Through the Chamber's Business Innovation Network and other avenues, the LSA leadership hopes to foster homegrown companies as well. The key is to capitalize on the intangibles. Also, when a company is trying to recruit a top-level manager to Lexington, the more opportunities that are available for employing that manager's spouse, the more attractive Lexington will be. Spousal employment is a big deal in economic development right now. Many cities are putting together Trailing Spouses programs, to make sure that companies going after an executive are doing a good job selling to the spouse as well.
Similar details are crucial to locating here in the first place.
But there have been several companies that have located in other states because the land wasn't available in Lexington, and they didn't want to be outside of it. Often it comes down to the personal choices of the company's leadership, and you have to be sensitive to that. Riding coattails That is not to say, however, that the counties and towns surrounding Lexington have any less desirable locales. If anything, the economic development efforts of contiguous areas have served as an example. Every successful city area right now has a regional approach to growth, observes Allen.