What is Berea College and why is Berea read as a distinct economy?

Berea College is a private tuition-free work-college in Berea with 1,527 students and a roughly $1.5 billion endowment that funds about 75 percent of operating expenses. It runs an invited-bid Vendor Qualification process at berea.edu/finance/purchasing rather than open public sealed-bid — Ashley Creekmore handles the $3,000 to $9,999 tier and Aurelia Brandenburg handles $10,000 and above. The College has more than $124 million in completed Ecological Renovations scope plus a $24 million CMIT building opened in 2024-25 and an Edwards Building rebuild targeted for winter 2025 completion. Berea also carries the Kentucky Artisan Center, the Welcome Center, and a tourism economy at roughly one million annual visitors — an economy structurally different from Richmond's, in the same county.

What is the Blue Grass Army Depot's place-of-performance trap?

Dollars performed at Blue Grass Army Depot are not Madison-vendor revenue. The Bechtel Parsons Blue Grass joint venture has roughly $5.52 billion across six BGCAPP awards, but Bechtel National is headquartered in Reston, Virginia, and Parsons Corporation in Centreville, Virginia. Battelle (Columbus, Ohio), Amentum (Chantilly, Virginia), and GP Strategies (Columbia, Maryland) are all out-of-state-headquartered teaming subcontractors. Naming smaller depot subcontractors as Madison vendors before SAM.gov awardee-headquarters verification by CAGE and UEI is the attribution this report explicitly avoids. The $903 million FY26 Center of Excellence for Energetics is a real future demand signal, but the candidate set does not depend on any depot dollar being treated as Madison-vendor revenue.

Richmond versus Berea — what's the difference inside the same county?

Richmond is the seat — about 38,000 residents, the EKU campus, Baptist Health Richmond's 105-bed regional hospital, and the county-government and chamber surface. Berea is the southern city — about 16,000 residents, Berea College's tuition-free work-college, the I-75 manufacturing cluster (Hitachi Astemo, Hyster-Yale, KI USA, Middletown Metalworks, Vitro, Novelis, Stemco), the Kentucky Artisan Center and the 'Folk Arts and Crafts Capital of Kentucky' tourism economy, the Berea Industrial Park, Saint Joseph Berea's 25-bed critical-access hospital, and Triple Crown Business Park. Two cities, two procurement surfaces, two chambers, two school districts (Madison County Schools plus Berea Independent Schools), in one county.

What business opportunities exist in Madison County under $300,000 startup capital?

Two candidates on this report sit clearly inside that range. The cross-route biomedical-equipment-technician service runs $75,000 to $175,000 in founder capital and bridges Baptist Health Richmond, the EKU School of Nursing simulation center, Saint Joseph Berea, and the Madison Health and Hospice Care Plus device population. The mobile sterile-processing and biomed service also fits the lower-capital tier on the Baptist Health adjacency. The commuter-shift extended-hours childcare candidate starts higher — $300,000 to $500,000 for a leased buildout, $400,000 to $700,000 for an acquired Madison-county center plus extended-hours and infant-room pivot.

What is the I-75 commute pattern and why does it drive the candidate set?

American Community Survey commuting tables record a 91 percent drive-alone share for Madison County, a 24-minute median one-way commute, and a wage-earner outflow exceeding 50 percent into Fayette, Scott, and Jessamine counties. UK HealthCare changes shift at 7am. Toyota Motor Manufacturing Kentucky in Georgetown — about 30 miles north via I-75 — starts production shifts at 6am. Amazon LEX1 runs 24 hours. A Berea parent leaving at 5:50am to make a 7am UK HealthCare shift can't drop a child at a center that opens at 6:30am, which is the standard envelope at 37 of Madison's 38 licensed providers. The commute pattern also pulls EKU and Berea-resident clinical staff into the cross-route biomed and manufacturing-staffing candidates.

Madison County, Kentucky — Richmond + Berea openings

What this place actually is.

Madison has about 95,800 residents and is the fastest-growing county on this report — up roughly 24 percent since 2010. The median age runs 32 to 33, pulled young by Eastern Kentucky University's 15,969 Fall 2025 students plus Berea College's 1,527 plus the Berea manufacturing workforce. Median household income is about $63,000, modestly above the state median. The reported poverty rate of 15 to 17 percent is inflated by student group quarters. Madison sits inside the Lexington-Fayette metro on Interstate 75, about 25 miles south of Lexington. Richmond is the seat and Berea is the southern city — two distinct urban cores in one county.

