Winchester Road transformation: Oily garage becomes modern, open, office space.

April 27--Outside on Winchester Road, the traffic surges by -- 50,000 cars a day. And then there's clanking from the railroad track.

Inside, at 780 Winchester Road, the space that was formerly automotive repair and maintenance shop Auto Tech, it's quiet. The ceilings, once a dirty white, are matte black. Conference rooms, offices and cubicles have replaced the multi-car garage space with garage lifts and oil pits, and the smell of petroleum products has faded.

Employees can see out of the energy-efficient windows, but from outside the interior figures are blurred, to preserve privacy. A sliding barn door conceals the building's mechanical systems. Horse art is hung tastefully on the walls.

Where the temperature once hovered around the triple digits, the thermostat now reads a cool 71.

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Griffith-Catlett-Hampton Insurance group, the largest locally owned independent insurance agency in Lexington, used the services of architect Tom Cheek to transform the garage into an office with room for 30 employees as well as a full kitchen. The floors received an extra coat of concrete to level them.

Auto Tech is now located on North Broadway near the Whitaker Bank Ballpark.

Outside, the Winchester Road site is awaiting more landscaping and installation of a new sign for the insurance brokerage.

The transformed business location is not alone on Winchester Road. The corridor is popping with new business. Across Delaware Avenue, the former Big Ass Fans building now houses upscale children's wear Bella Bliss. Across Winchester Road, Koller Warner Construction and Synergy Home share a building now topped with solar panels. A free electric car-charging space is located just outside.

"Delaware's really turning," said Jamie Clark of Synergy Home, last fall. "National's really hot."

In the Delaware Avenue/National Avenue corridor nearby, the International Book Project recently re-opened its shiny storefront and office. Down the street are businesses including Pasta Garage, Pivot Brewing, Cowgirl Attic, Nomi Architecture Design Fabrication and Pomegranate (technically on Lagonda Avenue).

Nearby, at the long-vacant Sonic restaurant location, Waffle House will be opening a restaurant.

Griffith-Catlett-Hampton partner Russell Griffith had said back in October, 2017, that he knew because of his building background that the space could be adapted. Then the brokerage operated out of a building on Thunderstick Drive close to the Winchester Road interstate exchange.

Now, he said, he's only 12 minutes from his home in Griffin Gate off Newtown Pike.

Cheryl Truman: 859-231-3202, @CherylTruman

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