LEXINGTON
Keeneland Pledges Funding for Thoroughbred Retirement Facility

The Keeneland Association, Inc. has pledged $25,000 to help launch the Thoroughbred Retirement Facility (TRF) at Blackburn Correctional Center in Lexington. When completed, the Blackburn TRF project will be the largest facility in the country dedicated to the rescue, rehabilitation, retraining and retirement of Thoroughbred racehorses.

The primary goals of the program are twofold. The facility will provide a point of contact for Thoroughbred horses coming off the racetrack who are not suitable for breeding and do not have a home form to which they can retire. These horses will be evaluated to determine if they would be suitable for retraining as pleasure horses or whether they need to be permanently retired to pasture. Secondly, the program will offer vocational training, education and job skill development to adult and youthful offenders in the rehabilitative TRF programs.

The TRF program is made possible through the state's offer of land, labor and resources in connection with the Blackburn facility. Volunteer vets, farriers and other experts have joined to provide the necessary services and education to inmates responsible for the everyday care and upkeep of the horses. The facility, which is visible from I-64, is situated on approximately 100 acres of Bluegrass pastureland now under construction at Blackburn Correctional Complex in Lexington. The program is modeled after similar programs in New York, Florida and Maryland and is expected to house 65-70 former racehorses upon completion.

BULLITT COUNTY
ProLogis Hoping to Open New Warehouse/Distribution Center

ProLogis, a Colorado company that ranks as the country's largest publicly traded owner of distribution centers, is hoping to build a 1.5 million-square-foot warehouse/distribution center in Bullitt County, contingent upon the state's approval of a new regional sewage treatment plant in the area. ProLogis, which already operates six smaller facilities in Jefferson County, has contracted to purchase a 77-acre site near Interstate 65 in northern Bullitt County, but has said the project cannot move forward without the sewage facility.

Economic development officials estimate that the company would employ 1,500 people at the site (with an annual average payroll of $37.5 million), which would make ProLogis Bullitt County's largest private employer. Paul Coomes, a professor of economics at the University of Louisville, calculates that those jobs would, in turn, generate another 2,000 in ancillary employment. Real Estate Briefs

FLORENCE

• Old Time Pottery, a Tennessee housewares and home accessories chain, will open its first Florence location in the space formerly occupied by Builder's Square. Builder's Square closed its Greater Cincinnati stores last year after losing the battle for market share to Lowe's and Home Depot.

LEXINGTON

• Dawahare's department store has opened two new stores in Middlesboro and Glasgow and has store openings planned for Hopkinsville and Murray next month. The expansion gives the Lexington-based company a total of 29 stores across Kentucky, Tennessee and West Virginia.

LOUISVILLE

• Safeco Corp. is reportedly selling its 29-story Citizens Plaza office tower in downtown Louisville. The building, once home to Citizens Fidelity Bank & Trust Company, was owned by Winmar Corp., which Safeco acquired in 1998. In June, Safeco also divested itself of the half-interest Winmar held in Oxmoor Center shopping mall in June by selling that share to co-owner Beargrass Corp.

• The new Louisville Health Sciences Research and Business Park has opened in the former Safetran Systems Corporation building, with MedVenture Technology Corp. as its major tenant. The park is being developed by a quasi-public partnership, the Louisville Medical Center Development Corporation, which consists of Norton Health System, Jewish Hospital HealthCare Services, The University of Louisville Hospital and the UofL Medical School. MedVenture, founded in 1984 as Louisville Laboratories, will receive $1.5 million in relocation and financial incentives from the development corporation to encourage a business plan intended to create 500 high-paying jobs in its new facility.

• Caretenders HealthCorp. has been granted four Certificates of Need (CON) from the state, authorizing it to add new adult day care operations in Elizabethtown, Frankfort, Owensboro and Northern Kentucky. Caretenders has also acquired the assets of the Hardin County Adult Day Care Center in Elizabethtown, which recently moved into a newly-constructed facility.

OWENSBORO

• Owensboro Mercy Health Services has begun construction on a $20 million expansion project that will feature new medical suites for 40 physicians, laboratory services and an outpatient surgery center. The 88,800-square-foot expansion is expected to be completed by next July.

WESTERN KENTUCKY

• Construction has begun on the 4 Star Industrial Park, a 944-acre park that is a joint effort of Henderson, Webster, Union and McLean counties. Though the park is situated on the Henderson-Webster county line, all four counties will share tax revenues when businesses locate there. The land acquisition and infrastructure development for the park has been funded through a state fund set up by coal severance taxes.

WOODFORD COUNTY

• In an effort to preserve its picturesque farm land, the Woodford County Fiscal Court has passed a resolution to seek a state law that would enable the county to utilize a portion of the state sales tax on stallion fees to purchase development rights for farmland. If passed, such a law would permit the county to pay farm owners who agree not to sell their land for development.

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