Nicholasville

On the northern end of Nicholasville, just south of Lexington, Brandon Crossing is a mixed-use community with mostly apartments and retail shopping. Residents here live in a pocket of local shops and chains with proximity to Lexington, 6 miles north, and Nicholasville, 6 miles south. "We're close to a lot of things that make Kentucky special, like the horse farms and distilleries," says Executive Director of Visit Jessamine Charla Reed. "You can experience Kentucky and then come home and have a cigar at Jake's Cigar Bar and go golfing or go to a horse farm here. You have the whole unique Kentucky experience right here, along with the small-town charm that you can't find anywhere else." Brannon Crossing has a mix of apartments, condos and single-family homes. This small community is continuing to grow and develop, with most of the area’s homes built after 2020. This modern architecture lends itself to relatively high price tags compared to the Lexington average, with an average home value nearly $200,000 more than that for the metro area. New traditional and Craftsman homes line the streets, with single-family homes featuring three to five bedrooms and sitting on small lots with minimal yard space. For a three-bedroom home, prices typically range from $450,000 to $550,000. The neighborhood also has multiacre land listings available for those looking for residential development projects. The market in Brannon Crossing moves quickly, with homes selling after an average of 17 days, less than half the national average of 44. Students in Brannon Crossing attend Jessamine County Public Schools, starting with preschool and kindergarten at Jessamine Early Learning Village, which receives a B grade from Niche. They continue to Brookside Elementary School and East Jessamine Middle School, both of which get B-minuses, before proceeding to the B-rated East Jessamine High School. East Jessamine High's cheer team ranked third in 2024 at UCA Nationals, and in spring 2025, its boys' volleyball team will play its inaugural season. Brannon Crossing is a car-dependent community 6 miles south of downtown Lexington and 6 miles north of downtown Nicholasville. Residents can take Nicholasville Road to get to either. Bluegrass Ride has a bus stop in the neighborhood that takes passengers to downtown Nicholasville in 30 minutes and downtown Lexington in less than an hour. The neighborhood's nearest medical center is the Saint Joseph Jessamine location of CHI Saint Joseph Health, 6 miles south. The Blue Grass Airport is 8 miles northwest. Two miles northeast, the nearly 240-acre Veterans Park is one of Lexington's largest public green spaces. The park offers a 4-acre fenced-in dog park, a roughly 4-mile mountain biking trail, two playgrounds and an 18-hole disc golf course. Families often spend weekends here, as its six baseball and softball fields routinely host Little League games. The park also offers four picnic pavilions, paved walking paths and several veteran memorials. Three miles south, Connemara is a public golf course that ranked in Golfers' Choice's top 20 golf courses in Kentucky in 2023. The 18-hole course also offers a driving range, practice green and lessons taught by professionals. "Brannon Crossing has a good variety of local shops and chains," Reed says. "There's a wonderful local bakery called European Delights that sells cakes and pastries and a neat little coffee shop called Unify that sells vintage clothing." There's a Kroger in the shopping center for groceries, plus Marshalls, PetSmart and Hobby Lobby for other essentials. Residents can dine at local restaurants like Mi Pequena Hacienda and shop from boutiques like Clairebourne Antiques while enjoying the convenience of access to chains like Red Robin, Drake's and Cracker Barrel. On the neighborhood's east end, Movie Tavern is an upscale theater with reclining chairs, cocktails and a full food menu. One of the neighborhood's hidden gems is Jake's Cigar Bar, an old-school cocktail lounge for relaxing and socializing. The bar has an extensive bourbon collection as well as nonalcoholic drinks to enjoy in one of its lounge chairs or by the firepit outside. Community events in Brannon Crossing are often entertainment-oriented, whether live music at Shamrock Bar and Grille or film festivals at Movie Tavern, like its annual Studio Ghibli Fest. PetSmart partners with local animal shelters for occasional adoption events, and PetVet365 has pop-up block parties with food and drinks for humans and pups alike. Brannon Crossing is only 9 miles from Keeneland, a straight shot down Man o' War Boulevard, making it easy to visit the track during racing season. Brannon Crossing's CAP Index crime score is 2 out of 10, less than the national average of 4.

