Business Lexington February 2022 by Smiley Pete Publishing

IN THIS ISSUE

BusinessLexington FEBRUARY 2022 | VOL. 18 ISSUE 2

BizLexQ&A

Fred Mills and Friends of the Kentucky Theatre

Sourdough Startup: Lexington family turns artisan bread baking into a business PAGE 8

Kentucky Science and Technology Corporation expands in reach to advance education, innovation and employment across the state PAGE 12

Film festivals, concerts, a micro-cinema, café and more new offerings planned as historic theatre prepares to reopen PAGE 17

Kentucky Theatre Manager Fred Mills PHOTO BY EMILY GIANCARLO

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Plans for a Changing Landscape: Need for new homes, multifamily housing, offices and industry compete for space amid Lexington’s limited developable land PAGE 13

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CONTENTS

Changes Coming to Distillery District: Business owners and U-Haul officials share their visions for historic rickhouse building and its conversion into a self-storage facility PAGE 10

PVAStatistics

The latest statistics on local commercial and residential properties PAGE 4

EconomicAnalysis

A monthly look at economic indicators compiled by the Center for Business and Economic Research (CBER) at the University of Kentucky PAGE 5

GrammarGourmet

Crime-fighting grammarians PAGE 5

IndependentBusiness

Ahead of the game: Startup Synaptek creates mobile-first platform to better diagnose and manage concussions PAGE 6

BizIQ

Protecting your business from cybercrime: tips from Z-JAK Technologies CEO and author Jeff Chandler PAGE 7

CraveWorthy

Sourdough startup: Lexington family turns artisan bread baking into a business PAGE 8

QuickBites

IS HI

Y ILE PE

Local eateries begin the year with several new openings and expansions PAGE 9

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BizList

Real Estate Law Firms PAGE 14 Commercial Real Estate Managament Companies PAGE 15 Architecture Firms PAGE 16

Who’sWho

Employment updates from around the Bluegrass PAGE 18

Supporting Technological Achievement: Kentucky Science and Technology Corporation expands in reach to advance education, innovation and employment across the state PAGE 12

Plans for a Changing Landscape: Need for new homes, multifamily housing, offices and industry compete for space amid Lexington’s limited developable land PAGE 13

Q&A with Fred Mills and Friends of the Kentucky Theatre: Working toward reopening, old favorites and new programing planned for downtown theatre PAGE 17

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EconomicAnalysis

PVAStatistics

A monthly look at economic indicators compiled by the Center for Business and Economic Research (CBER) at the University of Kentucky. For more on CBER, visit www.cber.uky.edu.

Residential Sales Data for December 2021

Recent Data Jan. 2021

1-Month 1-Year Change Change

Payroll emp. MSA**** Manufacturing Employment Durable Goods (KY) **** Manufacturing: Lexington-Fayette MSA Total Employees**** Unemployment Rate MSA****

269,300 161,500 28,401 2.40%

0.75% -0.62%

0.79% 5.01%

0.86% -0.80%

-0.06% -2.00%

Payroll Employment, US Manufacturing Payroll Employment US Unemployment Rate, US

148,952 12,580 3.90%

0.13% 0.21% -0.30%

4.53% 2.85% -2.80%

Consumer Price Index, Southern Region Consumer Price Index, US Producer Price Index, US

268.360 277.948 232.3

0.40% 0.50% 1.18%

7.20% 6.80% 13.53%

Index of Leading Indicators** Fed’s Index of Industrial Production**

119.9 102.3

1.10% 0.49%

N/A -1.63%

3-Month Treasury Yield*** 10-Year Treasury Yield***

0.06% 1.47%

0.01% -0.09%

-0.03% 0.60%

Real GDP (millions $)

3rd Qtr. 2020 23,187,042.00

1-Month 1-Year Change Change 19.05% 1.96%

The chart below shows the monthly residential sales activity in Fayette County for the previous 24 months. The data for the most recent month reflect a projected estimate from the office of the Fayette County Property Valuation Administrator and are subject to change. 2021 RESIDENTIAL SALES

2020 RESIDENTIAL SALES

800

MSA: Lexington-Fayette Metropolitan Statistical Area; (p)=preliminary; NA=not available * Source: http://www.conference-board.org ** Source: Federal Reserve Statistical Release — http://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/G17/ *** Source: Federal Reserve Statistical Release — http://www.federalreserve.gov/Releases/H15/data.htm **** Source: St. Louis Federal Reserve — https://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/ Note: In some cases 1 mo. and 1 yr. changes are based on revised data from previous mo./yr. GDP is reported in current dollars.

700 600 500 400 300 200 100

JAN

FEB

MAR

APR

MAY

JUN

JUL

AUG

SEP

OCT

NOV

DEC

33%

18%

20%

-8%

-4%

-5%

-7%

-1%

-7%

MONTHLY PERCENTAGE CHANGE OVER PREVIOUS YEAR For more local residential and commercial real estate information, visit the website of the Fayette County Property Valuation Administrator at www.fayettepva.com.

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BusinessBriefs

GrammarGourmet

Rubicon to Become a Publicly Traded Company

Crime-Fighting Grammarians Spam invades our email inboxes every day. If we’re lucky, our antivirus programs deflect the most egregious. After that, how do we decide whether to click or move on?

Rubicon, a Lexington-based waste-management software company, has entered into a merger agreement with Founder SPAC, a publicly traded special purpose acquisition company.

One answer: We can arm ourselves with a knowledge of grammar. It appears that spam artists generally didn’t excel in their English classes.

The combined company will be named Rubicon Technologies and be listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the new ticker symbol “RBT.” The transaction implies a combined pro forma enterprise value of approximately $1.7 billion and pro forma equity value of roughly $2 billion and is expected to close in the second quarter of 2022. The company will continue to be based in Lexington and led by founder and Chief Executive Officer Nate Morris, along with its executive leadership. Founded by Morris in 2008 with a $10,000 line of credit, Rubicon utilizes its cloud-based technology and software platform to provide smart waste and recycling solutions for businesses and governments via its network of more than 8,000 hauling and recycling partners across 20 countries. Rubicon generated more than $500 million in revenue in 2019 and 2020 while building a base of customers, including Walmart, Starbucks, FedEx, and major city governments,

PHOTO FURNISHED

Rubicon CEO Nate Morris

including Kansas City, Missouri, Baltimore, Maryland, and Columbus, Ohio. Fast Company named Rubicon to its annual list of the “World’s Most Innovative Companies” for 2021. “Historically, waste has been an overlooked issue, but in Rubicon, we have built a different kind of company, one that has sought to address the entrenched shortcomings of the industry and bring the issue of waste into the public consciousness,” Morris said. “As a Lexington, Kentucky-based company, our proven track record of environmental innovation shows that transformational ideas can come from anywhere and demonstrates the power of forward-thinking businesses to drive positive change in our world.” BL

Scrolling recently through my spamstudded personal inbox, I can immediately skim off the worst offenders. They are spamming me in French. Seven years ago, I rented a car in Paris; I have since been bombarded with spam in the language of love. Grammatical or not, au revoir. After the non-English spam is obliterated, I scan for the nonsensical. These messages tend to begin awkwardly. “Hello, my Dear fellow of an American,” one offers with a “Kindly” heart. I’m not surprised to discover that this spammer needs my help retrieving money from an overseas “Banque Acount.” Delete, my Kindly fellow. Nonsensical scammers eliminated, we move to the third level of spam hell, where English-speaking cyber-goons steal your best friend’s email address, craft a subject line that catches your click – and then lock you in their clutches until you surrender some Bitcoin.

By Neil Chethik

To foil these folks, study these Big Five grammar challenges (with examples of their correct usage): • Your vs. you’re. You’re most likely to thwart a spammer if your grammar is impeccable. • It’s vs. its. If an email reveals that it’s written without a knowledge of it’s vs. its, delete it or send it back to its sender for verification. • Too vs. to. If you don’t know the difference between these two, it’s not too late. • Commas. If there’s no comma after the introductory phrase in a sentence, mark the email as spam or send it back to the sender for review. • Affect vs. effect. Scammers may affect our lives by attacking our inboxes, but if we stay vigilant — and grammar-aware — the nefarious efforts will have little effect. BL Neil Chethik, aka the Grammar Gourmet, is executive director at the Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning (www. carnegieliteracy.org) and author of “FatherLoss” and “VoiceMale.” The Carnegie Center offers writing classes and seminars for businesses and individuals. Contact Neil at neil@ carnegieliteracy.org or (859) 254-4175.

