12 minute read
Liz Toombs, founder of PDR Interiors, specializes in sorority houses
PHOTO FURNISHED
A living room installed by PDR Interiors at Gamma Phi Beta sorority house at Oklahoma State University.
Designing Her Own Niche
Liz Toombs, founder of PDR Interiors, specializes in sorority houses
BY KATHIE STAMPS
CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Liz Toombs founded PDR Interiors in 2009. Initially known as Polka Dots & Rosebuds Interiors, a name inspired by a fabric pattern, she found herself more often using the initials PDR and soon rebranded.
She was just a couple of years out of college and was thinking of how much fun it would be to get paid to decorate people’s spaces. “And it is fun, but I also take my responsibility seriously,” she said.
Toombs enjoys mentoring college students who want to get into the design profession. For over a decade, she has hired student workers for PDR Interiors. “They come here to learn from me, but I think I learn as much from them,” she said, “and it is so special to watch where they go after college and how their careers progress.”
Collegiate life plays a central role in Toombs’ business, too. Roughly 90 percent of PDR’s business comes from the Greek housing community, mostly sorority houses, on campuses around the country. Toombs and her team, which includes full-time and part-time employees, work remotely on these collegiate projects, with one or two site visits along the way.
“From there our niche market began to take shape and we have continued to build that client base.”
O ering full-service interior decorating guidance, Toombs and her team help clients with their finish selections, fabric and furniture selections and sourcing, window treatment design and installation, and art and accessory sourcing and placement.
They have designed spaces in more than 80 Greek chapter houses, including at the University of Kentucky. Toombs is a UK alumna. She was a member of Alpha Gamma Delta sorority in the early 2000s, when she was a merchandising, apparel and textiles major, a program within the College of Agriculture, Food and Environment.
In addition to Greek housing, Toombs also works with residential clients. “During the pandemic we o ered virtual consultations for our residential clients, but most of them have chosen to go back to in-person meetings at this point,” she said. “Our clients stuck with us, and we had a steady flow of projects.”
Before she was a business owner herself, Toombs didn’t fully appreciate the importance of doing business with a small, locally run company. Growing up, she often shopped at major retailers. “Now, I buy locally as much as I possibly can,” she said. “My company exists because of the support of others. I want to spread that goodwill and encouragement to fellow small businesses.”
A long-time proponent of networking, volunteering and being involved in the community, Toombs has found businesspeople in Central Kentucky to be friendly and receptive. “I love being a small-business owner in Lexington,” she said. “Most small business owners genuinely want to see other small businesses succeed. This city really gets the idea that in buying from small, locally run businesses you are supporting your neighbor and creating a city that is flourishing.” BL
TOOMBS
A long vanity at Gamma Phi Beta at Oklahoma State University, left. A kitchen designed by PDR Interiors at a residence in Firebrook.
PHOTO FURNISHED
On Sound Footing
Thoroughbred Engineering expands to o er full-service solutions for commercial developments
BY LIZ CAREY
BUSINESS LEXINGTON
Thoroughbred Engineering has been engineering solutions for Central Kentucky commercial developments for nearly a decade. And the company is growing. Two recent acquisitions will help expand Thoroughbred into a full-service engineering firm, assisting with everything from site selection to construction.
Started in 1986 by founder Brent Combs, the firm was developed initially to fuel the needs of the Toyota plant in Georgetown. Over the years, the company became involved in designing most of the residential subdivisions in Scott County.
In 2014, Combs sold the firm to Darrin Croucher, one of its current principal partners. With only three employees, Croucher set out to develop a company that would bring multiple engineering disciplines under one roof.
Since then, the company has grown to more than 80 employees in three locations throughout the region.
In 2021, Thoroughbred acquired Hargett Construction, one of Central Kentucky’s oldest general contracting companies. Then, in 2022, it acquired Pyramid Structural Engineers and brought on Mo Seraji, one of the area’s most highly regarded structural engineers.
The idea, said Thoroughbred Engineering partner Jonathan Hale, is to be a one-stop shop for nearly all the engineering solutions commercial developers need to take a project from concept to completion.