Nicholasville is an evolving city in Jessamine County, just south of Lexington's Fayette County. Many move here for larger lots, lower property taxes, the option to customize a to-be-built home or simply to belong to a smaller community. Northeast Nicholasville stretches from Brannon Crossing, a retail development just south of Lexington, to Nicholasville's downtown, a cozy city center filled with local shops and restaurants. Living in Northeast Nicholasville puts residents right in the middle of both, offering easy access to both Lexington and Nicholasville while getting to stretch out on a larger property. "We are one of the fastest-growing counties in our area because we have land and opportunities, good schools, local charm and a rich history," says Executive Director of Visit Jessamine Charla Reed. Nicholasville's Director of Planning and Zoning Tim Cross echoes this: "We're definitely growing, and as our population grows, we're becoming more competitive on that economic development front," he says. "In the last five or six years, they've opened up this new industrial area that has created a lot of new jobs. There are a lot of things changing for the better in Nicholasville." Northeast Nicholasville offers several types of real estate listings: single-family homes built in subdivisions, larger multiacre properties, customizable to-be-built homes and undeveloped plots without plans. Homes in subdivisions are typically brick new traditional houses, with prices ranging roughly from $200,000 to $600,000. Larger properties exceed that and sometimes reach price tags as high as $1 million. To-be-built homes often cost $800,000 to $1 million. Land prices vary, but a single acre typically costs $100,000 to $150,000. Many move to Nicholasville due to its relatively lower housing prices than Lexington: the average home value here is nearly $100,000 less than that for the Lexington metro area. "There are lots of advantages to being in Jessamine County, including lower taxes than in Fayette County," Realtor Marcus Hammond says. Students in Northeast Nicholasville attend Jessamine County Schools, a district with an overall B-plus grade on Niche. "The schools in Jessamine County are really good," Reed says. "There are a lot of hands-on learning opportunities as well as traditional learning, which is hard to find." Students start with preschool and kindergarten at the B-rated Jessamine Early Learning Village before going to first through fifth grade at the B-minus-rated Brookside Elementary School. They continue to the B-minus-rated East Jessamine Middle School for sixth through eighth grade and the B-rated East Jessamine for ninth through twelfth. East Jessamine High School has one of the top cheerleading squads in the country, placing third at UCA Nationals in 2024. In spring 2025, East Jessamine will have its first boys' volleyball team competing in the Kentucky High School Athletic Association's inaugural season for the sport. Northeast Nicholasville is a car-dependent neighborhood 10 miles south of downtown Lexington via Nicholasville Road. A Bluegrass RIDE bus stops at the Walmart on the neighborhood's south end and connects to Brannon Crossing, UK Chandler Hospital, BCTC Newtown Campus North, the Greyhound bus stop and downtown Lexington. The neighborhood's nearest medical center is the Saint Joseph Jessamine location of CHI Saint Joseph Health, 3 miles south. The Blue Grass Airport is 10 miles northwest. Northeast Nicholasville features a variety of shopping and dining options along Main Street, including major retailers like Walmart and Tractor Supply Co. and chain restaurants like McDonald's, Culver's and KFC. Local establishments like The Home Stretch Bar & Grill can also be found along this strip, which serves American fare in a casual setting with a full bar and weekday happy hour specials. In downtown Nicholasville, The Cottage Café is a classic country-style restaurant serving breakfast, lunch and dinner seven days a week, while Mercantile Coffee & Feed is a trendy coffee shop with exposed brick in its minimalist interior. The Brannon Crossing retail development to the north provides additional shopping and dining at big names like Hobby Lobby, Cracker Barrel and Crumbl. Lake Mingo Park is a 22-acre wooded expanse surrounding its small namesake lake, which is open for fishing. The park includes recreational amenities like a skatepark, basketball court and nine-hole disc golf course alongside traditional offerings like picnic shelters and a playground. The area has two golf courses: Connemara and Thoroughbred Golf Club at Highpoint. Both are public, but memberships are available. Northeast Nicholasville residents can get a taste of Kentucky's favorite sport just 2 miles from their neighborhood at Taylor Made Horse Farm. This farm has produced champion thoroughbreds, including Triple Crown winner American Pharoah, and offers scheduled public tours. The City of Nicholasville recently appointed a new Parks and Recreation Director, who plans to expand the city's parkland. "We're adding right around 230 acres of park space to our community," Cross says. "We just bought a 130-acre parcel of land for a new park and are trying to buy another 100-acre parcel. We'll have new parks on both the east and west sides of town." "The neat thing about Nicholasville is that it's very community-minded, with lots of events," Reed says. The annual Jessamine Fall Festival at the City County Park Fairgrounds features a carnival, pageants and parade. Each June, the Kentucky Wine and Vine Festival is a two-day event celebrating more than a dozen Kentucky wineries. Jessamine County was home to the first commercial vineyard in the United States beginning in 1799, and the First Vineyard Winery still serves fresh wine and has an onsite bed and breakfast and event venue. Around Halloween, the Wicked World Scaregrounds features three different haunted attractions that are a hit with teens and adults from throughout the greater Lexington region. Northeast Nicholasville has a 5 out of 10 CAP Index crime score, above the national average of 4.