Manufacturing is the largest private-payroll concentration. The 2022 Census County Business Patterns counts 65 manufacturing establishments, 4,689 employees, and $258 million in payroll. Hitachi Astemo Americas runs about 1,500 employees in Berea and announced a $153 million expansion in July 2023 — 752,000 square feet on 62 acres — supplying electric-vehicle motor and battery components into the Honda stack with production ramping through 2027. Hyster-Yale Materials Handling assembles forklifts at 2200 Menelaus Road in Berea with roughly 850 employees across 960,000 square feet plus a 160,000-square-foot expansion completed after 2019. KI USA, Middletown Metalworks, Vitro and PGW glass, Novelis aluminum recycling, and Stemco round out the I-75 cluster. Berea alone runs more than 3,500 manufacturing jobs.

Eastern Kentucky University is the largest institutional payer in the county and operates differently from a private university. Enrollment was 15,969 in Fall 2025, making it Kentucky's third-largest public university. Federal awards over the last three years run about $172 million across National Science Foundation, Department of Defense, and Department of Education sources. The Department of Engineering and Technology launched a Manufacturing Engineering bachelor's program in Fall 2023 — the only program of its kind in Kentucky. The Engineering Advisory Board (established September 2021) includes Hyster-Yale, Lockheed Martin, Valvoline, Alltech, Corning, Lexmark, and Carhartt. EKU buys most commodity categories through Kentucky Finance and Administration Cabinet master agreements. That compresses the local-capture surface and pushes opportunity into sub-vendor positioning under primary general contractors and into specialty services outside the state-master scope.

Berea sits inside Madison but runs a distinct economy. Berea College has 1,527 students, about a $1.5 billion endowment, and a tuition-free work-college mission that funds roughly 75 percent of operating expenses from endowment draw. Three-year federal awards run about $82 million, NSF-heavy. The capital pipeline is unusual for a small college: a $24 million Communication, Media and Information Technology building opened in 2024-25 on a $10 million philanthropic match, an Edwards Building rebuild with Luckett & Farley targeted for winter 2025 completion, and an Ecological Renovations program totaling more than $124 million across Boone Tavern, Draper, Lincoln, Knapp, Deep Green (LEED Platinum), Anna Smith, Dana, Bingham, and Kettering. The College runs an invited-bid Vendor Qualification process at berea.edu/finance/purchasing rather than open public sealed-bid. Ashley Creekmore handles the $3,000 to $9,999 tier; Aurelia Brandenburg handles $10,000 and above. The Berea artisan economy adds the Kentucky Artisan Center, the Welcome Center, and roughly one million annual visitors to the 'Folk Arts and Crafts Capital of Kentucky' branding plus the Berea Industrial Park tenant base.

Healthcare is the third leg. Baptist Health Richmond is a 105-bed regional hospital (94 acute plus 11 psychiatric) with 488 employees and a recent $20 million-plus campus renovation. The Robert L. Telford Cancer Center expansion was a $3 million project — $1.8 million from the Telford Foundation — dedicated in August 2024 that nearly doubled chemotherapy chair capacity. The broader Baptist Health Richmond campaign closed at $7.9 million in December 2024. Saint Joseph Berea, under CHI Saint Joseph Health and CommonSpirit, is a 25-bed critical-access facility on a separate corporate procurement track, established 1898 on the Berea College grounds, serving Madison, Estill, Garrard, Jackson, and Rockcastle. Madison Health is an independent practice. EKU's School of Nursing simulation footprint adds an education-side device population: $634,500 from the Council on Postsecondary Education's Healthcare Workforce Collaborative, a $150,000 grant in April 2025, and a separate $79,000 home-simulation grant — with Laerdal SimMan, SimNewB, and SimMom manikins, a Gaumard HAL S5301, and seven Stryker hospital beds donated by Baptist Health Richmond in July 2022. EKU graduates about 135 nurses per year against a Kentucky Hospital Association statewide 11.5 percent registered-nurse vacancy rate (2,821 open positions, 2024). The in-county clinical-labor pipeline runs surplus to a single-hospital anchor and the surplus leaks to Lexington and UK HealthCare 25 miles north.

