KW Bluegrass' office at the corner of East High Street and Euclid Avenue. The company relocated to Chevy Chase from Harrodsburg Road last fall.
Keller Williams Bluegrass Realty was founded in Lexington in 2005 by Shirley Hoover DeBoor and 12 additional partners, with Myrna Downing as principal broker.
Locally owned and operated, KW Bluegrass is a franchisee of Austin, Texas-based Keller Williams International and was the first Keller Williams-affiliated real estate company in Kentucky. Today KW Bluegrass has five full-time team members and supports 140 Realtors.
“We are proud to have been a primarily woman-owned business for our first 15 years in operation,” said Kayla Sidney, chief of operations. Michael B. Prather became majority shareholder in 2021, after 14 years as one KW’s top producing sales associates.
Seated, left to right: Kayla Sidney, COO; Kelsey Grecco, MCA; Myrna Downing, principal broker. Standing: Michael B. Prather, owner/proprietor; Chloé Bates, director of marketing and technology.
The company’s office was located on Harrodsburg Road from the beginning until the fall of 2020, when KW Bluegrass moved to the corner of East High Street and Euclid Avenue in Chevy Chase.
“Consumer visibility was top of mind when selecting our new location,” Sidney said. “We’ve been lucky enough to meet some great community leaders and residents in our short tenure in Chevy Chase, due to the great walkability of the area and the gorgeous, front-facing windows that give a glimpse into our ultra-modern space.”
The high-profile location has also housed a half-dozen restaurants over the past seven decades, beginning with the opening of the storied Saratoga Restaurant in the early 1950s.
After several ownership changes, the Saratoga closed for good in the summer of 1995. The building was razed five years later by the new, and current, property owner, Caller Properties. The first restaurant of the new millennium to lease the space was Roy’s East High Diner from 2001 to 2002, in what was called Saratoga Center. Buddy’s Bar and Grill operated in the space from 2003 to 2011, followed by Glenn’s Creek Brewery & Beer Exchange from 2012 to 2014. The Macho Nacho opened in late 2015 and closed three months later. Louie’s Wine Dive served patrons from 2016 to 2019.
“Keller Williams Bluegrass is excited to be the first non-restaurant to inhabit this space since it was established.” —Kayla Sidney
“Keller Williams Bluegrass is excited to be the first non-restaurant to inhabit this space since it was established,” Sidney said.
As a nod to its longstanding history as a restaurant, KW Bluegrass chose to keep the bar in the center of the space and repurpose it as a collaborative workspace. An open floorplan with several multipurpose common areas, meeting rooms and offices complete the design.
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“We heard the story the real estate industry was telling us and opted for a smaller, more sustainable and economic footprint with a reduction in private office space and focusing more on productivity driven collaboration spaces,” Sidney said.
“We couldn’t be more thrilled to be a part of the Chevy Chase community,” said Chloé Bates, KW Bluegrass’s director of marketing and technology. “We love the urban feel of our high-visibility corner, along with walkability to some of Lexington’s favorite restaurants, bars and boutiques.”
She added that the real estate company is looking forward to partnering with other businesses for events, as well as “hosting in-house events for aspiring entrepreneurs.”
For those who have patronized the High Street corner as a restaurant and are curious about its transformation into a real estate office, Sidney said, “we welcome everyone in the community to stop in for a tour.”