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IndependentBusiness Ahead of the Game Startup Synaptek creates mobile-first platform to better diagnose and manage concussions BY KATHIE STAMPS CONTRIBUTING WRITER

ports-related concussions occur at a rate of seven per minute in the United States, according to research published in the Journal of Head Trauma Rehabilitation. The aftereffects of a mild traumatic brain injury, as the medical community refers to concussions, can include persistent headaches, balance issues, memory problems and a host of other issues. Synaptek, a Lexington-based company formed in the spring of 2019, has developed a mobile-first platform to help diagnose concussions in athletes more quickly and effectively at the incident scene or as soon afterward as possible. The platform also keeps track of all data points collected during the assessment process, including documentation, for optimized clinical decisions and improved diagnosis and D. VAN PELT rehabilitation. “Making an accurate and timely diagnosis is important to improve recovery,” said Synaptek co-founder and CEO Kate Van Pelt. “Over the past two decades, increased research on concussion has shown the consequences K. VAN PELT for athlete safety if a concussion is not properly diagnosed and treated. “We do not just want to digitize the status quo but reimagine concussion assessment and be a leading resource in the concussion field via our proprietary technology, research and educational McCOLLUM resources,” Van Pelt said. Van Pelt grew up playing ice hockey in New England and played at the collegiate level for College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts. She earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology.

Realizing she could merge her passions for ice hockey and the brain by studying concussions, she went to the University of Michigan for a master’s in clinical research design and statistical analysis and then earned a doctorate in kinesiology and exercise science. “The idea for Synaptek slowly grew in my mind as I went through my roles as an ice hockey player, psychology major and then concussion researcher,” she said. “I worked with researchers and clinicians and saw how nuanced and complicated concussion care is.” The name Synaptek blends the words synapse and technology. “We chose ‘synapse’ because these are the junctions in the brain that provide information back and forth between neurons,” she said. “We want Synaptek to leverage technology to make concussion assessment and communication seamless for athletes, medical providers, parents and coaches.” The company’s clients are college athletic departments, high schools, outpatient clinics, sports leagues and athletic organizations that provide medical and athletic training services. “Each of these clients has medical providers who use Synaptek to help care for their athletes before, during and after a concussion,” she said. It was at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor that she met her husband, Doug Van Pelt, originally from New Jersey, who was earning his Ph.D. in exercise physiology. The two moved to Lexington in 2018 to work at the University of Kentucky as post-doctoral researchers. Doug Van Pelt is COO of Synaptek. He has an undergrad degree from Rutgers University and a master’s from the University of Texas. Native Lexingtonian James McCollum is chief of product. He grew up playing football and experienced the effects of concussions firsthand. Over the past decade, McCollum’s focus in the tech industry has been on software development, design, user experience and marketing. Synaptek operates out of the coworking space at Awesome Inc in downtown Lexington. Kate Van Pelt credits the Entrepreneurs Bootcamp for shaving years off the process of bringing Synaptek to market. “Warren Nash, Mariam Gorjian and

IMAGE FURNISHED

Synaptek’s mobile app helps medical providers diagnose and treat concussions more quickly and efficiently.

Christine Wildes do a fantastic job getting individuals and groups with ideas on the path to creating a viable business,” she said. The Entrepreneurs Bootcamp is a program within the Von Allmen Center for Entrepreneurship at UK’s Gatton College of Business and Economics. “As a community member of the bootcamp, I learned about entrepreneurship, business, customer discovery, and was able to refine and validate that my idea could be a viable business,” she said. In its earliest days, the Van Pelts and McCollum held other full-time jobs while they worked nights and weekends on Synaptek, wrapping up customer discovery, raising a friends and family round of funding, launching a beta product and landing their first customer. Within two years, they were awarded a research grant by the National Science Foundation. They recently raised a seed round to enable all three to be full-time with Synaptek and make their first additional hire. Synaptek joined the Launch Blue preseed accelerator, a program run by Eric Hartman and Laura Halligan on behalf of the UK

Office of Technology Commercialization and eight other organizations and businesses, including Commerce Lexington, Kentucky Small Business Development Center, Awesome Inc, Base 110 and Bullard. “The Launch Blue program was a great next step for Synaptek and helped us reach the next phase of our company,” Van Pelt said. “We are also in the Awesome Inc Fellowship, which has been a great way to connect with other founders and come together to learn from each other’s experiences, wins and struggles.” Synaptek was one of 70 entrepreneurs and startups participating in the 2021 Lexington Entrepreneurship Impact Survey, sponsored by Commerce Lexington and the UK Office of Technology Commercialization. Kate Van Pelt was awarded the 2021 Femalefounded Startup of the Year. “Lexington is a community that brings founders and companies together to help each other and has been extremely supportive throughout Synaptek’s journey,” she said. “We are excited for what 2022 has to bring!” BL

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BizIQ

A MONTHLY COLUMN OF BUSINESS INSIGHTS FROM CENTRAL KENTUCKY PROFESSIONALS

Protecting Your Business from Cybercrime BY JEFF CHANDLER CEO AT Z-JAK TECHNOLOGIES

ybercrime is on the rise and cybercriminals are always on the hunt. Small to mid-sized business are most vulnerable as many lack effective security measures. According to The National Cyber Security Alliance, one in five small businesses are victims of cyberattack every year and nearly 60 percent of those close their doors within six months of an attack because they cannot afford the costs involved in remediating a data breach or ransomware event. Small businesses need to CHANDLER be vigilant and take steps to protect their data. Knowing how cybercriminals gain access to your system is an important step in keeping them out. Three of the most common methods used by cybercriminals are: Phishing Phishing uses realistic e-mails that look like they come from a trusted source, such as your financial institution, in an attempt to trick recipients into sharing passwords and other sensitive information. Other forms of phishing

include text messages and phone calls from tech support asking you to visit a website where they will help fix an issue on your computer. Malware A combination of the words “malicious” and “software,” malware is any piece of software or code created with the intent of damaging devices or stealing data. Malware is a broad term that includes all malicious software, including viruses, worms, spyware, ransomware and others. Ransomware Ransomware is a type of malware that is exactly what it sounds like — software that holds your computer system and sensitive information hostage until you pay a ransom for the decryption key. Ransomware is typically introduced into a system by an employee who innocently opens an email attachment, document or website link that contains malware. Once infected, it is impossible to open any documents or applications on your systems until the ransom is paid. Now that you know how they get in, here are several critical security measures to keeping cybercriminals out. Keep your systems up to date. New vulnerabilities are frequently found in common software programs such as Microsoft Office; therefore, it’s critical you patch and update

your systems frequently. Set your browser and computer to auto-update when a new patch comes out. Require strong passwords. Passwords should be at least 10 characters (the longer, the better) and contain lowercase and uppercase letters, symbols and at least one number. Use a different password for every log-in. Use a password manager. This is one of the most important security measures you can take. A password manager will generate complex passwords for every site you visit and keep track them for you. Turn on multi-factor/2-factor authentication. At a minimum, turn this on for your email account. Once a cybercriminal has access to your email account, they can use your email to request a password reset on all your accounts including your bank accounts. Install malware protection on all of your computers. Traditional antivirus software is no longer enough. Make sure the solution you implement protects you against ransomware, email threats and dangerous websites. Have an excellent backup. A good backup not only protects you against ransomware demands but a host of data-erasing disasters such as employees overwriting files, natural disasters, fire, water damage and hardware failures. Your backups should be automated and monitored.

Get security best practices training. The No. 1 vulnerability for any business system is the people who use it. Since almost all cyber security breaches are caused by human error (someone clicking on a link in an email, accidentally downloading a virus or falling for a phishing scam), we strongly recommend cybersecurity awareness training for everyone on your team. BL

Jeff Chandler is CEO of Z-JAK Technologies providing IT and cybersecurity services for business owners. He recently authored the book, “Hacked! What You Must Know Now to Protect Your Business Financials, Customer Data, and Reputation from Cybercriminals.”

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CraveWorthy Sourdough startup: Lexington family turns artisan bread baking into a business BY SHANNON CLINTON CONTRIBUTING WRITER

sing unique processes, ingredients and a home-based German brick oven, Chapi Johnson, Andrew McGraw and their two daughters have spent much of the pandemic building a cottage small-batch bakery one loaf, bagel and cookie at a time. “We have been selling bread to customers for about a year,” Johnson said of the venture, Wild Lab Bakery. “We started baking for ourselves and gave a lot of bread to friends and neighbors and people encouraged us to start selling it, so we tried and it was pretty successful.”

McGraw serves as lead baker and Johnson as support baker. Their young twin daughters enjoy collecting eggs from the family’s chickens. The eggs are used in some products, like their ever-popular chocolate chip cookies with milk and dark chocolate pieces, browned butter and freshly milled flour topped with sea salt. Along with other cookie varieties and bagels, their artisan sourdough bread is made with organic or transitioning-to-organic flour and wheat berries from Illinois-based, five-generation family-owned Janie’s Mill. The bread, McGraw said, is made in a 24-hour process of cold-fermenting, a natural leavening process, and then baking. “As the year evolved, we focused more on the health aspects of sourdough bread,” he said. “It is a healthier bread. It has three ingredients — flour, salt and water.” They also mill about 10 to 20 percent of the flour themselves from whole wheat berries, McGraw said, because the fresher the flour the more nutrient-dense it is.

PHOTO FURNISHED

Sourdough loaves from Wild Lab Bakery begin with a 24-hour process of cold fermentation and natural leavening before going into a brick-lined bread oven.