Blue Grass Army Depot is the fourth leg. The depot completed chemical-weapons destruction in July 2023 and is now in closure phase through 2027. Battelle Memorial Institute filed a WARN notice on March 3, 2025 eliminating 245 positions effective April 24, 2025. The broader closure trajectory carries roughly 1,000 transitioning workers and a 140-federal-employee cliff by November 2026. Concurrently, the fiscal year 2026 National Defense Authorization Act appropriated $903 million to establish a Center of Excellence for Energetics — RDX and HMX — at the depot. Army Contracting Command Rock Island issued Sources Sought W519TC-26-R-0019 on March 13, 2026 (response due April 15, 2026), with the Center targeted fully operational before 2031. The depot itself is expected to add jobs post-closure as conventional munitions storage continues and Center construction begins. Closure and expansion overlap in the same 2026 to 2028 window.

The federal-vendor footprint at the depot is dominated by Bechtel Parsons Blue Grass joint venture — roughly $5.52 billion across six awards from Bechtel National (Reston, Virginia) and Parsons Corporation (Centreville, Virginia) per the joint-venture and PEO ACWA fact sheets, with Amentum, Battelle, and GP Strategies as named teaming subcontractors. A long tail of subcontract dollars at the depot runs to PIKA International, D&D LLC, Schwarz Construction, Micron Air & Mechanical, Centeio Associates, Valkyrie Enterprises, Capstone Precision, Luxfer Magtech, MedVolt, and Xator. These are dollars performed at the depot, not Madison-vendor revenue, until SAM.gov awardee-headquarters verification is run by CAGE and UEI for each entity. Every named federal-vendor figure in this report is paired with that distinction in mind.

Three patterns shape the candidate analysis below. First, the openings sit in the seams between the four legs rather than the depth of any single anchor — EKU's manufacturing-engineering pipeline lands on Hitachi Astemo's BK Plant ramp inside the same county; Baptist Health Richmond and EKU's nursing simulation labs share biomedical-equipment service needs one credential set covers; depot-displaced workers and Triple Crown Business Park's projected 1,400 jobs at roughly $38 per hour collide on the same 24-month labor curve. Second, every named federal vendor is treated as a depot place-of-performance dollar until awardee-headquarters is verified. The candidate set does not depend on any depot figure being treated as Madison-vendor revenue. Third, Berea is its own economy and is read on its own terms. Madison covers about 444 square miles bordered by Fayette and Clark to the north, Estill to the east, Jackson and Rockcastle to the south, and Garrard to the west. Triple Crown Business Park sits on 300 acres at 1604 Farristown Industrial Drive in Berea and broke ground on May 7, 2026 as the first multi-county industrial park in central Kentucky, jointly governed by Madison, Estill, Fayette, and Scott.

