BEREA, Ky. (LEX 18) — The Triple Crown Business Park will connect three counties in economic development through building a business park in Berea. We’re taking a deeper look at what the expected impact is for the counties involved.
Right now, there are plans for 14 lots for businesses, with seven smaller lots just over an acre in size, and seven larger, multi-acre lots.
Lexington Mayor Linda Gorton, Madison County Judge-Executive Reagan Taylor, Scott County Judge-Executive Joe Pat Covington, and Berea Mayor Bruce Fraley all mentioned the jobs that will be created by the business park.
The park is located in Berea, which is exciting for Mayor Fraley.
“If young people, if they want to stay here, they're going to have good jobs that they can that they can get when they get out of high school or college, and that excites me,” he said.
But the belief is that Berea jobs will also boost regional growth in the three counties. According to census data, Madison County is the second-fastest growing county in the state. All three of Madison, Fayette, and Scott counties, however, are connected by I-75, and they already work as a regional economy.
“What we see throughout this three county area and really throughout central Kentucky is people commute back and forth from all different counties,” Fraley said. “We have people come from 20 different counties to one of our industries here in Berea.”
“We had very similar job demographics and, and a lot of those kinds of things,” Mayor Gorton said. “We started a couple or three years ago talking about this potential.”
The business park will also bring revenue for the counties. After a 10% allocation fee is paid to the city of Berea, the Madison County, Scott County, and Lexington-Fayette Urban-County governments will each receive 33% of the tax revenue.
“All of our folks are basically shopping in our same areas,” Republican Sen. Jared Carpenter from District 34 said. “We have so many people that are traveling From Berea and Madison County now to work in Scott County and Georgetown at Toyota.”
So, what sort of businesses are expected?
“I think that it would actually attract new business, but also expansions in suppliers for people that are already here in the Berea area and really throughout central Kentucky,” Fraley said. “We have a lot of automotive industry. We have that here with Hyster-Yale and with Astemo Americas where we really think that some of their suppliers will want to locate here closer to the plants that they supply.”
Fraley also sees the opportunity for new industry in the area.