The brick-lined bread oven was built for them in Germany to replicate an older oven style. It enabled them to increase their capabilities from about three loaves per hour to nine to 12 loaves. However, the increased output doesn’t come at the expense of taste or aesthetics. The bread looks ready for a gourmet magazine cover shoot, with decorative leaves and other designs scored into the dough before baking. The sales process is different than most bakeries. Customers place their orders online — typically via Wild Lab’s website or Instagram — and are assigned a day to come to the family’s downtown Lexington home for a porch pickup by 3 p.m. There’s another porch pickup location in Georgetown at Johnson’s mother’s house, she said. The couple bakes Tuesday through Friday. And if eating freshly baked artisan bread isn’t feel

Chapi Johnson and Andrew McGraw, with help from their twin daughters, run Wild Lab Bakery out of their home in Lexington. PHOTO FURNISHED

good enough, there’s a humanitarian aspect to the company. For about six months, Wild Lab Bakery has been baking bread for Journi’s Hope, a local nonprofit that works to alleviate food insecurity among refugee and immigrant families. After the couple began donating loaves themselves in the past, customers can now purchase a “Hope Loaf” for $6 to be delivered to the organization. About 13 loaves a week are donated in this way. The bakery so far is a side business, as McGraw works full-time running a Japanese language program and Johnson works parttime at ARTplay Children’s Studio. As for the significance of the name Wild Lab Bakery, the couple says it denotes their need to experiment and perfect their recipes. More bakery goods are in the works, like sandwich bread, new cookie varieties and, possibly, tortillas. Licensed by the state to operate their bakery, they sell their wares at the Georgetown Farmer’s Market and hope to expand to the Lexington Farmer’s Market. For now, they don’t sell to any restaurants and strive to balance the business to sustain itself while remaining manageable in size. The teamwork and simple satisfaction of baking together is something they also treasure. “I think the most rewarding thing is Andrew and me working together, figuring it out,” Johnson said. “We both have different strengths and weaknesses, and it’s allowed us to connect in a different way.” BL

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QuickBites Local eateries begin the year with several new openings and expansions BY SHANNON CLINTON CONTRIBUTING WRITER

ew year, new restaurants seems to be the theme in the Lexington area this year, as several have announced either imminent opening plans or recent launches. Mezzo Italian Café and Provisions announced on its Facebook page that December 31, 2021, was its last dinner service, as the restaurant, located at 131 E. Main St. in Midway, had been sold by chef/owner Mark Wombles to nearby restaurateur J.P. Gibson, who owns nearby Blind Harry’s and Brown Barrel. The new restaurant will be called Gibson’s Midway. According to its Facebook page, its planned mid-January opening had been delayed. “There’s a lot of work to be done to get the old Mezzo converted to the new Gibson’s, and we’d rather get it right than rush into an arbitrary opening date,” the post said. Wombles will continue to focus his attention on Heirloom in Midway, as well as Distilled on Jefferson in Lexington. Also coming to Midway is Midway Coffee Shop, which lists on Facebook a Jan. 12 opening date at 405 Midway Ave., and a menu featuring a variety of specialty coffees and coffee-centric beverages. Sultan Mediterranean Cuisine is coming soon near Hartland Kroger, signage on the building says. The Bridge Eatery and Bar announced on its Facebook page in late December it would be moving from its Romany Road location after four years. In January, details on a new location were forthcoming. “We are hoping this is not an end but a warmer beginning!” the December post said. El Rancho Tapatio officials announced that they’re opening a new restaurant, Mama Tequila Restaurant and Bar, at 367 W. Short St. where Shakespeare & Co. was once located. Sam’s Hotdog Stand East Lexington recently opened at 4300 Winchester Road with a menu featuring hot dogs, pulled pork and Polish sausage with a variety of toppings ranging from onions, peppers and chili to beer cheese, along with specialty hot dogs, sides and desserts. Chick-fil-A has opened at 295 W. New Circle Road. A third Lexington Drake’s location is coming to Townley Center off Leestown Road, according to parent company Bluegrass Hospitality Group. Fast casual Kyoto Japanese Kitchen, at 4101 Tates Creek Centre Drive, Ste. 136, was set to open in mid-January, a restaurant official said. The menu preview listed hibachi and sushi selections, ramen, poké bowls and more. After closing its West Main Street location, Sawyer’s Downtown Bar & Grill is reopening at 140 W. Main at City Center, a mid-December post announced, promising updates on time frame to follow. “We have a ton of work to do, but I have faith, a wonderful support group, and we will build a great team to serve you,” owner Jim Sawyer said in the post. The Mad Horseman Bar & Lounge has opened on the first floor of the Sire

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Mezzo Italian Café and Provisions, in downtown Midway, has sold to restaurateur J.P. Gibson. Gibson’s Midway is expected to open in January.

Hotel. Bar bites on the menu include truffle tots, apple goat cheese salad and shrimp tacos, and drink menu offerings include a variety of beers, wines and cocktails. Luna’s Coffee, Wine & Butterfly Café in Nicholasville is expanding into an adjacent space (formerly a Subway restaurant) of its Springdale Drive location and plans to use the expanded space for additional seating, meetings and private rentals, events and more retail offerings. Kung Fu Tea x TKK Fried Chicken has opened at The Hub, 685 S. Limestone, Ste. 150, with bubble tea, hot and cold drinks and TKK Fried Chicken. Flushing, New York-based KPot Korean BBQ & Hot Pot has announced it’s coming soon to 2860 Richmond Road. Baby Face Grub is now serving via delivery and pickup at 1060 Chinoe Road, #108, with chef Jon Bush at the helm, according to its website. Menu items include BBQ tacos, hot brown dip, pulled-pork and pulled-chicken BBQ sandwiches and entrees, ribs, soups, a variety of burgers, meatloaf and more. “We aren’t a BBQ restaurant or a burger joint,” the site says. “We sell BBQ and burgers, but we liken ourselves to your friend who makes food that slaps in every bite. Give us a try, you won’t regret it!” Lexington-based Goodfellas Pizzeria has expanded to a new Baxter Avenue location in Louisville, according to a Facebook post that announced an early January opening. Bourbon N’ Toulouse owner Kevin Heathcoat announced a second location would open in February in the space formerly occupied by Gumbo Ya Ya at 1080 S. Broadway #107. Bourbon N’ Toulouse has been serving up Cajun dishes from its Euclid Avenue site for 17 years. BL Have a food- or beverage-related update to share with readers? Please email info@smileypete.com.

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Changes Coming to Distillery District Business owners and U-Haul officials share their visions for historic rickhouse building and its conversion into a self-storage facility BY TANZI MERRITT CONTRIBUTING WRITER

exington’s Distillery District, just west of downtown, is a collection of locally owned businesses, restaurants and entertainment venues. The area has also become a hub for the region’s growing craft beverage industry, with two breweries, two distilleries and a cidery located on the 25-acre property that originally housed the historic James E. Pepper Distillery. The James E. Pepper Distillery, founded in 1780, began distilling whisky in Lexington in the late 1800s but ceased all operations in the 1960s, leaving the campus and its buildings abandoned for more than half a century. Revitalization of this now vibrant and growing area began in 2006 with the establishment of Barrel House Distillery. Since that time the Distillery District has welcomed businesses such as The Break Room, Goodfellas Pizzeria, Crank & Boom Ice Cream, and others. An anchor of the Distillery District, the historic distillery’s former rickhouse, reaches higher than the buildings around it. The nearly 200,000 square foot building houses several tenants on its first floor, but the upper floors of the building have remained vacant for decades. Recently, the rickhouse property was purchased by U-Haul, which plans to renovate the building into a 1,400 unit climate-controlled self-storage facility as part of its adaptive reuse program. This initiative supports infill development to promote sustainability in communities where they operate. Understandably, both the first-floor ten-

PHOTO SARAH JANE SANDERS

Plans to convert the Lexington’s Distillery District’s rickhouse building into a U-Haul self-storage facility will not impact the iconic mural painted in 2014 by French street artist MTO, company officials said.

ants of the rickhouse and fans of the Distillery District expressed concerns about what this acquisition could mean for the character of the area. In this tight-knit community, business owners have made personal investments in their businesses and often collaborate. That feeling of community and promise of growth is what prompted Tim Wright and his wife, Greta, to open Wise Bird Cider Co. in June 2019 in the creek-side corner of the rickhouse, with a large outdoor seating area overlooking Town Branch Creek. “When we decided to open the cidery, we decided to do it here in the Distillery District. We were excited about where this part of town was going at the time,” he said. “Part of the vision was that the rickhouse would become a mixed-use space — offices, condos, hotel — some combination of those categories that involve people,” he said. “We saw that as a benefit to us to invest here, in the hope that it would continue to be a destination for both locals and tourists, and that it would also transition into a part of town where people would be living.