Eastern Kentucky University: 15,969 enrolled Fall 2025; faculty and staff · Public regional university — Kentucky's third-largest. Roughly $172 million in federal awards over three years. Kentucky's only Manufacturing Engineering BS, launched Fall 2023. Procurement runs through Kentucky Finance and Administration Cabinet master contracts for most commodity categories. Primary anchor for the manufacturing-staffing, biomed cross-route, and childcare candidates.
Hitachi Astemo Americas — Berea BK Plant: Roughly 1,500 (pre-expansion baseline) · Tier-1 automotive supplier — electric-vehicle motor and battery components into the Honda stack. $153 million expansion announced July 11, 2023 (Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development) adds 752,000 square feet on 62 acres; 167 net-new full-time positions on the contract floor with line-rate ramp through 2027.
Hyster-Yale Materials Handling — Berea: Roughly 850 · Forklift assembly at 2200 Menelaus Road. Roughly 960,000 square feet plus a 160,000-square-foot post-2019 expansion. Member of EKU's Manufacturing Engineering Advisory Board.
Berea College: 1,527 students; faculty and staff · Private tuition-free work-college. About $1.5 billion endowment, with roughly 75 percent of operating expenses funded by endowment draw. Roughly $82 million in three-year federal awards, NSF-heavy. $24 million CMIT building opened 2024-25; Edwards Building rebuild with Luckett & Farley targeted for winter 2025 completion. Ecological Renovations program totals more than $124 million in completed scope.
Baptist Health Richmond: 488 · Regional hospital with 105 beds (94 acute, 11 psychiatric). Recent $20 million-plus campus renovation. Robert L. Telford Cancer Center expansion dedicated August 2024 nearly doubled chemotherapy chair capacity; broader campaign closed at $7.9 million in December 2024.
Blue Grass Army Depot: Federal civilian plus contractor workforce · Federal installation. Chemical-weapons destruction completed July 2023; closure phase running through 2027 (Battelle WARN April 2025: 245 positions). $903 million fiscal year 2026 appropriation for a Center of Excellence for Energetics. Sources Sought W519TC-26-R-0019 issued March 13, 2026, with the Center targeted operational before 2031.
Triple Crown Business Park: Roughly 1,400 jobs projected at full build-out · Multi-county industrial park at 1604 Farristown Industrial Drive in Berea. 300 acres on 14 tenant lots; groundbreaking May 7, 2026. First multi-county industrial park in central Kentucky, governed by the Central Kentucky Business Park Authority across Madison, Estill, Fayette, and Scott. Average wage projected at roughly $38 per hour.
Saint Joseph Berea — CHI Saint Joseph Health / CommonSpirit: Roughly 150 facility staff · 25-bed critical-access hospital established 1898 on the Berea College grounds. Serves Madison, Estill, Garrard, Jackson, and Rockcastle. Separate corporate procurement track from Baptist Health.
Madison County Schools, Berea Independent Schools, and Madison Health: District and clinic staff · Public K-12 plus independent clinic. Madison County Schools is one of the larger central-Kentucky districts; Berea Independent is the separate Berea-city district. Madison Health adds an independent-practice procurement footprint.
EKU School of Nursing — Clinical Skills Laboratory and Simulation Center: Faculty and lab staff · $634,500 Council on Postsecondary Education Healthcare Workforce Collaborative grant plus $150,000 in April 2025 plus a $79,000 home-simulation grant. Laerdal SimMan, SimNewB, and SimMom manikins; a Gaumard HAL S5301; seven Stryker beds donated by Baptist Health in July 2022. About 135 nursing graduates per year.
Kentucky River Foothills Development Council and the Madison and Berea Chambers: Institutional staff · Regional Community Action Agency and chambers. Kentucky River Foothills carries roughly $4.7 million in existing federal flow. Madison Chamber and Berea Chamber are the introduction surface for federal-vendor and institutional-buyer working groups.

The candidates.

6 business openings the data points to. Each carries a candidate page with the operating math, named operators to call, and the acquisition or build path. Capital and Year-3 ranges are surfaced here; full assumptions live on each candidate page.

Candidate register 6 ranked openings math, operators, and next calls inside each memo

Rows are clickable

By reader profile

Tradesperson going independent: Extended-hours childcare on the I-75 commute corridor Mobile sterile-processing and biomed service in Madison Specialty-trades subcontractor for Berea College capital work
Existing operator pivoting: Extended-hours childcare on the I-75 commute corridor Skilled-trades staffing for the Madison I-75 cluster Specialty-trades subcontractor for Berea College capital work

Who to call this week.

Who to call. Public-record offices and operating leads across the four Madison anchors. Use them to test or kill each candidate's thesis quickly.

Tier 1

Baptist Health Richmond — main hospital line for materials management and biomedical engineering

Materials management, biomedical engineering, sterile processing, and the supplier-onboarding path for non-incumbent sub-vendors.

(859) 625-3131
Saint Joseph Berea — CHI Saint Joseph Health main line

Biomedical engineering point of contact and the CommonSpirit national vendor-master gating question.

(859) 986-3151
EKU School of Nursing — Clinical Skills Laboratory and Simulation Center

Simulation-center director, current Laerdal and Gaumard service posture, and openness to a local biomedical-equipment service vendor.

(859) 622-1956
EKU Department of Applied Human Sciences — Dr. Dana Bush, Department Chair

Annual BS Child and Family Studies and IECE graduate count plus practicum partnership posture for the childcare candidate.

