AMR hosts events and conferences for many of its full-service clients in Lexington, Kentucky. Lexington, known as the ‘Horse Capital of the World’, is located in the heart of the Bluegrass Region and offers many benefits to any organization desiring its headquarters within a thriving, growing business community. Lexington is known for its diverse economy, strong workforce, quality education system, great healthcare, and a wide range of higher education options. Lexington, and its surrounding areas, is also home to over 90 non-profit organizations. Additional information about Lexington can be found on the links below:

• Commerce Lexington
• Lexington Convention and Visitors Bureau
• Keeneland
• Kentucky Horse Park
• University of Kentucky

Articles about Lexington, Kentucky:

• Lexington ranks fifth on Forbes List, Recognized as One of the Best Places for Business and Careers
• Lexington Ranked Third Least-Costly Metro Area

As seen in the Lexington Herald-Leader on April 10, 2008:

Lexington ranked third least-costly metro area

By Jim Jordan
Lexington is the third least-costly mid-sized metro area in the nation, according to a new study by KPMG LLC. Only Shreveport, La., and Montgomery, Ala., are less expensive than Lexington among 14 metros with 100,000 to 500,000 in populations, the audit and tax firm said. "Lexington's central location between the Northeast and Southeast regions gave it an advantage with the lowest transportation costs in the category, combined with the lowest property tax costs and low electricity costs," KPMG said Wednesday.

Bob Quick, president of Commerce Lexington, said Lexington has enjoyed a series of high rankings in the annual KPMG study. "A lot of businesses are looking at the quality of life (in a metro area), but they are also looking at the cost of living," Quick said. KPMG is known for its "very thorough reviews of costs. They are consistent year in and year out in how they pick their communities," he said. "KPMG is well-respected. It gives lots more credibility. For us, I think it is the third year in a row (at No. 3). Consistency does pay in economic development." KPMG said its 2008 Competitive Alternatives study measured 27 cost components that are most likely to vary by location, including labor, taxes, real estate and utilities. "The study enables companies to perform a 'quick scan' of jurisdictions to determine which can offer a cost-competitive business environment," the firm said.

Please visit Kentucky.com for article archive information.

As seen in Business Lexington on April 5, 2008

Lexington Ranks Fifth on Forbes List, Recognized as one of best places for Business and Careers

By Susan Baniak
Felt a sudden jolt under your desk chair lately?

According to the April 7 edition of Forbes magazine, Lexington has launched into the top five Best Places for Business and Careers in the country, from a ranking of 30th in 2007.

If you didn’t feel any seismic shift in the local business climate, you’re not alone. Still, the ranking offers some assurance that Lexington’s economy and its business environment are moving in the right direction, said Bob Quick, president of Commerce Lexington.

“We are doing, and have been doing for a number of years, a lot of the right things,” Quick said. “You’re not going to take everything we want to reverse or everything we want to be the top five in and change it overnight, but if you look at the key factors, ... very aggressively we are going in the right direction.”

So how is Lexington progressing in terms of those key factors?

A closer look at the Forbes statistical comparisons shows that, among the 200 metropolitan areas included in the survey, Lexington did not break the top 30 for any of the nine individual economic and social factors that comprise the overall rankings. In fact, we ranked in the bottom half of the pack in a few categories, including culture and leisure activities, income growth and job growth. However, in the half-empty, half-full world of economic statistics, all of the top-five cities surveyed showed similar discrepancies in their strengths and weaknesses, and Lexington’s rankings across the board are what landed it among the best in the country. Specifically, the city’s rankings in multiple key business measures, including educational attainment, the cost of doing business, the cost of living, and its local four-year colleges, have all been rated well within the country’s top 50 in the survey, and consistently so. Among the top five in the 2008 survey, Lexington had the highest ranking for both its colleges and its overall cost of living and the third highest ranking for its cost of doing business and educational attainment levels. Take that, fourth-ranked Des Moines.

“(Lexington has) very competitive business costs relative to the rest of the country, at 10 percent below the national average. Their cost of living is 12 percent below the national average,” said Kurt Badenhausen, associate editor at Forbes. “Also, 30 percent of the adult population has a college degree, which compared to the rest of the country at 25 percent is also really good.”

But Badenhausen isn’t saying anything that most in the local business community don’t already know — namely that Lexington is a relatively inexpensive and well-educated community. This year, however, it was Lexington’s least favorable rankings that made the difference in the city’s launch to the top five. The city’s job growth improved from 120th to 110th. Lexington’s net migration rate also bumped up 16 places, from 83rd to 67th. And Lexington’s income growth, which came in dead-last at 200th in 2007, climbed to 125th in the 2008 survey. The Forbes survey tracks the five-year annualized growth in all of these categories, which suggests that Lexington is not only improving in these areas in terms of recent estimated growth but also finally putting behind it some of the baggage of slow and even negative growth early in the decade, Badenhausen said.

“We are just very fortunate that the companies that we have recruited to this community, they are growing, they have done well,” Quick said. “Some of that’s luck of the draw, but on the other hand, we have a relationship with them where they are very open with us about their needs and challenges, and it’s worked well.”

But is Lexington’s swift improvement in areas such as income growth sustainable?

A downturn in the economy will challenge any community, Quick said, but Lexington has made some important changes in its economic development process that Quick expects will keep the city competitive. Specifically, the realignment of Lexington’s economic development process by the city, Commerce Lexington and the University of Kentucky have boosted Lexington’s ability to serve local business needs, particularly for growing companies in high-income technology industries.

The growing level of venture capital and start-up investment as reported this year by the Venture Club is also a good measure of potential job and income growth in the future, Quick said.

That kind of investment tends to build on itself, as successful tech businesses and their leaders spawn more spin-offs and new ventures, Quick said.

“How quickly will our income grow? I don’t know, but I think it will go up in the foreseeable future, unless we get hit hard by the economic downturn,” Quick said.

But while some fast-growing communities are prone to sharp spikes and drops in their economic picture, Lexington historically has weathered both good and bad times more steadily than other cities, Quick pointed out. The key, in his opinion, is to stay focused on creating not just any jobs, but the right ones for the community.

“If we stay committed to what we’re doing with the leadership that we have, both public and private, we will continue to see the right barometers moving forward,” Quick said.

Please visit smileypete.com for article archive information. Lexington photos courtesy of the Lexington Convention and Visitors Bureau