Valvoline, the Lexington-based global motor oil and lubricant company, broke ground Monday on a new $35 million headquarters on the city’s southeast side.
City officials joined with business and community leaders to celebrate the ground-breaking at the company’s campus near Palumbo Drive and Blazer Parkway.
“This is an exciting day as we begin construction on a modern, world-class facility that will reflect the essence of Valvoline’s iconic 150-year-old brand,” Valvoline President Sam Mitchell said in a statement. “When completed, this new facility will combine Valvoline’s rich legacy of product innovation with an open floor plan, efficient work space design and sustainable footprint.”
The 162,400-square-foot office building is being built for Valvoline’s parent company, Ashland Inc., which plans to lease it. In September, Ashland announced plans to split the company into two, spinning Valvoline off from Ashland, which is focused on specialty chemicals.
Valvoline has operated in Lexington for about 30 years and employs about 600 people locally. The new building is expected to be completed in early 2017, officials said.
“Ashland’s presence in Lexington has always been a vote of confidence in our city’s workforce and quality of life,” Mayor Jim Gray said. “Lexington is a university city that embraces talent, ideas and an entrepreneurial spirit. Ashland is a company that exemplifies those values.”
The company said it had been offered up to $1 million in support of the project by the Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development and the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government. The incentives would need approval council and by the Kentucky Economic Development Finance Authority.
Valvoline estimates that in the past century and a half it has produced 8 billion gallons of oil and has lubricated more than a billion vehicles. Besides lubricating products, Valvoline has had success with its Valvoline Instant Oil Change shops. There are 950 stores nationwide with plans for many more. One third of them are company-owned; the rest are franchised.