(859) 622-3445
EKU Department of Engineering and Technology — Dr. Nilesh Joshi, Chair

Manufacturing Engineering BS program, advisory-board interaction model, internship and co-op pipeline for the manufacturing-staffing candidate.
EKU Department of University Procurement — Micah Hunsucker

State-master scope boundaries and the sub-vendor pathway for services outside Kentucky Finance and Administration Cabinet master agreements. Email [email protected].

(859) 622-4484
Berea College Office of Purchasing — Aurelia Brandenburg, $10,000-plus tier

Vendor Qualification process intake for the specialty-trades sub-candidate. Email [email protected].
Berea College Office of Purchasing — Ashley Creekmore, $3,000 to $9,999 tier

Lower-tier Vendor Qualification intake and supplier-introduction channel.
City of Berea Economic Development — Donna Angel

Triple Crown Business Park tenant pipeline, current letters of intent, and posture on a Madison-headquartered specialty-staffing partner for incoming tenants. Email [email protected].

(859) 986-8528 option 3
Madison Chamber of Commerce

Whether a federal-vendor or Blue Grass Army Depot supplier working group is active; chamber-member referrals on active CAGE-and-UEI registrations.

(859) 623-1000
Hitachi Astemo Berea (BK Plant) HR

Master services agreement process, preferred-vendor list status, and tier-2 staffing-vendor posture for the manufacturing-staffing candidate.
Hyster-Yale Berea HR

Skilled-trades staffing vendor relationships and continuous-hire posture.
Bechtel Parsons Blue Grass — small-business outreach office

Published FAR 52.219-9 subcontracting plan goal structure and the named small-business outreach calendar for BGCAPP closure-phase work and the forthcoming Center of Excellence.
Kentucky River Foothills Development Council

Existing federal-flow positioning and whether a procurement-aggregation working group sits inside their programmatic surface.

Tier 2

SBA Kentucky District Office (Louisville)

7(a), 504, Microloan, HUBZone, and 8(a) referrals across all six candidates.
Kentucky APEX Accelerator — Bluegrass region

Federal-procurement counseling, SAM.gov registration support, and 8(a), HUBZone, and SDVOSB application support for the federal-vendor aggregator candidate.
ChildCare Aware of Kentucky

Current Madison-county supply-and-demand gap, infant-slot demand pressure, CCAP enrollment trend, and pending licensure applications for the childcare candidate.

1-800-462-8970
Kentucky Career Center — Madison County rapid-response coordinator

BGCAPP dislocated-worker rapid-response pipeline status, named partners, and registered-apprenticeship and training-allowance landscape.
AAMI Kentucky chapter and HSPA Kentucky chapter

CBET and CRCST credentialed-technician outreach for the biomedical-equipment and sterile-processing candidates.
Hospice Care Plus, Berea

In-home pump and bed preventive-maintenance contracting posture.

(859) 986-1500

Operators in this market.

Top operators across the four anchors. Eastern Kentucky University and Berea College on the education side; Hitachi Astemo, Hyster-Yale, KI USA, Middletown Metalworks, Vitro, Novelis, and Stemco in the I-75 manufacturing cluster; Baptist Health Richmond and Saint Joseph Berea on the healthcare side; Blue Grass Army Depot and its prime-contractor stack on the federal side; plus Triple Crown Business Park, the Madison and Berea Chambers, and the Kentucky River Foothills Development Council as institutional channels.

Market posture labels

Active in market Institution Out-of-county

Operator

Role

Market posture

Eastern Kentucky University

Public regional university — 15,969 students Fall 2025; Kentucky's only Manufacturing Engineering BS

Active in market

Richmond. Roughly $172 million in federal awards over three years. Procurement runs through Kentucky Finance and Administration Cabinet master agreements for most commodity categories.
Berea College

Private tuition-free work-college — 1,527 students; ~$1.5 billion endowment

Active in market

Berea. Invited-bid Vendor Qualification process at berea.edu/finance/purchasing — Ashley Creekmore at the $3,000 to $9,999 tier, Aurelia Brandenburg at the $10,000-plus tier.
Hitachi Astemo Americas — Berea BK Plant

Tier-1 automotive supplier; EV motor and battery components into Honda

Active in market

Roughly 1,500 employees. $153 million expansion announced July 11, 2023 adds 752,000 square feet on 62 acres with production ramp through 2027.
Hyster-Yale Materials Handling — Berea

