development leads and connections that will help position our region for future growth in this sector. In addition, our coalition also learned a lot and came back with positive feedback on how we can continue to grow our region’s Biotech footprint. Director of HEN, Logan Gatti, penned a piece for Louisville Business First with very insightful takeaways on Greater Louisville’s opportunities.

In addition to exciting takeaways from BIO, GLI’s pipeline is filled with exciting new opportunities for our region. We currently have 35 active projects representing 3,642 potential jobs and $1.3 billion in potential investment. To date this year, 11 projects have been incentivized in our region representing 1,377 new jobs and $130 million in potential investment.

GLI was also recently allocated new funding in Louisville Metro’s 2023-2024 budget that was approved by Metro Council last week. The funding will be used to expand GLI’s regional economic development efforts and continue to bring more investment and jobs to Greater Louisville. Thank you to Mayor Greenberg, Council President Winkler, Budget Chair Councilman Blackwell, and Budget Vice Chair Councilman Kramer for your continued collaboration with the business community.

Stay tuned for more information in the coming weeks as we launch new platforms and initiatives to market our region.