Tim and Greta Wright opened the Wise Bird Cider Company in the Distillery District’s rickhouse building in 2019. PHOTO BY TOM WILMES

“Parking is already a problem, and now we will have more people who come down to store things that aren’t customers of the businesses here. That, I think, is going to be the challenge we’re all going to face. How do we bring those people in to support our businesses?” Chad Tussey, owner of Relic Lexington and Vibe Fitness, both also located in the rickhouse, echoed Wright’s concerns. “When I first heard about it, I was concerned, like everybody else. We had hoped that something different might happen, like it might be residential above us,” he said. “In my mind, though, I look at it and think that if we do have a U-Haul here and they have an office and trucks here, that is driving daytime business down here. My businesses are both daytime. The majority of the businesses here thrive off of the nighttime crowd, but they are still open during the day. This can be a boon for everyone,” Tussey said. Relic Lexington, specializing in furniture, rugs, and home accessories with a rustic feel, opened at the end of 2018. Vibe Fitness, located next door to Relic, opened by Tussey and his wife, Rachel, in 2020, is a fitness studio focusing on barre, yoga, boot camps and kickboxing, with small classes and state-of-the-art sound and lighting. Christopher Minnich, U-Haul Company of Louisville president, is working to reassure everyone that they want to be a positive part of the community at the Distillery District. “We do not want to impact this community in a negative way. We are hoping to bring a positive service — not only to serve the downtown and college student community but also to help create more foot traffic for the businesses in the district,” Minnich said. “We don’t want to interfere with any of the tenants or the local businesses. We’re huge on supporting small businesses. In our market alone, we have over 300 independent businesses that use U-Haul,” he said. “In this location, we’re looking to build a building on the opposite side of the property so that we don’t interfere with the existing tenants and

what the businesses are doing, and with the traffic coming and going on a daily basis.” So far, most of the tenants of the rickhouse plan to stay. Although Battle Axes, an ax-throwing venue, was already planning to relocate in order to expand and add additional activities, no one else has made plans to leave. And, according to Minnich, businesses are continuing to express interest in locating to the rickhouse. Both Wright and Tussey agree that UHaul’s ownership and planned renovation of the building is a big plus for all tenants. “The advantage of the Fortune 500 company coming in and buying this building is that they have the cash flow to make the capital repairs that this building desperately needs,” Wright said. Said Tussey: “They are replacing the roof, installing new gutters, adding passenger elevators, and are going to pave the rest of the gravel lot and install new, better lighting outside. It will add about 200 parking spaces.” Many have asked about the status of the large mural painted on the building by French street artist MTO in 2014 as a part of Lexington’s annual PRHBTN festival. “The last thing we want to do is impact [the mural],” Minnich said. “It’s huge for the local community and the Distillery District. We are currently working on our plans, and we’re going to do the best we can to preserve it.” For Wright, ideally “we could have some additional parking available when we’re open, and the building is improved but isn’t materially changed in a way that detracts from the look and feel as it is currently,” he said. Which, according to Minnich, squares with U-Haul’s plans for the property. “We want to preserve locations like this through adaptive reuse,” he said. “There are businesses that could go into the building that would greatly impact the existing businesses, but we want to keep that from happening. “We want to keep everybody in the area growing. A lot of these businesses have invested a lot of money in this location, and we want them to succeed.” BL

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Supporting Technological Achievement Kentucky Science and Technology Corporation’s Michael Marshall teaches an Advance Kentucky math content session to Kentucky students.

Kentucky Science and Technology Corporation expands in reach to advance education, innovation and employment across the state

PHOTO FURNISHED

BY CAMPBELL WOOD CONTRIBUTING WRITER

entucky Science and Technology Corporation “is the organization that you’ve probably never heard of that runs the programs you love,” said Terry Samuel, president of the nonprofit organization. Founded in 1987 by Kris Kimel and Lee Todd, the Kentucky Science and Technology Corporation (KSTC) has grown to become instrumental in advancing science and technology in Kentucky and operates numerous programs related to education, entrepreneurship, economic development and other efforts. In December 2020, KSTC moved its offices to the third floor of Dudley Square in downtown Lexington. It opened its first satellite office in Louisville in November and is working to increase its reach in serving Kentucky’s growing tech economy. Samuel joined KSTC five years ago after 30 years with Lexmark and IBM, first as an engineer, then as a business executive. “I was a private industry guy,” Samuel said. “To come into a nonprofit, a statewide economic organization, I had a lot of learning to do.” He conferred with leaders of similar organizations in over a dozen other states. Some of those organizations are part of state governments. “We’re private or non-statute,” he said, “but we have a close relationship with the state.” That relationship has developed over 34 years. In the late ’80s, “there was clearly a need to do something in the state to expand and extend a focus on technology and innovation,” said Kimel, who served as KSTC president for 30 years. “We were in a huge transition in our economy, to court globalism, technology, innovation, communications, all of that. Lee and I came up with this notion that we could create something to help push the state in the direction of technology and innovation, to provide leadership in that area.” With seed funding provided by the state under former Gov. Martha Layne Collins’ administration, KSTC started as an advocacy initiative. In 1989, KSTC published a report, Kentucky Innovation Compact, that presented strategies to advance technology and innovation in Kentucky, including advancing education in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Their report got the attention of the Brown Foundation in Louisville, which funded KSTC with a quarter of a million dollars. “That was the turning point,” said Kimel. KSTC became an incubator of programs to foster technology innovation through education and business creation. “We have to be constantly innovating,” said Samuel. “Some programs we keep going, but we are constantly innovating on our programs.” Whether it’s working with federal or state government, universities, school systems, or business organizations, partnerships are critical in implementing KSTC programs. Innovation means being open to stepping outside the usual bounds of their endeav-

ors. One such program is Kentucky VALLO, funded by the Department of Labor, which helps military personnel who’ve acquired special skills training in the services to get certified or licensed in Kentucky. About 16,000 service members transition to civilian life every month, said Samuel. Some of them have special training and are willing to move to Kentucky, where some employers are having trouble finding skilled workers. KSTC has developed 46 pathways, from social workers to mechanics, resulting in state certifications in those fields. The Kentucky Enterprise Fund, the primary fund of KSTC Venture Finance, made its first investment in 2002. The fund has invested over $30 million in over 160 companies, 70 percent of which either provided a positive return or are still operating in Kentucky. Those companies drew follow-on investments of about $1.4 billion, according to KSTC tracking. In addition to funding, KSTC provides logistics support for startups. Its Virtual Academy, part of Advance Kentucky, the education arm of KSTC, makes advanced physics and advanced calculus available to students across the state. During the pandemic, Advance Kentucky moved much of its advanced placement (AP) content online to ensure that students across Kentucky have

PHOTO FURNISHED

Kentucky Science and Technology Corporation president, Terry Samuel, talks innovation with a community group.

access to content to prepare for AP exams. KSTC conducted longitudinal studies to see how Advance Kentucky AP students fared with college. Significantly more of those students attended college, stayed enrolled longer and attained higher graduation rates, as compared to a control group. “It’s a great program for the state,” said Samuel, “and it consistently gets support from the Kentucky Board of Education and the General Assembly.” Kentucky is one of several states to offer the Maker Minded program through a collaboration between KSTC and LIFT national manufacturing institute, which opens the doors for students to consider careers in advanced manufacturing. Another Advance Kentucky program, Access Algebra, prepares middle school students for high school calculus, essential for those pursuing the sciences. KSTC also has a computer science initiative for schools, including a partnership with code.org and a program for digital literacy with 3D printing. KSTC also works with higher education but on the business side. In partnership with the University of Kentucky and the University of Louisville, KSTC formed the Kentucky Commercialization Ventures (KCV). KCV offers expertise to the six regional Kentucky universities and the Kentucky Community and Technical College System (KCTS) in transferring research and development projects to commercialization, bringing products to market and creating revenue streams for the colleges. “We have the first-ever patent application from KCTCS,” said Samuel, “and we have the first licensing deal on something coming out of Eastern Kentucky University.” Included under the KCV umbrella is the Kentucky Network for Innovation & Commercialization (KYNETIC), which receives funding from the National Institute of Health to develop healthcare products. In addition to its education endeavors, with over 30 employees in Lexington, in a Louisville office, and in Bowling Green, Paducah, Somerset and Covington, KSTC provides a variety of support programs for Kentucky companies. “Our mission is to build a thriving technologybased entrepreneurial economy for Kentucky,” said Samuel. Another partnership Samuel highlights pairs KSTC with Kentucky Innovation, a pro-

gram of the Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development (CED). Anthony Ellis, executive director of Kentucky Innovation, describes KSTC as “your primary one-stop-shop” for small businesses with scalable growth potential to find investors and resources. In 2020, the CED redesigned the structure of its system for supporting economic growth and innovation across the state. Six KY Innovation Hubs or regions encompass all 120 counties. “KSTC has done a great job helping lead that transition in a pretty smooth manner,” said Ellis. Part of the drive to boost Kentucky’s tech economy at this time, Ellis said, is “the great migration.” Over 4 million people quit their jobs by the end of last year. “We’ve seen a huge uptick in one-way moves from the coasts to middle America,” he said. “We think there’s a great opportunity to recapture a lot of talented Kentuckians who had moved away. We need an influx of high wage, high skill earners to keep our state at the forefront and keep moving ahead.” Ellis also pointed out that Kentucky moved from a ranking of 42nd to 16th among U.S. states in receiving grants through the federal Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer programs. KSTC, through its Kentucky Science and Engineering Foundation, guides companies in navigating grant processes with 11 federal agencies. Kentucky is one of 16 states, said Ellis, that has instituted a matching grant program for companies that are awarded SBIR grants. The matching grants can be used to cover operating expenses that aren’t covered with SBIR grants, and the program has drawn 42 companies to relocate to Kentucky, Ellis said. KSTC manages the matching grants programs. On the other side of the equation, the KSTC program Kentucky Procurement Technical Assistance (KYPTAC) helps businesses connect with federal, state and local governments in need of their goods and services. It all works together. Samuel keeps in contact with Lee Todd, professor of engineering and former president of UK. He likes to recall Todd’s lament that he had been sending his engineering graduates out of Kentucky to find work. “Why not create the work right here in Kentucky?,” he asked. Which is a concern for which KSTC continually seeks to find solutions. BL