Because of the firm’s engineering background, it’s able to help commercial developers succeed even before the project begins, said John-Mark Hack, chief strategy o cer. Using technologies like drones and electrical resistivity imaging, Thoroughbred can assess sites for their suitability for development and even help remediate subprime sites for new development, Hack said.
“We have specific tools, technology and expertise that support our delivery of the information our clients need to make the best decisions about their projects,” he said. “Some of those technologies and expertise enable us to consider sites that may not, on the surface, appear to be prime sites for development. But, through the integration of technically sound engineering and the utilization of technologies and expertise, we can help facilitate financial feasibility where there may not have been without applying those tools.”
Said Hale: “When we’re able to engage with [a developer] before he buys a property, when he’s engaged in negotiations, we’re able to give him the leverage of our data to help him get the right price for the site and make the project feasible.”
Once a commercial developer has selected a site, Thoroughbred Engineering can not only help prepare it for development but also handle everything from the geophysical investigation and geotechnical engineering to overseeing the planning, architectural design, transportation engineering, landscaping, storm-water design and other aspects of development before handing the project over to its construction partners.
In 2017, the company was instrumental in helping AppHarvest with the site design and permitting for its first facility in Morehead, Kentucky. When issues arose with the original Pike County site, Thoroughbred was there to help the company find a solution for its flagship tomato-growing facility.
“Constructing a 53-acre glass greenhouse is problematic under the best conditions, but doing it on reclaimed strip mine property is especially complicated,” Hack said.
Since then, AppHarvest, which uses the Dutch method of mass production of indoor-grown produce, has become a key client of Thoroughbreds. Thoroughbred also collaborated with Dutch engineers to develop facilities for AppHarvest in order to grow specific crops like tomatoes, leafy greens and cucumbers. The engineering firm has since helped AppHarvest with site selection, site design and permitting for the company’s other sites in Somerset, Richmond and Berea.
“That engineering came out of the Netherlands,” Hale said. “We took metric code documents, European documents, and transferred them into U.S. and Kentucky code documents. As the structural engineer of record, it was just something we had to do.”
Currently, the firm has several projects underway in Lexington, including two hotels — a Hampton Inn in Brannon Crossing and a Tru by Hilton in Hamburg.
What’s important to the firm, Hack said, is not only being a good corporate citizen by contributing to the community but also being a client-centric organization that provides its employees with the opportunity to have a meaningful impact where they live and work.
The firm is looking at opportunities in Lexington, as well as opportunities in the growing Shelbyville market, where their slate of services can be best used. In some ways, the company will go back to its roots, supporting the area around a major automotive manufacturing project.
“We are actively looking at the high-growth areas in Kentucky and elsewhere where we can be of service to our clients,” Hack said.
“One of those high-growth areas is Elizabethtown and Hardin County, in the wake of the Ford SK Blue Oval Battery Campus that was recently announced,” he said. Related projects may include developing new neighborhoods, retail and other amenities to support the growing community. Said Hack: “We’re deeply rooted in major industrial developement.” BL
HALE HACK
PHOTO FURNISHED
Thoroughbred Engineering worked with AppHarvest to locate its 53-acre greenhouse facility on a reclaimed strip-mining site in Morehead, Kentucky.
Experts with Thoroughbred Engineering use technology to perform soil testing. The firm o ers site-selection assistance, and can help assess the potential of sub-prime locations for development.
PHOTO FURNISHED
empowering innovation for a brighter Kentucky
Through partnerships, research, and technology development, KU is continuing a legacy of innovation that makes service more reliable, reduces emissions, and advances a clean energy transition. Together with our parent company, PPL, we’ve set a goal to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, all while keeping the energy you depend on a ordable. It’s just another way our energies go to serving you. Visit lge-ku.com/research to see how we’re empowering innovation for the benefit of our customers.
Real Estate’s New Normal Is Anything But Typical
Rising interest rates add wrinkle to competitive residential market
BY LIZ CAREY
CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Experts say that far from the supercompetitive real estate market of the past two years, the market in Central Kentucky this year is thriving but less aggressive.
