When Connie Minix decided to get out of the car sales business in Lexington ("90 hours a week-no life!"), she wanted to try a new business venture. So, she reverted to something she knew a lot about - food. Minix claims to hail from a family of great cooks, chefs and bakers and wanted to bring to a new business what she calls "that culinary art of the past."
Thus, in 1989, Dottie's Pie Shoppe was born, which morphed into Sweet Magnolia CafÈ and Bakery, now bringing sweet treats, all made from scratch, to the Chinoe Center and its surrounding residential neighborhood. Minix especially enjoys seeing the smiles on peoples' faces when they enter her shop knowing they're going to sink their teeth into a delectable pie or cheesecake. "I go for taste. We're about quality. I don't like to cut corners. It may cost a little more, but I think it's worth it," claims Minix, while standing in her 4,200 square foot bakery and cafÈ.
The Chinoe Center, located on Chinoe Road about a mile south of Alumni Drive in southeast Lexington, is one of the city's rare shopping centers in that it is a retail "island" surrounded by homes, apartments and condos and not located on a busy Lexington street. The Romany Road shopping district across town is another example of these true "neighborhood" service centers.
The Chinoe Center was developed in 1984-85 with a traditional-looking brick design. It features a retail strip in a crescent shape with many of the usual service businesses you would expect and is anchored by a Kroger grocery; a separate structure out in the parking lot housing a liquor store, grill and sub shop; and an office building holding several smaller businesses such as New Horizons Computer Learning Center. Through good years and lean ones, the tenants in the Center hung together and served the neighborhood, which has many affluent residents.
"We're thriving," said Anne Kilcoyne, Sales and Leasing Associate for NAI Isaac. Kroger's arrival in 2002 seemed to trigger a renaissance in the Center. When a Winn Dixie grocery failed and the adjoining Rite Aide drug store closed its doors, Kroger came in and took both spaces and created one larger food store. "Kroger is a fabulous tenant to have," said Kilcoyne.
Following the arrival of Kroger, focus groups were recruited from the surrounding neighborhood and were asked what kinds of foods they wanted to see in the market. "The neighbors actually helped pick the product mix at the store."
Several other prominent businesses have also moved in from other parts of town such as Rossi's, a fine dining restaurant from Chevy Chase; Richard Allen Salon, from the Nicholasville Road-New Circle Road area; and of course Minix's little sweet-tooth emporium, from Southland Drive. Allen says the Chinoe Center offered him the extra space he needed for his hair salon which allowed him to also open a spa on the premises. "I looked all over town for a new business location and settled here. I like this shopping center," he said.
The Center is "doing better today than it has in its lifetime," said Kilcoyne. "We've been at or near 100 percent occupancy for the last seven years. That's never been done here before." That's quite a change from when Minix moved her business here in 1996. She described it then as "nearly deserted, and pretty lonely."
Celebrating his 10th anniversary this month as a business owner in the Chinoe Center is Gerald Baker, who operates Baker Family Chiropractic. Baker received his chiropractic training down in warm Atlanta but heard about Lexington from a chiropractor-friend and checked it out. "I really liked this area. It's beautiful. I also believed this shopping center would grow, and it has. But this is as far north as I want to go," kidded Baker, who, ironically, is a native of Canada.
Chinoe Center is owned by NAI Isaac and managed by one of its subsidiaries. But the real force behind the company is its president, Al Isaac, a Lexington real estate mogul who in the past 20 years has made his company into one of the largest full service commercial brokerage firms in Central Kentucky. NAI Isaac has about eight million square feet of commercial real estate under agreement. His firm also has more than 40 retail properties in its Kentucky portfolio, including the now successful Chinoe Center.
Dan Dickson writes about neighborhood markets for Business Lexington.