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Plans for a Changing Landscape Need for new homes, multifamily housing, offices and industry compete for space amid Lexington’s limited developable land BY LIZ CAREY CONTRIBUTING WRITER

s home prices in Lexington continue to rise, finding land to build new homes continues to compete with finding land for commercial development, planning officials say. It’s an age-old conundrum but one that could see changes as Lexington begins the process of developing its comprehensive plan in the coming months. “When you’re looking at use of land, it’s always a balance between housing stock and where people get jobs,” said Kevin Atkins, Lexington’s chief development officer. Land use in Lexington is determined by the city’s comprehensive plan, which is set every five years. The last comprehensive plan took place in 2018, meaning the next one will take place in 2023. Work on the next comprehensive plan will begin this year, he said. One of the key elements of the plan is the Urban Service Boundary. Passed in 1958, the Urban Service Boundary delineates where new development can occur and sets strict minimum area requirements as a way to control urban sprawl and maintain the city’s urban/rural mix. But with available land at a premium, finding the right mix between housing and commercial uses as the city grows, while sticking to the comprehensive plan, will be tricky, said Craig Bencz, administrative officer in Atkins’ office. “We will need to use some creative planning tool to maintain that growth,” he said. “There is a way to accommodate growth, but it will rely on a lot of policy discussions in order to manage it.” According to the Lexington Sustainable Growth Study, a study done as part of the 2018 Comprehensive Plan to inventory available land and explore existing conditions within the USB, as well as look at the current and future

PHOTO FURNISHED

Economic and population trends point to Lexington facing significant growth not only in its population but also in its need for commercial space.

economic and population trends, the city faces growth in not only its population but also its need for commercial space. Projections indicate that Fayette County will grow between 29,700 and 41,200 households by 2040. The city will see demand for new office space increase to between 2.5 million square feet and 4.6 million square feet by 2040. “The Lexington office market has demonstrated itself to be a stable market, with less speculative development occurring than in the larger office markets in Louisville and Northern Kentucky, resulting in comparatively low vacancy rates,” researchers wrote in the study. The growth in households is stymied by the lack of growth in housing, said David O’Neill, property valuation administrator with Fayette County. “We’re seeing significant increases in the sale prices of homes,” O’Neill said. “The median price of a single-family house right now is $250,000. Our greatest need is for housing and affordable housing … we are building [almost no] starter homes in Lexington right now.” But development on multi-unit housing is often met with pushback, he said. Concerns from neighborhood associations over property values, traffic and other issues often block developments. “Almost without exception, every town-

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house development is met with pushback,” he said. “It seems for neighborhood associations, the default position on these developments is going to be no.” The city needs significant investments in condos and townhouses, he said, as attractive alternatives for traditional single-family homes. But, fighting to get those multi-unit dwellings approved only serves to drive up the cost, he said. “Developers face significant hurdles in getting those projects approved,” he said. “And there are costs associated with those fights, like hiring attorneys. There’s significant expense attached to the process.” Housing growth can lead to job growth, he said. “For a vibrant city and community, you need controlled growth to attract employers,” O’Neill said. “Well-managed growth is attractive for the city.” The area is growing commercially as well, Atkins said. “We continue to get quite a bit of interest from companies coming out of COVID,” he said. “Land is available to companies. It’s how they use the land that’s the issue.” The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on how land will be used, Atkins said. Changes in how people shop has changed the need for retail land use. Atkins pointed to

a new Amazon development as evidence of that. Located on 45-acres that used to be part of the Lexmark campus, the facility provides last-mile service, as well as serves as a service center for the company’s electric car fleet. As consumers switch to online shopping, warehouses and delivery centers such as that one are more needed than retail space, he said. The issue facing Lexington, said Gina Greathouse, executive vice president of economic development with Commerce Lexington, is the shortage of land for commercial use. “There are very few sites that are available for light industrial,” Greathouse said. “I market the region, and not just Lexington. There are lots of projects that will go to the surrounding counties.” A land swap between the city and the University of Kentucky would open up 200 acres of land for development, Greathouse said, but to make it usable, the city would have to put in the infrastructure necessary to attract businesses. Greathouse estimated the land in Coldstream Park, off Georgetown Road near interstates 64 and 75, would not be ready for commercial use for another three years. “I think it will make a big difference, once that land is ready,” she said. “Bringing in light industrial businesses will bring in jobs. Currently, businesses are looking outside of Lexington to locate to.” BL

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BizList

Please email questions regarding our BizLists to Sharon Metz at sharon.metz66@gmail.com.

Real Estate Law Firms Local companies listed by number of real estate lawyers on staff

Rank

Firm Name Address Phone Website

Real Estate Lawyers in Lexington Office/ Across All Offices

Number of Partners/ Associates/of Counsel/ Paralegals in Lexington Office

January 2022

Main Practice Areas

Managing Partner(s) in Lexington Office/ Year Founded Locally/ Total Number of Offices

Stoll Keenon Ogden PLLC 300 W. Vine St., Ste. 2100 Lexington, KY 40507 (859) 231-3000 www.skofirm.com

12/ 33

29/ 16/ 7/ 9

Zoning; rezoning; planning; variances; conditional uses; subdivisions and annexation; acquisition; development and disposition; office; retail; warehouse and industrial leasing for landlords and tenants; representation of lenders and borrowers in financing real estate transactions; shopping center; office and industrial park; and planned unit developments; local counsel assistance in multi-state transactions; construction lending documentation for lenders and representation of borrowers; construction contracts; negotiation and documentation; title examinations and title insurance; real estate and commercial loan workouts and restructuring; eminent domain representation for landowners; utilities and governmental bodies; state and local financial incentives; including loans; grants and credits; for business and industrial expansions; relocations and developments

Richard Nunnelley/ 1897/ 5

Wyatt, Tarrant & Combs, LLP 250 W. Main St., Ste. 1600 Lexington, KY 40507 (859) 233-8012 www.wyattfirm.com

10/21

Real estate development; financing; and transactions; construction; leasing; mortgage lending; title insurance; zoning and land use

J. Mark Burton (Partner)/ 1985/ 5

Dentons Bingham Greenbaum 300 W. Vine St., Ste. 1200 Lexington, KY 40507 (859) 231-8500 www.dentons.com

8/ 15

13/ 4/ 3/ 2

Finance and lending; development — commercial and industrial; land use and zoning; leasing – commercial and industrial; title insurance claims; real estate and land use disputes and litigation; solar; mineral; time and oil/gas leases and transactions; affordable housing and tax incentive credits; commercial creditor’s rights and foreclosures; commercial leases and evictions

P. Brandon Gross (Managing Partner) 1978/ 6

Rose Grasch Camenisch Mains PLLC 326 S. Broadway Lexington, KY 40508 (859) 721-2100 www.rgcmlaw.com

7/ 7

7/ 3/ 2/ 3

Commercial real estate purchases; sales; and exchanges; zoning and land use planning; commercial real estate lending; including construction lending; representing both lenders and borrowers; commercial leasing for both landlords and tenants; real estate loan workouts and restructurings; real estate disputes and litigation; real estate development; title insurance and escrow services; 1031 exchanges; including qualified intermediary services; mineral acquisitions; divestitures; ventures; and financings; construction contracting and dispute resolution; condominium law; syndications and securities offerings for real estate investments

Dan M. Rose, Esq./ 2015/ 1

Embry Merritt Womack Nance, PLLC Chase Tower 201 E. Main St., Ste. 1402 Lexington, KY. 40507 (859) 543-0453 www.emwnlaw.com

7/ 7

4/ 7/ 5/ 5

Commercial and residential real estate closings; condemnations; foreclosures; development; leasing; title insurance; construction; corporate formation; and real estate litigation

Darren Embry/ 2011/ 3

Stites & Harbison, PLLC 250 W. Main St., Ste. 2300 Lexington, KY 40507 (859) 226-2300 www.stites.com

6/ 16

32/ 6/ 4/ 4

Commercial finance; community development; affordable housing and headquarters relocation; conservation easements; gaming; health care — real estate; hemp industry; land use and zoning; manufacturing; public private partnerships (P3); real estate and land use litigation; real estate development and finance; real estate general practice; sports and entertainment; sustainability and emerging technology

Cassidy Rosenthal (Lexington Office Executive Member)/ 1832/ 11 (6 states)

McBrayer, PLLC 201 E. Main St., Ste. 900 Lexington, KY 40507 (859) 231-8780 www.mcbrayerfirm.com

6/ 6

16/ 15/ 4/ 3

Residential real estate; commercial real estate; planning and zoning; creditors’ rights and foreclosures; commercial developments; residential and commercial leases; contract negotiations; real estate litigation

Mary Estes Haggin/ 1963/ 2

Kinkead & Stitz PNC Tower 301 E. Main St., Ste. 800 Lexington, KY 40507 (859) 296-3600 www.ksattorneys.com

4/ 4

13/ 6/ 1/ 7

Commercial; landlord/tenant/leases; planning and zoning; residential; 1031 QI transactions; litigation; misc.