Forklift assembly

Active in market

2200 Menelaus Road, Berea. Roughly 850 employees across 960,000 square feet plus 160,000 square feet of post-2019 expansion. Member of EKU's Manufacturing Engineering Advisory Board.
Baptist Health Richmond

Regional hospital — 105 beds (94 acute, 11 psychiatric); 488 employees

Active in market

Robert L. Telford Cancer Center expansion dedicated August 2024; broader campaign closed at $7.9 million in December 2024. Medline has been Baptist Health's named prime distributor since 2014.
Saint Joseph Berea — CHI Saint Joseph Health / CommonSpirit

Critical-access hospital — 25 beds; separate corporate procurement track

Active in market

305 Estill Street, Berea. Established 1898 on the Berea College grounds. Service area covers Madison, Estill, Garrard, Jackson, and Rockcastle.
Blue Grass Army Depot

Federal installation — named customer

Institution

Closure phase through 2027 after July 2023 chemical-weapons-destruction completion. $903 million fiscal year 2026 appropriation for a Center of Excellence for Energetics; Sources Sought W519TC-26-R-0019 issued March 13, 2026 with the Center targeted operational before 2031.
Bechtel Parsons Blue Grass joint venture

BGCAPP systems prime — named customer of any Madison sub

Out-of-county

Joint venture of Bechtel National (Reston, Virginia) and Parsons Corporation (Centreville, Virginia) per the joint-venture and PEO ACWA fact sheets. Roughly $5.52 billion across six awards performed at Blue Grass Army Depot — depot place-of-performance dollars, not Madison-vendor revenue.
Battelle Memorial Institute

BGCAPP teaming subcontractor; Columbus, Ohio-headquartered

Out-of-county

Filed WARN notice March 3, 2025 eliminating 245 positions effective April 24, 2025 — closure-phase drawdown.
Amentum and GP Strategies Corporation

BGCAPP teaming subcontractors — out-of-state-headquartered

Out-of-county

Amentum (Chantilly, Virginia) and GP Strategies (Columbia, Maryland) per public materials; SAM.gov awardee-headquarters verification queued for both.
EKU School of Nursing — Clinical Skills Laboratory and Simulation Center

Education-side device population — manikin plus simulation IV-pump fleet

Institution

$634,500 Council on Postsecondary Education Healthcare Workforce Collaborative grant; $150,000 April 2025 grant; $79,000 home-simulation grant. Seven Stryker beds donated by Baptist Health Richmond July 2022.
Triple Crown Business Park

Multi-county industrial park — Madison, Estill, Fayette, Scott

Institution

1604 Farristown Industrial Drive, Berea. 300 acres on 14 tenant lots. Groundbreaking May 7, 2026. Projected 1,400 jobs at an average wage of about $38 per hour at full build-out.
Kentucky River Foothills Development Council

Regional Community Action Agency

Institution

Roughly $4.7 million in existing federal flow. Closest institutional analog for federal-procedural overhead and a likely partner channel.
Madison Chamber of Commerce and Berea Chamber of Commerce

Chambers — federal-vendor and institutional-buyer introduction surface

Institution

Madison Chamber at 859-623-1000. Berea Chamber serves the Berea-side employer base. Donna Angel at City of Berea Economic Development at 859-986-8528 option 3 is the Triple Crown tenant-pipeline contact.

Acquisition register.

Businesses for sale or near succession in Madison County. Tier 1 carries the strongest succession-prone profile — long tenure, founder-era ownership, no public successor, structural buyer fit. Tier 2 carries one or more of those signals. Tier 3 sits at long tenure without a proximate exit signal. The bridged list captures named primes and OEMs at Blue Grass Army Depot and Berea College — these are reference benchmarks rather than acquisition targets, and every named depot prime is treated as a place-of-performance counterpart until SAM.gov awardee-headquarters is verified by CAGE and UEI.

