In June 2025 the lot at 8001 Air Commerce Drive was a graded pad with a pond on one side and a drainage canal on the other. By July 2026 it was a finished 324,576 square foot Class A distribution building near the Louisville airport and UPS Worldport.
I flew LRZC for Kelley Construction the whole way: sixteen visits in thirteen months, from the first dirt work to the day Kelley told me the job had wrapped up. This is that year in one place: every month from the same spot across the pond, the pre-dawn slab pour, the tilt-up walls, the steel, the snow, and the two films that came out of it.
Drag through the year
Every frame below is shot from across the pond, looking at the same long side of the building, so the only thing that changes is the building. Press play to watch the year go by, or pick a month.
The films
At the end of the job I cut the whole year into a highlight film for Kelley’s team, delivered in July 2026. Their marketing team called it incredible. Earlier, in September 2025, I made a shorter progress film from the first months of the build.
Where it started
The first visit, on June 4, 2025, was all earthwork: dozers and rollers shaping the building pad between the pond and the canal.
The slab pour, before sunrise
On July 8, 2025 the crew started pouring the slab in the dark. I was in the air from a little after 6 AM, as the work lights, pump booms and a line of ready-mix trucks turned into a full slab crew working across the floor at sunrise.
These are short, silent clips straight from that morning and the flights after:
Tilt-up walls
LRZC is a tilt-up building. The concrete wall panels are cast on the slab, then a crawler crane lifts each one and stands it into place while the crew braces it. By early September the walls were going up along the canal side, and I added an extra flight a week later to catch the crane working the roof steel.
Steel and roof
By the end of September the joists and roof deck were spreading across the whole footprint, and by November the building was a closed white shell.
Through the winter
The December visit came after the first snow, with Kelley’s sign up on the office corner. In February the pond was frozen solid and the canal banks were white, and the flights kept going.
Finished
The last visit was on July 7, 2026, with the paving striped, the landscaping in and the office front finished.
LRZC at a glance
From the public leasing details for the building:
- 324,576 square feet of new Class A bulk distribution space, in the Renaissance South Business Park
- 36 foot clear height and 54′ x 60′ column spacing
- 32 dock doors with levelers, plus 2 drive-ins (14′ x 16′)
- 349 parking spaces
- On Air Commerce Drive at the Outer Loop, near the Louisville airport, UPS Worldport and I-65
What a year of progress flights gives a contractor
- A dated record of every stage, from earthwork to landscaping, shot from the same positions so the months line up
- Photos and video the project team can share with owners and the leasing brokers while the building is still going up
- A finished film for the contractor’s marketing, website and social media
- Proof of progress without sending anyone to the site
Each visit was delivered by download link, with photos and 4K video in their own folders, and the schedule moved with the work: a pre-dawn flight for the pour, an extra week for the steel, and flights through the snow.
Planning a build in Louisville?
I document construction projects across Louisville, Kentucky and Southern Indiana on a monthly or milestone schedule. See how a construction progress photography schedule works, add construction progress video, or call or text (502) 387-1142. For another full-year story, see 264 Commerce Center on Produce Road.
Want your build documented like this?
I fly monthly and milestone progress for contractors, developers and owners across Kentucky and Southern Indiana. Send the site and the schedule and I will put together a plan and a quote.