Just south of Lexington, Nicholasville is a growing suburb sought for its natural beauty, lower property taxes and small-town feel. West Nicholasville is primarily comprised of rural subdivisions Nicholasville's Director of Planning and Zoning calls "cluster developments." These communities are designed so that homes are spaced out with multiple acres between them, but homeowners do not own and are therefore not responsible for that much land, providing the serenity of rural living without all the upkeep. Residents here like living in a rural area while enjoying both Nicholasville's small-town sense of community and nearby Lexington's big-city amenities. "I've lived here my whole life," Cross says. "I like that it still has a small-town vibe, but we are close to major metropolitan areas, so the things that we don't offer in Nicholasville proper, we can find just a short commute away." Executive Director of Visit Jessamine Charla Reed agrees: "People live, work and play right here in our county," she says. "It's a great community to live in and a wonderful place to raise a family." West Nicholasville is a growing community with new homes and subdivisions often built with traditional architecture. Close to the city's downtown, buyers can find denser subdivisions with small front and back yards; most of the neighborhood, however, is taken up by larger multiacre lots. "We have some rural subdivisions. We call them 'cluster developments,'" Cross says. "In those subdivisions, there are larger tracks set aside for just one home that can't be developed. These will have, say, one house per 5-acre density, but your house may be on only 1 acre, so you don't have the upkeep of 5 acres, but you have the same density." Due to its large lot sizes, home values in West Nicholasville are high for Lexington; its average home value is nearly $90,000 greater than that of the metro area. Prices in West Nicholasville increase with acreage, with homes in the suburban subdivisions closer to downtown typically costing $200,000 to $500,000 and homes in the rural subdivisions costing $500,000 to $1 million. Students in West Nicholasville attend Jessamine County Schools. They start at Jessamine Early Learning Village for preschool and kindergarten before continuing to Hattie C. Warner Elementary School for first through fifth grade. Then, they attend East Jessamine Middle School, followed by East Jessamine High School. All of these schools receive B grades from Niche, except East Jessamine Middle School, which gets a B-minus. On the 2023-2024 Kentucky Summative Assessment, Jessamine County Schools' scores exceeded the state average in elementary and high school science, social studies and writing; elementary and middle school reading and math; English learners progress; postsecondary readiness and graduation rate. West Nicholasville is a car-dependent community 2 miles west of downtown Nicholasville and 14 miles south of Lexington. "It's a great, central location, so you can get to most anything very easily," Reed says. She explains that, while many residents work in Nicholasville, it's easy to live there and work in nearby cities. "Some commute to Lexington; some commute outside of Lexington," she says. "Some people work for the state – Frankfort's not very far." The state's capital is about 30 miles northwest. Residents can take the Bluegrass RIDE bus from the Walmart just north of downtown Nicholasville to get to Brannon Crossing, UK Chandler Hospital and downtown Lexington. West Nicholasville is home to the Saint Joseph Jessamine location of CHI Saint Joseph Health. The Blue Grass Airport is 12 miles away. Residents