Robert Stitz, Jr. and Thomas M. Todd/ 1997/ 1

Frost Brown Todd 250 W. Main St., Ste. 2800 Lexington, KY 40507 (859) 231-0000 www.frostbrowntodd.com

3/ 39

14/ 12/ 2/ 1

Commercial real estate acquisitions; sales; development; leasing and finance with an emphasis on multifamily; retail; industrial; office; healthcare and equine properties; obtaining land use and zoning entitlements; the issuance or title insurance policies and curing of title defects; and prosecuting litigation and other disputes arising from real estate

Christina M. Sprecher (Real Estate Practice Group Leader), Wade H. Jefferson, IV, (Member, Lexington real estate team/ Louisville, KY, Cincinnati, OH/ 1910/ 14

Dinsmore & Shohl LLP Lexington Financial Center 250 W. Main St., Ste. 1400 Lexington, KY 40507 (859) 425-1000 www.dinslaw.com

3/ 36

23/ 19/ 7/ 7

Real estate; acquisitions and dispositions; corporate facilities; development and zoning; eminent domain and valuation; financing and economic incentives; leasing and property management; mineral rights; real estate construction; tax credits; affordable housing; and economic development

Grahamm Morgan (Lexington Managing Partner)/ WND/ 29

Fowler Bell PLLC 300 W. Vine St., Ste. 600 Lexington, KY 40507 (859) 252-6700 www.fowlerlaw.com

3/ 3

1/ 2/ 1/ WND

Residential real estate; commercial real estate; title insurance; homeowner and community associations; landlord/tenant representation; real estate litigation; foreclosures; receivership; real estate acquisition; lease negotiations; development & subdividing; sales and exchanges

Mary Porter McKee/ 1847/ 1

TIE

4 TIE

TIE

9 TIE

Source: Information obtained from Business Lexington Survey, company representatives and company websites, Fayette County commercial real estate companies listings and Commerce Lexington business sources. Other companies may have been eligible but did not respond to requests for information.

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BizList

Please email questions regarding our BizLists to Sharon Metz at sharon.metz66@gmail.com.

Commercial Real Estate Management Companies Local companies listed by rentable square footage managed

Rank

Company Name Address Phone Website

Local Rentable Sq. Ft. Managed 2021

Top Local Official

January 2022 Principal in Charge of Property Management

Property Managers on Staff

Local Properties Managed or Number of Properties

The Webb Companies 250 W. Main St., Ste. 3000 Lexington, KY 40507 (859) 253-0000 www.thewebbcompanies.com

4,843,346

R. Dudley Webb (Chairman), Woodford Webb (President), Ron Tritschler (CEO & Senior Legal Counsel), Carter Miller (Principal Broker)

Chris Hooten, Clay Sizemore, Lucas Michel

159 properties owned and/ or managed

CRM Companies 145 Rose St. Lexington, KY 40507 (859) 225-3680 www.crmco.com

4,774,357 *

Craig Turner

Zedtta Wellman, Megan Walsen

49+ HOA’s, COAs, Firebrook, Griffin Gate, Historic Lexington Courthouse, Walnut Hill and more

NAI Isaac 771 Corporate Drive, Ste. 500 Lexington, KY 40503 (859) 224-2000 www.naiisaac.com

3,745,456

Al Isaac (President)

47 properties, Chase Towers, Corp Plaza, Lexington Business Center, Bryant Rd Industrial, Chinoe Center, Newtown Business Center

Anderson Communities 1255 Providence Place Pkwy., Ste. 250 Lexington, KY 40511 (859) 231-0099 www.andersoncommunities.com

2,980,503

Dennis Anderson

Brian T. Hunt

26 properties owned and managed

The Gibson Company 1050 Monarch St., Ste. 200 Lexington, KY 40513 (859) 224-8833 www.thegibsoncompany.com

1,320,551 *

Doug Gibson, Billy Smith, Kevin Verhoven

Billy Smith, Kevin Verhoven

65 properties, including Chevy Chase Place, Monarch Plaza Office Condos, Melbourne Plaza, Pasadena Plaza, Mist Lake Plaza

Turner Development 2464 Fortune Drive, Ste. 100 Lexington, KY 40509 (859) 977-0820

1,299,589

Ron Turner, Troy Turner, Daren Turner

Kim Davis

39 properties

Switzer Development 811 Corporate Drive, Ste. 303 Lexington, KY 40503 (859) 223-5353 www.switzerdev.com

1,284,177

Ron Switzer

Ben Hammack

36 properties

SVN Stone Commercial Real Estate 300 E. Main St., Ste. 220 Lexington, KY 40507 (859) 264-0888 www.svnlex.com

1,222,169

Matt Stone, CCIM, SIOR, MBA

Shaun Cook

27 properties

Coleman Group, LLC 710 E. Main St., Ste. 130 Lexington, KY 40502 (859) 255-8855 www.colemangroup.net

761,488

Bob Cole (President)

Lynn Pearson

11 properties

Haymaker Commercial Real Estate 3120 Wall St., Ste. 300 Lexington, KY 40513 (859) 296-9696 www.haymakercompany.com

723,660 *

Tim Haymaker

Fred Fiscus

20 properties

Greer Companies 100 W. Main St., Ste. 600 Lexington, KY 40588 (859) 269-1966 www.greercompanies.com

626,458

Lee Greer, Phil Greer

Tim Tipton

61 properties, owned or managed

CBRE, Inc. 6060 Dutchmans Lane, Ste 100 Louisville, KY 40505 (502) 429-6700 www.cbre.com

625,838

Bruce Wibbels (Director, Property Management)

4 local properties managed

Langley Properties Company 300 W. Vine St., Ste. 2200 Lexington, KY 40507 (859) 253-2255 www.langleyproperty.com

593,130

Scott Davidson

The Mall at Lexington Green, 300 West Vine

Schrader Commercial Properties 444 E. Main St. Lexington, KY 40507 (859) 288-5008 www.schradercommercial.com

394,036

James M. Schrader (President)

James M. Schrader (Property Manager)

28 properties

BC Wood Properties 321 Henry St. Lexington, KY 40508 (859) 335-9663 www.bcwoodproperties.com

340,094

Brian Wood (Founder & CEO)

Brian Wood

1 property, Eastland Shopping Center

Silvestri Real Estate 444 E. Main St., Ste. 102 Lexington, KY 40507 (859) 263-2300 www.silvestrirealestate.com

225,148

Ken Silvestri (Principal Owner-Broker), Brandon Cutwright (President)

Ken Silvestri

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BizList

Please email questions regarding our BizLists to Sharon Metz at sharon.metz66@gmail.com.