Real estate agents, and o cials with the Lexington-Bluegrass Association of Realtors (LBAR), say the housing market remains tight but that rising interest rates and consumer uncertainty are causing changes in the residential market.
Rusty Underwood, the incoming president of LBAR, said the typical buyer experience in Central Kentucky is anything but ordinary.
“If you’d asked me [about the typical buyer experience] in 2019, I would have such a great answer for you, but there is no normal right now,” Underwood said. “If I had to give you my sentiments on how things feel right now, I’d say that we’re entering a niche that’s slightly less competitive for buyers.”
While the market remains competitive, he said, it’s much less competitive than it was during 2020 and 2021 when interest rates were low.
But to say the market has had a huge shift, Justin Landon, CEO of LBAR, said, would be an overstatement.
“In 2020 and 2021 … many people saw historically low interest rates and rising prices as a good time to move or invest in real estate,” Landon said.
As we look into 2022, although rising interest rates have impacted some of the buyer pool and we’re still short of inventory, the market remains relatively strong, although not quite at 2020 and 2021 levels.”
Both men said a surplus of demand has kept housing prices high, even as demand wanes slightly.
Rick Queen, vice president of Turf Town Properties, said the market remains active.
“I haven’t seen or experienced any slowdown in buyer’s interest,” Queen said. “I think buyers tend to take a little more time now in making decisions than they maybe did two months ago.”
Queen said inventory levels remain high, with more than 300 active listings as of midJuly. In comparison, he said, three to four months ago, there were between 100 and 125 listings.
Queen said that, previously, the low inventory was a catalyst that sparked increased pricing, as well as the rising costs of new construction. With interest rates at 3 percent, buyers also had the flexibility to o er more for houses or increase their budget. But higher prices seem to be subsiding thanks to rising interest rates.
“Right now, we’re in a place where interest rates are probably more in the 5.5 to 6 percent range on a 30-year fixed mortgage,” he said. “That factor comes into play with buyers looking for houses. It’s also a factor … in the price points that most buyers are looking at. When you have 3 percent loan versus a 6 percent loan rate, it certainly changes where you would want to be as far as a price point for your monthly payment or overall what you want to borrow.”
Queen said other factors, like corporations buying housing for rental income, seem to be subsiding.
“We have not had as many corporate purchases of single-family homes as other mid-sized to large cities have had,” he said. “We had a lot of corporate purchases of apartment buildings and a significant amount of investment from out-of-state investors purchasing apartments. But as far as smaller investors purchasing homes for Airbnbs, we have noticed that several have sold their Airbnb homes strictly because of the increase in value. And we’re seeing them being sold to folks who are turning them into single-family residences.”
UNDERWOOD
Still, Underwood said, real estate is an asset that, in most cases, continues to increase in value. “When I moved to Lexington in 2018, real LANDON estate price increases were 8 percent yearover-year. Coming from Texas, I thought that was unsustainably high, but ever since then it’s just gone up 12 percent, 14 percent and 15 percent year-over-year,” Underwood said. “Sellers listing their homes for sale expect those price increases. Growth is slowing down a tick … but overall pricing is still historically high.” The future of the Central Kentucky real estate market, Landon said, looks to continue in the same direction, especially with limited supply and growing demand. “Trying to look forward is always challenging, but I think, certainly in the next 12 to 24 months, supply will remain constrained,” Landon said. “In the next five years, I don’t see any more supply coming online. Millennials are entering the market at a rate that we’ve never seen before and Generation Z is coming QUEEN in right behind. The reality is, we’re not building enough homes nationally, and we’re not building enough homes locally to keep up with demand. We have a lot of folks who want to enter home ownership, and we just don’t have enough homes to accommodate them.” BL
PHOTO FURNISHED
While active listings in Lexington have more than doubled in the past several months — to more than 300 as of mid-July — the available inventory is still inadequate to keep pace with growing demand.
JUSTIN LANDON, CEO OF LBAR
