A Wider Perspective & Lexington Park is Booming
Tom Watts has gotten into the habit of taking people for rides down Willows Road and into Pembrooke, the growing new-home community near the St. Mary’s City end of the Lexington Park road.
It’s the latter part Mr. Watts seeks always to emphasize. “This is Lexington Park and it’s doing great.”
Construction of a wide variety of home styles and sizes are being built amid top-drawer rental communities filled with young technology professionals, young families and temporarily located contractors all along the local, rural byway. Willows Road Office Park near Pembrooke already holds a brand new ExtraSpace Storage facility and has approved expansion space for attractive low-profile commercial and office space. Similarly, Willows Run Office Park closer to NAS:Patuxent River already is filled with contemporary office space leased by government contracting industries and also is expanding into a variety of recreational and fitness venues.
The steady growth along Willows Road is echoed all around Lexington Park, Mr. Watts points out. New communities are being built on Indian Bridge Road where Lexington Park blends into Great Mills, which also retains a robust retail district from Blazer’s Construction to the headquarters of Great Mills Trading Post and the still locally owned and operated Dyson’s Building Center.
An appointee to the St. Mary’s County Economic Development Commission and a former member of both the county planning commission and the community development corporation, Mr. Watts says all of these commercial and residential venues are continuing to show economic strength. Progress within the Lexington Park development district will be accomplished by building upon these successes.
Nor are the successes only along the Lexington Park perimeter, Mr. Watts says. He names two of his own tenants in an one story brick office building behind Burger King on Great Mills Road at South Essex . Both businesses launched from that location a decade or more ago and continue to prosper and expand. Ballet Calliente outgrew its space and in collaboration with Mr. Watts was able to move into a facility on St. Andrews Church Road with space constructed specifically for the studio.
Back behind the Burger King, another successful start-up and now long-term tenant, First Command, found their neighbor’s success fortuitous. It was ready to expand as well. Mr. Watts is renovating the space in preparation of opening the wall between the new office and First Command’s original space to accommodate that firm’s success.
“These are two outstanding success stories. Business that began in Lexington Park, have continued for many, many successful years in Lexington Park and are now expanding in Lexington Park. This is a Lexington Park that is doing pretty well in a lot of places,” he said.
