A Rendering of the New Beaumont Townhomes
As one of the last undeveloped parcels of land off New Circle Road at Harrodsburg Road in Lexington, the Beaumont farm property began to be developed in the early 1990s. Now, more than two decades later, and following the recent economic drop-off, the last parcels are finally being transformed.
Beaumont Park Townhomes is under construction in the circle, located in the middle of the development. Phase I calls for 32 townhomes and Phase II includes 46 more.
“We enjoy coming in and creating a sense of community. We look at this as vacant land in the middle of a thriving community, and so we’re trying to complete it. We’re excited to do that,” said Rebecca Burnworth, vice president and director of development for the Andover Management Group, which is building the townhomes.
The original owners of this parcel of land in the circle completed 21 townhomes before the economy forced them to abandon plans for further construction.
“It was an unfortunate time because the market dropped out, and as a result, that parcel has been empty for a long time. Our effort is to complete it and give it a place in the community,” said Burnworth. “Symbolically, that’s important to us.”
Beaumont Centre is already a busy neighborhood with four banks, grocery shopping, many restaurants, several salons, the YMCA, post office and library branches, Kentucky Blood Center, several health-care facilities, parks, an amphitheater and more. But those last residential parcels in the neighborhood’s circle, which represent about one-third of the “pie,” were glaringly vacant.
Prices for the townhomes start in the $250,000 range and go up to the low to mid $300,000 range before upgrades are added. The square footage of these townhomes range from 1964 sq.ft., to 2749 sq.ft.
“With the floor plans, we really tried to keep the spaces modern and light-filled, the way people want to live,” Burnworth explained. “There are nice, big, open spaces, and I’m really proud of that. There are generous-sized bathrooms with big walk-in showers, above and beyond what you normally find.”
Burnworth said the great room, dining room, kitchen and a breakfast area are generally open to each other. There is also a floor plan with both master and junior suites and upstairs family lofts for media watching, gaming or family gatherings.
Burnworth, an architect by trade, came on board at Andover Management Group to get several of their projects up and running. She communicates with the land planner, architect and marketing people who are branding the community and deals with the city on the proper permits.
“I’m having a blast,” Burnworth said. “I think [Andover Management] is a great group of people who are interested in really good design.”
Mike Hall, vice president of construction for Andover Management Group, said the commercial space at Beaumont has been filling in nicely over the years and “hopefully with this piece of the pie, it will be completed.”
Hall is impressed with the vision of the Beaumont developers, saying they were respectful of what constitutes a good residential and commercial mix.
“A lot of people who are not from Lexington are moving there, and many core people from the city are, too,” he said. “They realized it’s a well-developed area.”
Andover Management Group and its construction company recently tackled another very challenging project in Lexington, one that didn’t just involve building state-of-the-art homes from scratch. The company renovated the crumbling Sonnet Cove apartment complex located just inside New Circle Road near Richmond Road. The apartments were constructed in the 1970s and condemned in recent years.
“It was a 330-unit apartment complex, and we demolished six building with 135 of the units. That left 195 units that we completely renovated,” remarked Hall. The job included all new mechanical and electrical systems from the ground up, everything but the studs. Each remaining building also got a new roof and siding.
“It was the only way to do that complex. It had no life left in it to put ‘lipstick’ on,” Hall continued. “The services were ruined, there was sewage backed up in the basement, there were mold issues and the roof on each building leaked terribly. The city is fortunate that the owners bought the property and remodeled it to the caliber you see today.”
With the extra space from the building demolitions, Andover Management Group is building Lakewood Harbor Townhomes. Framing work began a few weeks ago. Seven new townhomes, priced in the half-million-dollar range, are going up, with seven more planned in the near future. The shoreline has been cleared of brush and other debris to give homeowners an unobstructed and coveted view of Reservoir number 2.