Lexington today benefits from a strong retail market. Al Isaac, president of Lexington’s NAI Isaac, said that in Lexington’s two major retail corridors, the retail vacancy rate is close to 2 percent to 2.5 percent. That’s impressive.
Of course, Lexington’s retail market does face its challenges. Isaac said that some neighborhood retail centers have vacancy rates in the range of 10 percent or 12 percent.
And the retail market here, as it is across the country, is working through what looks to be a long-term evolution.
“There has been a shifting in the retail market. We are not seeing as many local retailers as we had in the past,” Isaac said. “You will probably see that in any market in the country you look at. A bigger share of the retail pie is going to regional and national retailers. We don’t have so many locals anymore.”
Even with this evolution, though, there are plenty of retail opportunities in Lexington. And the city’s other commercial sectors are doing well, too.
Isaac says that Lexington is a special city. He admits that he’s biased, but he points to the city’s broad-based economy as a reason why it’s done so well after the country’s recession.
As Isaac says, the Lexington economy doesn’t rely on just one or two industries. This gives it the strength it needs to get through the challenging times.
“There are a lot of legs to our economy,” he said. “You can have some areas down or really down and you can still have a solid economy. As long as all those different facets of the economy aren’t hurting at the same time, the economy still has the ability to continue to grow. That keeps our economy more stable than markets that are totally dependent on one industry.”
The University of Kentucky helps, too, bringing flocks of students to Lexington. Retailers, multi-family developers and housing, of course, follow. Then there are the city’s highly ranked medical facilities, both offering treatment and research. This area of the city is experiencing steady growth today as more medical office buildings and freestanding healthcare facilities pop up in Lexington and its suburbs.
The future looks bright for Lexington, too. The city is getting its first Costco in October, part of the Hamburg’s shopping development. The store will include 140,000 square feet of shopping space.
Bayer Properties is building the new The Summit of Lexington outdoor shopping center in the city. It will fill a long-undeveloped property at Man o’War Boulevard and Nicholasville Road. This center will be 500,000 square feet and is expected to open sometime in the fall of 2015.
Another development, CentrePointe, will bring offices, apartments and residential condos to a city block in the middle of downtown Lexington. Plans also call for a luxury hotel, ground-floor retail and restaurants.
“You just look at those developments and you can tell that there is a lot going on,” Isaac said.