Architecture Firms Local firms listed by number of architects in local office

Rank

Firm Name Address Phone Website

January 2022

Number of Architects in Local Office/ Number of Staff

Services

Notable Projects

Top Local Official(s)

Headquarters Location/ Year Founded

Omni Architects 212 North Upper St. Lexington, KY 40507 (859) 252-6664 www.omniarchitects.com

12/ 5

Architecture, interior design, master planning

University of Kentucky Gatton Student Center; BCTC Science Education Center; EKU New Science Building; University of Kentucky Chemistry-Physics Building Renovation; Lexington Public Library Northside Branch; GCTC Center for Advanced Manufacturing; Bullitt County Central Library; MCTC Advanced Manufacturing Center; NKU Student Union

Eric Zabilka, AIA, CID, LEED AP

Lexington, KY/ 1975

RossTarrant Architects 101 Old Lafayette Ave. Lexington, KY 40502 (859) 254-4018 www.rosstarrant.com

11/ 30

Architecture, interior design, civil engineering and landscape architecture

STEAM Academy (Fayette County Public Schools); Kentucky Proud Park (University of Kentucky); George Rogers Clark High School Campus (Clark County Schools)

Jeffrey C. Stivers, AIA, LEED AP

Lexington, KY (only office)/ 1970

Sherman Carter Barnhart Architects 2405 Harrodsburg Road Lexington, KY 40504 (859) 224-1351 www.scbarchitects.com

11/ 46

Architecture, interior design, civil engineering, landscape architecture, structural engineering

Asbury University Collaborative Learning Center; Oldham County Judicial Center; Bath County Judicial Center; Bardstown City Schools Elementary; Louisville Metro Housing Authority; Beecher Terrace Neighborhood Revitalization; Russell County Middle School; 14 new residence halls (UK); The Cornerstone and Parking Structure (UK)

Mike Smith, AIA, LEED AP

Lexington, KY/ 1979

EOP Architects 201 W. Short St., Ste. 700 Lexington, KY 40507 (859) 231-7538 www.eopa.com

10/ 16

Architecture, interior design, sustainable design, historic restoration, feasibility studies, programming planning

Central Bank Center/Rupp Arena Renovation and Expansion, Lexington, KY; Kentucky International Convention Center, Louisville, KY; Shriners Hospitals for Children, Lexington, KY; Horse Soldier Bourbon Distillery, Somerset, KY; Lexington Senior Center, Lexington, KY; UK Lee Todd, Jr. College of Pharmacy/BioTech Building, Lexington, KY; Eastern Kentucky University New Martin Hall, Richmond, KY; Southland Christian Church, Lexington, KY

Rick Ekhoff, AIA, LEED AP; Richard Polk, Jr, AIA, LEED AP

WND/ 1981

JRA Architects 3225 Summit Square Place, Ste. 200 Lexington, KY 40509 (859) 252-6781 www.jrarchitects.com

9/ 9*

Architectural, interior design, planning

Jacobs Academic Science Building University of Kentucky; Ecofibre; Paducah Innovation Hub; Hermitage Farm; Alice Lloyd College Campus Center; Baptist Health Endoscopy Unit

D. Robert Deal, AIA

WND/ 1946

CMW Architects & Engineers 249 E. Main St., Ste. 1000 Lexington, KY 40507 (859) 254-6623 www.cmwaec.com

8/ 16

Architecture, interior design, landscape architecture, civil engineering

Baptist Hospital, Hamburg Site Development; Kentucky Horse Park; Robert Stephens Courthouse Plaza Versailles Police Department; Bourbon County Sports Park; Saint Joseph, Women’s Hospital; Elizabethtown City Hall Renovation

Darendo Watkins (President)

WND/ 1982

Tate Hill Jacobs Architects 346 E. Main St. Lexington, KY 40507 (859) 252-5994 www.thjarch.com

3/ 3

Architectural design, renovation and adaptive reuse, feasibility studies, and interior design

Frederick Douglass High School; Locust Trace AgriScience Center; Lyric Theatre & Cultural Arts Center; Pam Miller Downtown Arts Center; Tates Creek High School

Margaret Jacobs, Katrina Littrell, Sabrina Oaks (Principals)

WND/ 1975

Gibson Taylor Thompson Architecture & Design 176 N. Mill St. Lexington, KY 40507 (502) 424.0032 www.gibsontaylorthompson.com

3/ 7*

Full architectural services in all phases, planning, project management, historic preservation

Ashford Acres Event Venue Barn and Historic Renovation, Cynthiana, KY; Goodfellas Pizza Corporate Headquarters, Lexington, KY; Frank & Dino’s Restaurant, Lexington, KY; Battle Row Office Building, Lexington, KY; multiple high-end residential commissions ranging from custom homes to historic renovations and additions, Lexington, KY/Louisville, KY/Austin, TX

Baron Gibson, Darren Taylor, Vincent Thompson (Principals)

Lexington, KY; Austin, TX/ 2016

Wilmes & Associates Architects 535 W. Second St., Ste. 201 Lexington, KY 40508 (859) 233-4989 www.wilmesarchitects.com

3/ 2

Architectural design, planning and programming, renovation and adaptive reuse, site design, feasibility studies, and project management

City Center penthouses; Ashland Plaza; ATS office building; Spendthrift breeding facility; Godolphin at Jonabell Farm; UK Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority house; People’s Park (Hazard, KY); more than 30 transitional facilities nationally for Dismas Charities

Thomas Wilmes, AIA (Founder and Principal)

Lexington, KY/ 1984

Morris Workshop Architects 151 N. Eagle Creek Drive, Ste. 105 Lexington, KY 40509 (859) 300-3745 www.morrisworkshop.com

2/ 2

Pre-design, programming, feasibility studies, conceptual design, construction documents, facility assessments

Studios180 @ MLK; Maker’s Mark Lab Building; Aloft – Clarksville, IN; Doubletree by Hilton – Dublin, OH; Advantage Linen Headquarters, Sarasota Polo Club – Sarasota, FL

Bobby Morris (Founder and Principal)

WND/ 2016

PRP Architects (POHL ROSA POHL) 620 Euclid Ave., Ste. 301 Lexington, KY 40502 (859) 268-1720 www.prparc.com

1/ 2

Collaborative process toward energy efficient and/or “green” design, renderings, construction oversight

See www.prparc.com

Clive Pohl, AIA (Owner)

Lexington, KY/ 2000

TIE

Source: Information obtained from Business Lexington Survey, company representatives and company websites. Other companies may have been eligible but did not respond to requests for information. Key: *= Previous figures; WND=Would Not Disclose

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BizLexQ&A

Fred Mills and Friends of the Kentucky Theatre Film festivals, concerts, a micro-cinema, café and more new offerings planned as historic theatre prepares to reopen BY MATT WICKSTROM CONTRIBUTING WRITER

huttered since October 2020, the Kentucky Theatre has fallen on hard times recently largely due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Now managed by the nonprofit Friends of the Kentucky Theatre, the group is preparing to reopen the theatre with a revamped business plan and is also looking toward its centennial celebration in October. Rest assured that cherished traditions such as midnight screenings of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” on Halloween will continue, along with new programs and efforts designed to keep the Kentucky a vibrant fixture in downtown Lexington for decades to come. We spoke with longtime theatre manager Fred “Mr. Kentucky” Mills along with Friends of the Kentucky Theatre co-chairs Hayward Wilkirson and Lisa Meek to learn more. When do you expect the theatre to fully reopen to the public? Hayward Wilkirson: Ideally, we’d like to have a big grand reopening after being closed for so long; but, due to COVID still lingering, we don’t feel safe in doing so. That being said, we’re hoping to open in a smaller capacity later this month [January] once we get our projection systems fixed. Right now the sound processors are shot on both of our projectors, leaving us limited on what kinds of films we can show. We can show DVDs and Blu-rays, but virtually all first-run films we can’t. We’re trying to make lemonade out of these lemons, which I think we can do because there’s been over a year’s worth of short films that haven’t come to the Kentucky Theatre or Lexington yet at all. It sounds like you’re planning to keep things small until this fall when, in October, you can hopefully have a bigger celebration to mark the 100th anniversary of the theatre? Fred Mills: Exactly. Like Hayward said, we shouldn’t have any problems finding films to play. However, one big issue has just been getting our audience, which tends to be a bit older, back out to the theatre. Our visitation numbers have been down significantly since the onset of the pandemic, but we’re hoping, with a return to more regular programming, that traffic will improve. The new Spiderman movie just did $83 million in its first weekend at the box office, so it seems like people may be growing more open to returning to movie theatres. Are you planning to offer any programming other than films? Mills: Yes. We also plan on having more

PHOTO BY EMILY GIANCARLO

Kentucky Theatre manager Fred Mills, center, with Friends of the Kentucky Theatre co-chairs Lisa Meek and Hayward Wilkirson.

