It's a chilly morning on a small plot of long dormant industrial land, but today there's activity. The buzz of construction equipment, the cracking of concrete, and a crowd of around 100 people beginning to gather for the official groundbreaking of The Railyard.
"We're standing on Delaware Avenue, which is over off of Winchester Road and Henry Clay, and it's an industrial street with a great industrial legacy, which is why we chose the name The Railyard," developer Will Hanrahan says. "We're leaning into that with the industrial-inspired design."
And he's had his eye on this spot for a while.
"I live very close by here and drove down Delaware frequently, already knew that it was a great street with Pasta Garage and some great businesses on here," Hanrahan says.
The vision: 32 rental homes, including 12 one-bedroom affordable units reserved for residents earning up to 80 percent of Area Median Income, along with two ground-floor commercial spaces targeted toward local businesses.
It's exactly the kind of infill project Mayor Linda Gorton touts as the most practical way to satisfy multiple community needs. So she, and figures as prominent as Lt. Gov. Jacqueline Coleman, bundled up for the groundbreaking.
"We are also proud to invest $1 million from our Lexington Affordable Housing Fund, another meaningful step toward addressing affordable housing needs right here in our own community," Gorton told the audience Wednesday.
Still, it's a small bite out of a big problem. The city's own estimates show Lexington needs more than 22,000 housing units, across all types, to meet its overall need.