Longtime home of former Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin sold in Louisville

A home owned by former Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin has been sold — but not the one at the center of a controversy during his time in office.

The house, in Louisville's Cherokee Gardens neighborhood, was sold Dec. 20 for $1.5 million, according to records filed with the Jefferson County Property Valuation Administration. The house sits on about half an acre of land on Barberry Lane and had an assessed value of about $1.35 million — that figure has risen significantly since March 2020, when The Courier Journal reported it was valued at about $700,000.

The Bevin family purchased the home in 1999 for $660,000.

Bevin caused a stir while in the governor's office after he moved from that Cherokee Gardens home to a mansion on 10 acres in Anchorage that he purchased for $1.6 million from friend and political donor Neil Ramsey, who Bevin had appointed to the Kentucky Retirement Systems board.

Critics argued that $1.6 million price tag was well below what the property was actually worth, with two ethics complaints filed against the then-governor eventually dismissed by the state's Executive Branch Ethics Commission. About a year after the sale, the 10-acre property was valued by the PVA at $2.9 million.

Bevin still owns that home through Anchorage Place LLC, the company he set up to buy the property, according to PVA records. It's now valued at about $2.5 million.

Bevin has kept a relatively low public profile since leaving office at the end of 2019, though he drew attention last year when he hinted he may enter the Republican primary to run for governor again, then spoke at length with reporters at the Kentucky Capitol about an hour ahead of the filing deadline before leaving without entering his name in the race.

He and his wife Glenna are currently working through divorce proceedings — court records show money from the December sale will be kept in an escrow account until the two parties or court system determine how the funds should be split.

Reach Lucas Aulbach at laulbach@courier-journal.com.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Matt Bevin, ex-Kentucky governor, sells longtime Louisville home