What We Do and How We Do It
What is Economic Development today?
Economic development means different things to so many people. This section of the website aims to answer some basic questions often asked about Commerce Lexington’s economic development efforts.
Economic development generally comes in three varieties:
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Business Attraction
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Business Retention and Expansion
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Business Creation
The aim of all three varieties of economic development are to create new primary jobs that pay more than the prevailing wage, increase the amount of income coming into our community from outside its market area, and create greater capital investment in our community. The strategy is to achieve this in a number of diversified industries, thereby diversifying our overall economy. Commerce Lexington’s Economic Development division actively participates in all three core economic development efforts noted above. In the Bluegrass Region, Commerce Lexington and our partners in the Bluegrass Business Development Partnership synergize and facilitate economic development activities, programs, and incentives. Commerce Lexington's key partnerships help to streamline the process for prospective companies, making the process feel seamless, regardless of which incentive, agency, need, or connection is involved. This mission is critical to reduce duplication of efforts and prioritize limited resources for the benefit of our community. For a more detailed explanation of all Commerce Lexington's Economic Development team does, download our ED Brochure.
How do we do it?
Recruiting New Industry Investment in the Bluegrass
Marketing Calendar
Entrepreneurial Support
Existing Business Retention and Expansion
The Future - Where we are headed!
Commerce Lexington and the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government teamed up with Angelou Economics, an economic development and site selection consulting firm from Austin, TX, to revisit and redesign Central Kentucky’s strategic targets and formulate a new economic development strategic plan for Lexington. As part of the process, they held a series of focus groups, interviews and sought public input from citizens and businesses. They have studied the roles of the many area agencies and are in the final phases of review. The sectors on which we focus our efforts, as determined by the study, can be found here.