He’s young, he’s got cash and he’s headed our way
Kentucky usually lands only one or two companies on the Inc. 500 list of the nation’s fastest growing small businesses.
This year, the total was one: No. 47, Integrity Asset Management of Louisville.
But there’s another company on the list that, as the older generation might say, bears watching. It’s No. 12, Hollingsworth Capital Partners in Clinton, Tenn., off I-75 north of Knoxville.
The managing partner is 24-year-old Trey Hollingsworth, a 2004 graduate of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. That’s right, 2004. He is one of Wharton’s youngest graduates, and he’s got his eye on Lexington.
Hollingsworth Capital Partners grew from $444,055 in revenue in 2004 to $32.7 million in 2007, according to Inc., by buying vacant warehouses and distribution centers, and “repositioning” them to attract tenants.
For instance, Hollingsworth bought the former Heilig-Meyers distribution center in Mount Sterling after that company went into bankruptcy. He consolidated that space with nearby properties to create 400,000 square feet of space that’s now the home of Lexington Metal Systems LLC, a subsidiary of Global Automotive Systems.
Hollingsworth also owns 900,000 square feet of space in Louisville, 80,000 square feet in Erlanger and 250,000 in Cincinnati.
“We are extremely long-term investors,” Hollingsworth says. The firm also has “internal funding” so it can act quickly when a buying opportunity appears.
He likes the Lexington area because the area is growing, and I-75 and I-64 intersect here.
“The right opportunity hasn’t popped yet (in Lexington),” Hollingsworth said, “although we are working on a couple of things right now that might change that.”
