Location, location, location, that traditional turn-of-phase favored by real estate agents everywhere, may be the real deal for one Lexington business area that is situated in what some might judge to be an enviable part of town. Fortune Drive, a one-plus mile strip that can be reached from either Winchester Road or Liberty Road, is just a mile or so from both Interstates 75/64 and New Circle Road. That gives it easy access to every part of Lexington, surrounding Kentucky cities and neighboring states.
"You can certainly say that Fortune Drive has very good transportation access in this area," said Gina Greathouse, senior vice president for economic development for Commerce Lexington.
Fortune Drive is a mixed zoning district of light industry, office buildings, warehouses, a few commercial spaces and residential property, primarily condo-miniums.
The first building, totaling 85,000 square feet, opened in 1997 and was built by Ron Turner, owner of Amteck of Kentucky, an electrical contracting company.
"At the time, my office was not far away on New Circle Road," said Turner. "I wanted to get into development so I bought a piece of land on Fortune Drive near the Liberty Road end from local developers Tim Haymaker and Bill Gatton." That land became known as Turner Business Centre North. Various companies occupied the space until about seven years ago when Turner hit the quintessential landlord jackpot. ACS, also known as Affiliated Computer Services, is a Fortune 500 company that provides information technology services and outsourcing solutions to businesses, government agencies and non-profit organizations. ACS rented every square foot of Turner's building and the 700 parking spots and, combined with its other Lexington facilities, is now one of the city's top ten employers with about 2,000 workers.
Turner now owns seven buildings along Fortune Drive, about 325,000 square feet, some of it in another Fortune Drive development called Century Business Center. "My buildings are more than 90 percent full," Turner declared. "I'm lucky. I've been blessed."
The Winchester Road end of Fortune Drive is called the Fortune Business Centre and was planned by developer John Paul Miller of the successful Paul Miller Ford car dealership, located adjacent to the Fortune Drive business strip.
Fortune Drive has other things going for it too. It now brushes up against the back end of Hamburg Pavilion, Lexington's fastest growing shopping area, which has finally pushed out onto Winchester Road. In addition, Liberty Road is being realigned and widened, which will improve the flow of traffic to that end of Fortune Drive. More people are moving to the area as well. A new subdivision of high end homes and luxury estates called Patchen Wilkes has been built on Winchester Road near Fortune Drive and a second subdivision directly across from it, Summerfield, will soon be under construction. That could make the area attractive to business owners, company executives and employees who want to live close to where they work in the Fortune Drive/Hamburg area.
One thing that might be lacking on Fortune Drive is enough basic service businesses like more restaurants or a dry cleaning shop. Despite there being thousands of employees working along this strip of businesses, there are only two small restaurants, and not much else. Turner points out that the quick accessibility of New Circle Road and Hamburg Pavilion businesses allow employees to take care of their errands before or after work or at lunchtime.
One organization that chose to move from downtown Lexington to Fortune Drive was United Way of the Bluegrass, the non-profit that raises money and mobilizes community support for programs and projects for the needy in our region. United Way moved into a previously occupied building late in 2001, welcoming 7,000 square feet of much needed office space for meetings and its 211 call center, plus all of the parking just outside the door. Location was also an important reason. "With the way that United Way covers nine counties in this region of the state (Anderson, Bourbon, Clark, Fayette, Jessamine, Madison, Montgomery, Scott and Woodford), we thought it was a good idea to have easy access to Interstates 75 and 64," said Pam Siemer, Executive Vice President of United Way. "That was certainly a factor for us moving there."
So while real estate experts are quick to remind us that the three most important factors in determining the desirability of a property are "location, location, location," Fortune Drive seems to be one location that turns that worn out phrase into realty.