DevelopLex

Commerce Lexington chair Nick Nicholson shares why the 80th Leadership Visit to Des Moines, Iowa gathers Lexington leaders this week to make the city we love even greater.

Did you know Lexington’s largest companies continue to be at the leading edge of building computing infrastructure?

Lexington turns into a walkable city for home football games and great events, like Railbird or Fourth of July.

People blame parking ‘not enough parking’, but no vibrant city has built prioritizing enough parking. All vibrant cities have destinations worth the walk.

Safe, useful, comfortable, and interesting. Miss any one of them and people drive. Hit all four and the parking conversation disappears.

While Railbird this weekend has built incredibly large temporary structures… Red Mile has plans filed for an onsite hotel, 24 trackside townhomes, 212 apartments across a 70 acre mixed use phased master plan.

Blue Grass Airport just announced Future LEX, a ~$500M development program launching over the next five years, with a broader decade-long vision.
-More convenient parking - to the tune of 815 new space!
-Brand new terminal
-Expanded rental car facility
-More ramp space so more early morning flights are in town already
-Ground work for a new FAA tower
-Relocated US Customs for private aviation
Annual enplanements at LEX are projected to nearly double by 2045 and the is getting ahead of it.

Blue Grass Airport just announced Future LEX, a ~$500M development program launching over the next five years, with a broader decade-long vision.
-More convenient parking - to the tune of 815 new space!
-Brand new terminal
-Expanded rental car facility
-More ramp space so more early morning flights are in town already
-Ground work for a new FAA tower
-Relocated US Customs for private aviation

Annual enplanements at LEX are projected to nearly double by 2045 and the is getting ahead of it.

This week we’re Long on the Valley View Ferry; the slowest shortcut in Central Kentuckyand one of the most quietly remarkable pieces of working history in the country.

🕕 Hours: Mon–Fri 6a–6p | Sat–Sun 8a–8p

On February 11, 1785, seven years before Kentucky achieved statehood, the Virginia General Assembly granted a “perpetual and irrevocable” franchise to John Craig, a Revolutionary War veteran who had acquired land along the Kentucky River through a military grant for his service in the American Revolution. Governor Patrick Henry signed the charter himself.
The Valley View Ferry has been crossing the river ever since.

Connects Madison and Jessamine counties via KY-169
Operated as a private enterprise for 206 years across seven different families
Acquired in 1991 by Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government and the counties of Jessamine and Madison for $60,000
Free to ride today, three cars at a time, on the same stretch Daniel Boone, Henry Clay, and Ulysses S. Grant are said to have used
Movie buffs may recognize it from the 1967 George C. Scott film The Flim-Flam Man
Still carrying more than 14,000 passengers every month

Some infrastructure doesn’t need to be replaced. It just keeps moving.

This week’s Long on Lex: Maria’s Kitchen over by Loudon and Broadway.

True Mexican food, real love in every plate, and a lunch buffet that gets you in and out when you’re on the clock.

It’s worth the stop.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Something is shifting in Lexington.

People aren’t just looking for jobs anymore, they want to build something.

Raquel Carter sees it every day. The calls, the questions, the energy from people who are done waiting for a seat at the table and ready to make their own.

A job is great. But you might have a job and create jobs too.

That’s the version of Lexington worth building toward.

LexingtonKY