Elizabethtown continues downtown transformation with dozens of new businesses and apartments

ELIZABETHTOWN, Ky. (WDRB) — In a few years, Elizabethtown could be almost unrecognizable from what it has been. Pedestrians walking down the sidewalks can hear the sounds of construction. Many of the buildings look completely different than they did just months ago.

Deana Wheeler and her sister, who own Raiment + Boon boutique, have had a front row seat to all the action happening around the city's center square. Wheeler is from Elizabethtown and recently moved her family downtown.

“Growing up, I lived just a few miles away. We would drive through downtown, and there was nothing down here,” she said. “Being able to walk to things that are nearby, I never thought I'd see that in Elizabethtown.”

Elizabethtown Renaissance Associates has developed several buildings in the area and has more under construction and in the planning stages.

“The Newbury Building was there for many years,” Elizabethtown Renaissance Associates Partner Kevin Addington said about a construction site in the middle of the city square. “It was a five and dime store. It had seen better days. It was well-used.”

The building will become two new restaurants and five luxury lofts by spring of 2020.

In the last five years, a dozen new or improved apartments have already come online in downtown, according to Addington. He said roughly 175 new jobs have moved there in that same time, and the number is growing. About 25 new businesses have opened, and 15 are women-owned, which is an all-time high for the downtown community.

“The more business we have, the more people we will have when we come down here,” Wheeler said.

Now that Elizabethtown is on a roll, local developers and investors want to see more locally owned restaurants, more arts and entertainment and more short-term rental properties like Airbnbs downtown.

“The missing piece we are still looking for is arts,” Elizabethtown Renaissance Associates Partner Ben Larue said.

“The more alternative the better,” Addington added.