UPS Says Kentucky Center Will Be Delayed a Year

United Parcel Service said plans for a “superhub” package sorting center will be delayed for at least a year while the company works on a new design.

The state sold bonds last December to finance the 950,000-square-foot, two-story complex, and construction had been scheduled to start this past spring, said Ken Sternad, UPS spokesman.

He said the company decided to redesign the air-delivery hub at Standiford Field after expanding the areas it serves and introducing a letter and small package service in June.

That business has grown rapidly enough for UPS to re-examine its plans for the new complex, Sternad said.

He said construction probably won’t begin until next spring at the earliest. UPS has until December, 1987, to spend the $160 million of low-cost financing provided by the bond issue.

Sternad said UPS air service now carries about 270,000 parcels a day, up 35% from last year. The majority of those packages are brought to Louisville, sorted at the hub next to the airport and loaded on airplanes again.

The company has about 79 daily flights from Standiford Field--55 at night and in the early morning hours as part of its next-day delivery service, and the balance during the day, in its two-day service.

Sternad said UPS also is delaying plans to increase the number of flights from Louisville this year to roughly 100 a day because the company is using larger planes than originally expected.

The company, based in Greenwich, Conn., employs nearly 2,000 people, most of them part time, in its Louisville air hub. Another 500 work in the truck operations here, Sternad said.