film festivals and bringing live music back to the theatre, which is something that we were set to partner with the Burl on in early 2020 before the pandemic hit. Their plan was to put on seated shows at the theatre with bigger-name artists that they couldn’t fit inside their much smaller room. Luckily, they’re still interested in exploring a partnership. We hope to have more news on that front soon. Fred, would you say this is the most difficult period the theatre has gone through in your near 60 years working here? Mills: Believe it or not, I don’t think this has been my toughest time at the theatre. In October 1987, a disgruntled employee of a restaurant next to the theatre broke in and set the place on fire. It was a cold and windy night, causing the fire to spread to the whole block. Fortunately, once they cleared the fire, there was very little, if any, structural damage to the theatre. However, everything inside the building from front to back was covered in a thick layer of black ash

from all of the smoke, rendering the theatre inoperable. At the time the owners promised to repair and reopen the theatre, but after months of inaction the building fell further into disrepair. Eventually a bank across the street in charge of several trusts on the land took over the theatre and set out to fix it up. At first there was little progress due to the building’s decrepit state, but eventually Lexington Mayor Scotty Baesler [1982-93] realized how important the theater was to downtown and sought to make it more of a focal point in the area. The theatre reopened in April 1992, close to five years after the fire. We’ve had a good run of almost 30 years from 1992 until having to close in October 2020 due to rising COVID numbers and declining attendance. That’s where Hayward, Lisa and the Friends of the Kentucky Theatre come in. They’ve been instrumental in working toward getting the theatre back on its feet. You just touched on the declining attendance numbers during COVID. In addition to hesitancy, another reason

those numbers have lacked is due to the number of studios releasing their movies to streaming platforms at the same time they hit theatres. How do you plan to counter that? Meek: That’s something we’ve thought quite a bit about. You can stream almost everything from home in your pajamas, so what is it that’s going to get you up and out the door to the theatre? We think part of the solution is specially curated events. One way we plan to do this is by partnering with the University of Kentucky Art Museum to host Q&As, discussion panels and other engaging content around the films we show. The theatre has done similar events in the past that have been a hit. [UK Art Museum Director] Stuart Horodner and the actors themselves aren’t going to come knocking on your doors to tell you about the films, so you’ll have to come on down to find out. You can even wear your pajamas if you’d like. I think of events like these almost like the extras or director cut on a DVD. It’s content that gives me more background on the stories and characters of a film, which I think our audience really appreciates. Another way we’d like to eventually combat theatre fatigue is by building a third micro-cinema, with about 30 seats, that we could use to take risks on films that may be a little more obscure or rare. We’d also like to bring in movies that we’ve missed from the past couple of years due to COVID. We also want to do more short film festivals with three to five films all centering around a certain topic, time frame or underlying theme. We’d further try to engage our audience and tie the films together through specially curated Q&As, discussion panels and other events. We’d love to explore topics from LGBTQ and Black films to romance films, movies set in Kentucky and more — the possibilities are endless! Wilkirson: We’re ambitious for the theatre. We want it to grow in a sustainable way in its second century. One reason we wanted to see the Friends of the Kentucky Theatre slowly transition to a nonprofit structure was we wanted to create an institutional base that didn’t rely on only us. We’re not all going to be here forever, but we want to make sure the theatre survives for another 100 years. In addition to building a micro-cinema, we’d also like to bring a little cafe or wine bar to the theatre. We want to make it a special experience every time you come down to the Kentucky Theatre. We’re also going to introduce a membership program with perks ranging from discounts on admissions and concessions to access to members-only events, discounts to other art houses via the Art House Visiting Member Program, theater tours and more. BL

FEBRUARY 2022

WWW.BUSINESSLEXINGTON.COM

Who’sWho

EMPLOYMENT NEWS AND AWARDS IN OUR COMMUNITY

BROWN

GEORGE

STUCKEY

C. JONES

SIMPSON

GORLA

DENNING

GRAHAM

RUHL

TANNER

DONNELLY

WRIGHT

MULLIS

SCOTT

LOCKABY

LATTA

KEENER

DODD

KOLTAK

ALEXANDER

BOWIE

CALLAWAY

LAWRENCE

BUNCH

MAZURAK

LYON

L. JONES

KLOTTER

McCHORD

LAUB

CHETHIK

MINGIONE

PEDIGO

New Hires & Promotions Lexington Mayor Linda Gorton has named Tiffany Michelle Brown equity and implementation officer and assigned her the task of implementing the recommendations made by the Commission for Racial Justice & Equality, a group the mayor organized in 2020 to identify ways to disrupt and dismantle systemic racism in the community. Stites & Harbison have promoted the following two attorneys as members: Megan George – Lexington office – Construction Service Group; and Taylor Stuckey – Lexington and Louisville offices – Trusts & Estate Planning Group. CHI Saint Joseph Health CEO Anthony Houston, Ed.D., announced that Carmel Jones has been appointed president of the CHI Saint Joseph Medical Group. Rose Grasch Camenisch Mains, PLLC, has announced that attorney Bruce Simpson has joined the firm adding his preeminent zoning and land use experience to the firm’s real estate and litigation practices. The Lexington Herald-Leader has named Lauren Gorla as new managing editor. Gorla is currently senior editor at the Ledger-Enquirer in Columbus, Georgia, a post she has held since January 2020. The Lexington-Fayette Urban County Airport Board has announced it has appointed Garyen Denning as chair of the board for

2022. Daniel Mason has been appointed as vice chair and treasurer, and Brian Wells has been appointed as secretary. Blue & Co., LLC, has announced the promotion of Ryan Graham, CPA, is a director in the audit department at its Lexington office. Erin Ruhl, AIA, and Nathan Tanner, AIA, have become associates at Omni Architects. The Lexington Art League has elected Stites & Harbison, PLLC, attorney Katherine Moore Donnelly to its board of directors. She will serve a three-year term. Messer Construction Co. has announced the promotion of Jason Wright to operations vice president. Gordon Mullis has been named the director of compliance, and Cassie Scott has been promoted to vice president, operations manager for WealthSouth. Dinsmore and Shohl LLP has announced Lexington attorney Amanda McFarland Lockaby, commercial litigation, was recently elected to partner within the firm. Attorney Evelyn Latta has joined McBrayer’s litigation group in its Lexington office as an associate. Her practice will focus on the areas of commercial and business litigation and equine law. Davis H. Elliot Company, Inc., a fullservice electrical contractor head-

quartered in Lexington, has promoted Kenny Keener to vice president, operations administration. The Lexington Legends has named Colin Dodd as vice president of sales and business operations; and Michael Koltak as vice president of baseball operations. Oak View Group Facilities, managers and operators of Lexington’s expanded and renovated Central Bank Center, have named Kentucky native Laura Alexander as the facility’s new vice president, convention center sales and operations. The Kentucky Bourbon Festival announced three new board members for 2022. The new members include Jane Bowie, director of innovation at Maker’s Mark; Dan Callaway, vice president of hospitality and product development at Bardstown Bourbon Company; and Cordell Lawrence, chief operating officer at Kentucky Peerless Distilling Co. John Bunch, SIOR of SVN | Stone Commercial Real Estate has achieved the SIOR office designation awarded by the Society of Industrial and Office REALTORS®. SIOR is a Washington, DC-based international professional organization of more than 3,200 commercial real estate professionals whom have earned the coveted SIOR designation. The Kentucky Distillers’ Association announced that Jack Mazurak has joined the nonprofit trade group as director of governmental and regulatory affairs.

WHO’S WHO FOR YOU?

The Mortgage Bankers Association of the Bluegrass has named the following to its 2022 board of directors: Officers: president, Brad Howard, loanDepot, LLC; president-elect, Anna Pitcock, Stockton Mortgage; secretary, Racee Greene, Stockton Mortgage; treasurer, Brad Schooler, Home Town Lenders; past president, Mitch Florence, Guaranteed Rate. Directors: Mat Hulberg, Jett Title; Bryan May, Stockton Mortgage; Ryan McCord, Kentucky Farm Bureau Insurance; Marcie Morris, Kentucky Housing Corp.; Alison Sheshull, Bluegrass Land Title, LLC; Wayne Thompson, CMB, Bankers Mortgage Consulting; Tim Vaughan, Hamilton Home Loans; and Brenda Weaver, CMB, Community Ventures.

recipients of the Diversity, Inclusion, and Sustainability in Nursing Education Leadership Awards presented annually by the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN). FNU also recently received an International Distance Learning Award, presented by the United States Distance Learning Association (USDLA).

George Ella Lyon and Loyal Jones, two icons of Appalachian writing, and James C. Klotter, an awardwinning author and the state historian of Kentucky for more than four decades, have been honored as this year’s inductees into the Kentucky Writers Hall of Fame.

Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) has honored University of Kentucky head baseball coach Nick Mingione with this year’s Jerry Kindall Character in Coaching Award. FCA presents the award each year to the college or high school baseball coach who best exemplifies the Christian principles of character, integrity, excellence, teamwork and service.

Asbury University has announced the following new additions to its marketing and communications department: Jennifer J. McChord has been named vice president of enrollment and marketing, and Abby Laub has been named new director of strategic communications.

Kudos Frontier Nursing University (FNU), located in Versailles, Kentucky, was announced as one of three

Neil Chethik, executive director of the Carnegie Center for Literacy & Learning since 2011, announced that he will retire at the end of March. During Chethik’s decadelong tenure, the nonprofit center doubled its service capacity, providing thousands of Fayette County children with one-on-one tutoring, academic camps and art activities.

Scottsville, Kentucky, farm leader Al Pedigo has received the Thomas Poe Cooper Farm Leadership Award from the University of Kentucky College of Agriculture, Food and Environment. The award recognizes a Kentuckian who exemplifies leadership across the areas of agriculture, 4-H, family and consumer sciences or community and economic development. BL

Submit your company’s recent hirings, promotions, and awards for listing in the Who’s Who section of Business Lexington. Email a press release and photo to info@bizlex.com.

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Business Lexington February 2022

Articles inside

Protecting your business from cybercrime: tips from Z-JAK Technologies CEO and author Jeff Chandler

Sourdough startup: Lexington family turns artisan bread baking into a business

Architecture Firms