Here are 4 projects Lexington is focusing on in the second half of 2025
Lexington’s economic development team is aiming to keep the momentum going.
In recent weeks, city leaders have helped turn dirt for company expansions and a 200-acre business park almost a decade in the making. They’ve cut a number of ribbons in front of new stores across Lexington, too.
The city’s chief development officer, Kevin Atkins, told the Herald-Leader earlier this month he and his team are hoping to build on positive postpandemic employment recovery by getting a number of projects started or across the finish line that will bring even more jobs and community resources to Central Kentucky.
Those economic development initiatives include everything from park buildouts to clearing space for more housing and evaluating the best use for acreage recently added to the Urban Service Boundary.
“The biggest issue here is just making sure timelines match up,” Atkins said. “... We have what’s called ‘a one stop shop’ where we bring everybody together that’s involved with the development process.
“If a developer wants to do it, we sit down and talk (with) public safety, engineering, water quality, all the folks that touch the process,” he said. “The developer comes in before he ever files the first application and walks through their initial concept plan. Nothing is finalized yet and we let them poke holes in it.”
It’s a process that Atkins said brings the best-fit businesses to Lexington at the right time. Here’s what the city is turning its attention to for the second half of this year.
Regional business park in Berea
As construction and site work begin at the Legacy Business Park, Atkins said he’s going to turn his attention to the Menelaus Industrial Park with partners in Madison and Scott counties.
Across Fayette County, Atkins said the inventory of available space is made up of relatively small sites under 10 acres that sell for anywhere between $225,000 and $300,000 an acre.
At the 300-acre regional industrial park, land price will be closer to $10,000 an acre, he said.
“These kinds of projects allow us to go to our bread and butter here, but partner on the bigger site — those 10, 15, 20, 25, even 50 acre sites,” Atkins said. “So, it makes us more competitive overall.”
In December, Lexington-Fayette Urban County Council gave the industrial park final approval allowing for a joint development authority to purchase and manage the park. Revenue from the park will be split evenly among county partners after the city of Berea gets its 10% hosting fee.
Atkins laid out his ideal scenario: A company’s research and development team takes up residence in a smaller city office space, tapping into resources at the University of Kentucky and at Transylvania University, then put its manufacturing arm on a larger site in Berea.
“It allows us to protect the horse farms and still gives us a spot for our jobs,” Atkins said.
More development around soccer stadium
Lexington Sporting Club built its new soccer stadium in less than one year. When initial plans for the pitch were announced in October 2023, Gov. Andy Beshear estimated more than $92 million would be generated in the first decade of the stadium hosting games and from additional development nearby.
“They’ll eventually have one or two hotels out there, some restaurants, some offices and that type of thing there. They’re in the throes of signing those flags and doing their marketing for that,” Atkins said. “We participated in the soccer stadium and the youth fields knowing that it would spur that.”
The stadium’s location near an interstate is aiding in advertising the team and surrounding development opportunities, Atkins said. As LSC moves up in leagues, the team will welcome different opponents and their fans and Atkins said it’s been the front office’s desire has always been to make their stadium a destination.
Added acreage to county’s growth boundary
On the opposite side of the entrance to the soccer stadium are more than 640 acres being added to the county’s growth boundary north of Athens Boonesboro Road near I-75. Preliminary plans for the acreage indicate 45% of the space may be used for almost 5,000 residential units.
For the first time since 1996, LFUCG voted last summer to expand the growth boundary citing the need for more housing as a driving factor in adding land for development. Initial plans for the 2,800 acres include numerous housing developments, retail space and some industrial lots.
Atkins said the acreage “gives us more product. … It gives us more opportunity to show some folks what’s going on and (that there’s) a chance to locate here.”
High Street site
Atkins said the next “urban-centered” project will fit nicely with other downtown development including expansion of the convention center, renovations near Rupp Arena and Town Branch Commons, especially Gatton Park.
What are likely to be final renderings were presented to Atkins about a month ago and he said the mixed-use development on what was an almost 17-acre parking lot will be flush with a hotel, apartment complex, grocery store, entertainment venue and multiple parking garages.
The project is a partnership between Lincoln Properties and the Webb Companies. An independent board, the Lexington Center Board, is managing the project, which Atkins anticipates will begin construction before this fall.
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