on the neighborhood's north end shop at dine at Brannon Crossing, a retail development with a Kroger, chain and local restaurants and a movie theater. Those living on the neighborhood's south end are closer to downtown Nicholasville, which has a Walmart, a farmer's market and cozy local shops and boutiques. "As you go down Nicholasville Road into Nicholasville, you've got some holes in the wall, like Jordy's Family Restaurant and Bubba Grub," Reed says. "There are so many different little hidden things like that." Both are located along Nicholasville Road just north of downtown. Jordy's offers a mix of Mexican and American cuisines in a laidback diner setting with breakfast, lunch and dinner specials, and Bubba Grub serves burgers, wings and fried fish. Reed also recommends a particularly peaceful café less than a mile west. "If you go down Interstate 68, there's a place called Luna's Coffee, Wine, and Butterfly Café," she says. "They have monarch cocoons in there, and you can watch them. You can have your coffee or lunch, and they have a little butterfly house that you can go eat and drink outside with them. It's a neat little hidden gem." "One of the neat things about Nicholasville is its beauty," Reed says. We have a lot of green space." Riney B Park and Aquatic Center has a pool with water slides and other play features, picnic tables, concessions, an 18-hole disc golf course and 2 miles of walking trails on 50 wooded acres. The park also hosts rec leagues for basketball, softball, pickleball and disc golf. Nearby, Woodrow Grow Park offers a basketball court, playground and picnic pavilion. The City of Nicholasville recently hired a new parks and recreation director who plans to continue to expand the city's public green space. "We're getting ready to double our parkland in the next two years," Cross says. Less than a mile west, the Keene Trace Golf Club is a world-class, 36-hole private golf club that hosts the annual PGA Tour Barbasol Championship. Eight miles southwest, High Bridge Park is a historic site overlooking an old railroad bridge over the Kentucky River. "Back in the golden age of the railroad, High Bridge was the spot," Cross says. "At the time it was built, it was the tallest bridge over a navigable stream. The trains would pull up, and they would stop. There was a big pavilion. Decades ago, the county revitalized that park. The shelter is back, and there's an overlook over the river. You can walk out on it and see the bridge. It's very picturesque." West Nicholasville sits between the Jessamine County Public Library's two locations, one in downtown Nicholasville and the other 4 miles southwest in Wilmore. "We have a great, top-notch library here in our county. It's not just books; it's a whole experience when you go in there," Reed says. "They have lots of activities for young and old. You can make banners there; they have 3D printing. You can compose music and record it there. They have all that and more. They've recently expanded it, and I'm like, 'I don't see how you could.'" The library puts on events for all ages. Parents can take young children to story times or music and movement classes; older kids can go to LEGO Club. Teens can take craft classes like knitting workshops and writing groups or swing by for gaming tournaments or chess clubs. The library offers educational sessions on how to use its equipment, such as the 3D printer and recording studio. Adults can take exercise classes, receive career and healthcare resources, take craft classes and join book clubs. West Nicholasville has a 3 out of 10 CAP Index crime score, below the national average of 4.

