Whatever happened to Frankfort’s Target, shopping center development?
Editor’s note: “Whatever Happened To” is a new Herald-Leader feature, updating readers on prominent stories that grabbed headlines and attention. If you want to know the latest on a big story from the past, contact our managing editor, Alex Valentine, at avalentine@herald-leader.com.
A $150 million shopping center along Interstate 64 and U.S. 127 in Frankfort will have a members-only warehouse grocery chain that’s new to Central Kentucky next to a previously announced Target.
The grocer, BJ’s Wholesale Club, made its debut in Louisville in January. It’s likely to open, developer say, next summer after Target opens around June 2026.
BJ’s is a Massachusetts-based membership discount grocery store. Like Costco Wholesale and Sam’s Club, BJ’s shoppers have to have a membership to shop the store’s groceries, electronics, furniture and clothing. Most BJ’s have tire installation services as well as same-day delivery and curbside pickup.
The still-under-construction outdoors center is about 25 miles northwest of Lexington and is called the Paddocks of Frankfort. Two of the project’s co-developers told the Herald-Leader the project is expected to be complete in 2030 with a full roster of stores and some new-to-market chain restaurants.
“We expect this to be a successful regional shopping center for seven counties,” said Jason Taylor, one of the project’s developers.
Other tenants expected to open over the next five years include Panda Express, Chipotle Mexican Grill and Wawa. The popular convenience store and gas station chain, known for its build-to-order sandwiches, opened its first Kentucky location July 24 near Okolona in Louisville.
There are two Wawa locations planned for shopping centers in Nicholasville.
National retailers and restaurant chains Olive Garden, Texas Roadhouse, Long John Silver’s and Oil Express are in negotiations to start building at the shopping center, Taylor said. Of the 50 acres being developed, about 45 are for sale and several parcels are for lease.
Some other national tenants eyeing the Paddocks of Frankfort are in an “inspection period,” a one- to two-month-long span of due diligence work to ensure the property aligns with the company’s needs.
Those retailers, said co-developer Patrick Madden, could back out or renegotiate their lease, so a full list of the shopping center’s tenants is not yet available.
Work on the project’s roads, including a roundabout and improvements to access, are still under construction. Since last summer, developers said they’ve moved 500,000 cubic yards of rock, enough to fill approximately 150 Olympic-sized swimming pools, to make way for retail and the infrastructure to support it.
“Local politicians and leaders today have recognized that they have to diversify the workforce and they’ve got to grow. And with the governor’s help, the market’s prime for that,” Taylor told the Herald-Leader.
“(On this project,) national retailers recognize ... that there’s housing growth coming here, there’s job growth coming here. Frankfort is going to see some population growth over the next 10 years that it’s needed for a long time.”
How the Paddocks of Frankfort came to be
Taylor, one of the developers and a vice president at Equity Management Group Inc., said the $150 million project is the capital city’s largest mixed-use development. The Lexington-based commercial real estate firm and Madden, who is also the developer behind Hamburg Place, along with a group of investors are behind the Paddocks of Frankfort.
The late Don Parsons, one of Harlan County’s most influential businessmen, bought the property roughly three decades ago. Hamburg developer Madden said it wasn’t until about eight years ago when Parsons started looking for project partners. Parsons organized the Paddocks of Frankfort LLC in 2016, according to the Kentucky Secretary of State’s business filings.
“Don did have a complete vision. He wanted this to happen in Frankfort, he wanted a Target to come to Frankfort and he held out,” Madden said. “He could have done a lot of different things, but he held out for this vision.”
Taylor, born and raised in Frankfort, said he has a passion for making the project work and told Madden he would help move it along in June 2023. While Madden has more experience in ground-up development projects, Taylor’s firm buys, fixes and sells property.
The two thought the pairing went well and Taylor said, “between what we know how to do collectively, it made sense to take on the project.”
Development bringing jobs to the area
At a ceremonial groundbreaking last summer in the Capitol rotunda, Frankfort Mayor Layne Wilkerson cited an economic analysis of the shopping center that projected it would support nearly 2,000 direct construction jobs and another 1,085 once complete.
The analysis, Wilkerson said, showed employees at the completed shopping center would contribute nearly $28 million in annual wages.
Developers told the Herald-Leader the project is part of a local development area agreement and was previously approved for an equal participation 20-year public financing subsidy, or tax increment financing.
The agreement said 50% of the increase in property and tax revenue in the two decades following construction completion will be offset by the city and county. That will make up for the cost of roads and other infrastructure including a new pump station near the development.
In August 2024, just a few months after breaking ground, the regional shopping center’s developers gave $100,000 to Gov. Andy Beshear’s super PAC, In This Together, that launched earlier that year. At the time, it was the largest group of contributions reported by the political action committee.
The three limited liability companies affiliated with the developers have not donated to the PAC or any other campaign since, according to Federal Elections Commission data.
This story was originally published July 29, 2025 at 1:55 PM.
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