Lexington Motorsports plans to buy Richmond Road shopping center that housed Walmart
A company that specializes in selling motorcycles, all-terrain and other recreational vehicles wants to purchase the Mist Lake shopping center at the corner of Man O War Boulevard and Richmond Road.
Lexington Motorsports, which has a location in Hamburg, wants to put a dealership in the former Walmart, which was once the anchor to the shopping center, and purchase the Mist Lake Shopping Plaza.
The Lexington-Fayette Urban County Council took its first vote during a Tuesday work session to release the property from some deed restrictions that were put in place when the original Walmart and shopping center was developed in 1991.
The council will give the resolution its first reading at a meeting Thursday. A final vote will likely come at its April 22 meeting.
Those deed restrictions to be removed include a prohibition on the selling of vehicles and outdoor storage. The council voted to remove those restrictions, which would allow Lexington Motorsports to potentially renovate the Walmart, which closed several years ago.
Nick Nicholson, a lawyer for Lexington Motorsports, said in 1991, concerns from the neighborhood prompted the restriction on the sale of vehicles on the site, along with other deed restrictions. That deed restriction is held by the Lexington Fayette Urban County Government. To alter that deed restriction, the council must approve it.
Lexington Motorsports does not plan to have motorcycles or any of its vehicles outside, Nicholson said. Nor will it have any outdoor repair services. It will have enough space in the former Walmart to have its repair services indoors, Nicholson said.
The deed restriction also included prohibition on bars and nightclubs. That prohibition was lifted as part of the resolution passed by the council on Tuesday.
Nicholson said Lexington Motorsports does not want to put a bar or club in the shopping center. The removal of the prohibition addresses if an entertainment complex, such as a Malibu Jack’s, wanted to move into the shopping center. Those entertainment complexes tend to sell alcoholic beverages. This would allow for those types of businesses, he said.
Nicholson said Lexington Motorsports is open to tweaking the language in the resolution to make it clear the intent is not to open nightclubs or create a disturbance to the surrounding neighborhoods.
“We need to set this commercial real estate up to succeed. We are looking at 30 percent occupancy right now,” Nicholson said of the remaining retail space in Mist Lake The proposed resolution would also lift a restriction prohibiting veterinarian clinics in the shopping center.
Representatives from Lexington Motorsports met with the neighbors last week. Ten people attended and most were in support, Nicholson said.
Neighbors were more concerned that a fence that borders the commercial property has fallen into disrepair and needs to be fixed.
“We are committed to repairing the existing fence,” Nicholson said.
The same deed restrictions regarding landscaping and buffering that were included in the original 1991 deed restriction will remain, Nicholson said.
Councilman Preston Worley, whose district includes the Mist Lake shopping center, said he will work with neighbors to address any concerns about the lifting of some of the deed restrictions if those arise before the final vote on April 22.
If the council approves the deed restrictions as expected in late April, there are still multiple steps Lexington Motorsports must take before it can begin construction. The first is to get the deed restrictions removed so it can purchase the property. It will not need a zone change but it will have to submit a development plan if it makes extensive changes to the former Walmart, Nicholson said.
The Urban County Planning Commission would have to approve that development plan.
Nicholson said since there are so many unknowns, it’s difficult to say when Lexington Motorsports would occupy the property.
This would be a second location for Lexington Motorsports, Nicholson said. There are no plans to close the Bryant Road location.
This story was originally published April 7, 2021 at 9:09 AM.
