LEXINGTON, Ky. — The Site Selection Magazine recently announced that the greater Lexington region ranked in the top 10 nationally for tier two metros for economic development activity. A tier two metro has a population between 200,000 and one million.
Commerce Lexington does several things that include promoting economic development and providing programs to strengthen existing businesses. It works with several entities, like city and state government officials and education leaders.
“We have 100 companies that we specifically go out and sit down with and we build a relationship so that they’re very open about what their opportunities are, what their challenges are but we get to know them, and they trust us and so they’ll share challenges, weaknesses that they may have and then we can help them overcome those,” said Bob Quick, Commerce Lexington’s president and CEO.
It’s the collaborative efforts of the organization that have contributed to the greater Lexington region receiving a ranking of 10th in total economic development projects and seventh in projects per capita in 2023, according to Site Selection Magazine’s annual report of economic development activity.
“When you get in the top 10, when you become No. 7, like when you base our projects per capita, that just says an awful lot about how we do work together within each community throughout the region,” said Quick.
Third-party logistics company, Longship, has an annual membership with Commerce Lexington. The company connects its customers to carriers that transport fresh, frozen, and dry shipments across the U.S. and some areas of Mexico and Canada. Longship employs over 150 people, about 120 in Lexington alone.
“Longship’s roots are right here in the Commonwealth, so we look forward to continuing to open up new job opportunities and to reinvest back into the Lexington community,” said Courtney Parker, the chief of staff at Longship.
The work for Commerce Lexington is ongoing. The organization has been working on a regional competitiveness plan. This is a collaboration between nine Kentucky counties to address things like the labor force, shovel-ready sites, ready-to-occupy buildings and wages.