Rich with history and brimming with real estate listings, South Nicholasville is a longstanding and recently thriving residential community 13 miles south of Lexington. It's less than a mile south of Nicholasville's downtown and isn't far from historic sites like Camp Nelson National Monument and First Vineyard Winery, the country's first commercial vineyard. South Nicholasville residents like living in an area teeming with local businesses and small-town charm while enjoying the scenery of its surrounding farmland and the Kentucky River to the south and still being close to Lexington. "It's a unique spot," says Nicholasville's Director of Planning and Zoning Tim Cross. "We can go to the national monument or go to the river and paddle. We can be in Lexington in 15 minutes and go shopping or to the opera house. There's a lot to do here, but it still feels like a small town." South Nicholasville's ample stock of single-family homes ranges from '60s-built ranch-style homes to modern traditional homes, with a significant portion of its residential real estate built post-2020. New subdivisions continue to be built in South Lexington, and to-be-built homes offer buyers options to customize their construction, choosing between options like farmhouse, French country and cottage exteriors. Most homes in South Nicholasville sit on less than half an acre, but buyers interested in buying more land can typically do so, with a single undeveloped acre typically costing $100,000 to $150,000. South Nicholasville's average home value is nearly $100,000 less than that of the Lexington metro area. Prices for single-family homes typically range from $200,000 to $500,000. Students in South Nicholasville attend Jessamine County Schools, beginning with Jessamine Early Learning Village for preschool and kindergarten and Nicholasville Elementary School for first through fifth grade. Both schools have B grades on Niche. Then, they go to West Jessamine Middle School, which has an A-minus grade and ranks as the eighth-best public middle school in the Lexington area on Niche, followed by the B-rated West Jessamine High School, Niche's eighth-best public high school in the Lexington area. West Jessamine High School students can earn college credits through dual enrollment courses taken through Bluegrass Community & Technical College (BCTC). South Nicholasville is a car-dependent community 13 miles south of downtown Lexington via Nicholasville Road. Residents can take the Bluegrass RIDE bus from downtown Nicholasville to get to Walmart, Brannon Crossing, UK Chandler Hospital, the Greyhound bus stop and downtown Lexington. The neighborhood's nearest medical center is the CHI Saint Joseph Health's Jessamine location, 2 miles north. The Blue Grass Airport is 14 miles northwest. South Lexington offers the convenience of chains like Kroger and Ollie's Bargain Outlet and the small-town charm of family-owned restaurants. Locals can start their mornings with a breakfast sandwich from Daily Donuts, grab a casual lunch at Wahmei Chinese Restaurant and enjoy a sit-down dinner at Fiesta Mexico, Los Dos Amigos or El Rancho Taqueria, all local Mexican restaurants. A mile north, Dodd's Croner Farmer's Market sells farm-fresh produce and homemade pizzas to go. Eleven miles south, the 1799-established First Vineyard Winery is the nation's first commercial winery and one of three in Jessamine County. "The wineries are local, mom-and-pop-type places," says Executive Director of Visit Jessamine Charla Reed. "Most of them grow and harvest right on their site and/or supplement with other Kentucky grapes. They all have their special, unique flavors. We like to say, 'Taste the historic flavors of wine here in our county.' That runs deep here, the history." South Jessamine has two parks: City/County Park and Jessamine County Dog Park. City/County Park has sports facilities like a youth football field, basketball courts and baseball and softball fields. Other amenities include handicap-accessible playgrounds and a picnic area with grills. Jessamine County Dog Park is an off-leash play space for the county's pups, a simple grassy field with a wooden fence around it. Some of South Nicholasville's best outdoor activities, however, lie just beyond the neighborhood. Six miles south, the 525-acre Camp Nelson National Monument is a Civil War camp established in 1863 that became a national monument in 2018. "That was something our county government had been working towards for years," Cross says. The park's visitors can check out its museum to learn the site's history and its role as both a military recruitment and training center and shelter for war refugees and enslaved people seeking freedom. Five miles of hiking trails through the park provide opportunities to explore the land. "It's so cool," Cross says. "You know, back in the old days, forts were originally built out of wood, and when they would come under attack, they would burn them down. So they started building them out of dirt. After all these years of no protection, you can still see the outlines in the dirt from the fortifications." Another perk of living in South Nicholasville is its proximity to the Kentucky River. Jessamine County has the largest riverfront of any Kentucky county, and it offers two points of river access that are free for the public to use for kayaking or canoeing. Each summer, downtown Nicholasville hosts the Kentucky Wine and Vine Festival. "We have wineries from all over Kentucky that come and participate along with our three wineries," Reed says. "It's a two-day festival with wine sampling and activities for the kids. It's a fun day of celebrating the history of wine in our county and then also highlighting all the Kentucky wineries." On Friday evening, residents can walk between restaurants downtown for appetizer, dinner and dessert pop-ups and try local wines at each. On Saturday, the Jessamine Couty Fairground hosts wine tastings all day, a food court, art vendors and a kids' zone with inflatables. South Nicholasville's crime score on the CAP Index is 4 out of 10, which is on par with the national average.