The transformation is complete for the old Pimlico Apartments on Centre Parkway. Monday saw the official dedication of Centre Meadows, a $15.5M renovation to the Lexington Housing Authority’s apartment complex.
The project is a collaborative effort between the Authority, several other local agencies, and the U-S Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Rental Assistance Demonstration Program. Housing Authority Executive Director Austin Sims says the changes inside and out make the 11-building, 206 unit complex a much more desirable place to live.
"To our clients we have always committed that we will manage, build and renovate apartments that they can be proud of and proud to call home, free of the yesteryear stigma that we live in the projects," Sims said at Monday's dedication ceremony which also included remarks from HUD Deputy Assistant Secretary Lourdes Castro Ramirez.
Single mother Morgan McCutchen, a student at UK, became one of the first residents to move into the renovated units.
"It's almost impossible to raise a family and do the things that need to be done at times. I'm grateful that I have the opportunity to raise my four year old daughter...in a facility that I feel comfortable letting her play outside, letting her get to know the other kids, and then I'm close enough to campus that I can get those rip and runs and do everything I need to do," McCutchen said.
The new apartments are more energy efficient. The Housing Authority pays water and sewage bills, but residents pay gas and electricity bills. The buildings, near Tates Creek Road in southeast Lexington, were built in the late 1970s. The renovation began in March of 2014.