Strongest

Strongest succession signal

Madison-resident NAICS 624410 entities active with KY Secretary of State, formation-date pre-2005, current owner age inferred 55+. Estimated 6–10 candidates within the 38-provider Madison base. Specific named targets emerge from KY SoS FastTrack bulk pull pending verification. Pivot-acquisition framing: retain existing program identity, expand infant rooms (1:5 ratio per 922 KAR 2:120), extend operating hours to 5:30am–7pm. Name withheld pending consent

Madison-county child-care center succession pool — categorical (named targets pending verification)
- Pre-2005 KY SoS entity formation date
- Founder-era ownership likely intact
- Standard 6:30am–6pm operating envelope
- Limited or no infant capacity
- Madison-county location (Richmond + Berea)
KY SoS FastTrack bulk pull on Madison-resident NAICS 624410 entities + chamber introduction
Madison-resident and Lexington-region (Fayette, Clark, Jessamine) NAICS 2382/2383 specialty trade contractors with KY Secretary of State entity registrations pre-2005, $1M–$3M revenue, 2–4 crew, succession-aged owner, single-trade or two-trade specialty alignment (electrical, MEP, low-voltage, AV, historic-window, millwork, commissioning). Pivot framing: Berea-resident registration plus Vendor-Qualification clearance plus LEED-AP credentialing plus FSC/low-VOC documentation positions the firm for Berea College's invited-bid pipeline. Name withheld pending consent

Madison/Lexington-region specialty-trade succession pool — categorical (Berea Vendor-Qualification pivot)
- Pre-2005 entity-formation date
- Single-trade or two-trade specialty alignment with Berea sub-trade scope
- Succession-aged owner with no published exit plan
- Active Lexington-metro commercial sub-trade book that can be re-routed
- No current institutional-vendor credential at any private college
KY SoS bulk pull on Madison + Fayette + Clark + Jessamine NAICS 2382/2383 sorted by file date + chamber introduction
Existing small federal sub with active CAGE/UEI, FCL at secret level, named past-performance against one or more of BPBG / Battelle / Amentum / GP Strategies, KY principal office (Madison or adjacent), succession-aged principal. Specific named targets pending SAM.gov small-business + KY SoS reconcile. Name withheld pending consent

Federal-vendor pass-through aggregator acquisition target — categorical (FCL + named past-performance)

3+ years federal past-performance preferred; FCL active
- Active CAGE + UEI in SAM.gov
- Facility clearance at secret level (DCSA verified)
- Named past-performance against at least one of the four primes at BGAD
- Kentucky principal office of record
- Principal at or near succession-age window
SAM.gov entity search (NAICS 562211 / 541330 / 541620 / 561210, state=KY) + KY SoS principal-office reconcile + DCSA FCL list cross-reference + chamber introduction

Mixed

Some signals, not all

Owner-operator KY-domiciled staffing firm, $1.5M–$5M revenue, 1–2 branch offices in Lexington / Bluegrass region, NAICS 561320 light-industrial book, principal in the 55–70 succession band. Identification path runs KY SoS NAICS 561320 entity pull + age-of-formation filter + manual confirmation of operating revenue band via D&B / chamber introductions. Restructure recruiter desks around skilled-trades verticals; execute EKU advisory-board introduction and BGCAPP rapid-response coordination as positioning. Name withheld pending consent

Lexington/Bluegrass-region staffing acquisition + Madison relocate-and-pivot
- KY SoS active entity at NAICS 561320 with formation date pre-2010
- Workers' Comp filings with KY Department of Workers' Claims indicating active manufacturing-class payroll
- Public LinkedIn presence of an owner-operator in 55–70 age band
- Existing recurring-MSA exposure with Bluegrass-region manufacturers
KY SoS NAICS 561320 dump + chamber-introduction sequence in Lexington and Madison; succession openness is the dispositive question
Lexington- or Louisville-area NAICS 811219 small-shop biomed-services firm with succession-aged principal and Madison-County customer relationships — pending KY SoS bulk pull at verificationto populate named targets. Name withheld pending consent

Regional biomed-services firm with cert-transferable customer book
- Pre-2005 entity registration
- Single-principal ownership
- No named successor on public records
KY SoS bulk pull on NAICS 811219 entities + chamber introduction at Commerce Lexington
Madison-area mechanical / electrical / abatement / industrial-services firm with public-works track record, no active CAGE, succession-aged principal. Target acquired as operating platform; federal-contracting overlay built on top by buyer. Name withheld pending consent

Adjacent specialty-trades platform for federal-overlay build

10+ years operating
- Public-works or institutional-buyer track record
- Bondable, with bonding history
- Skilled-trades workforce in Madison or adjacent
- No active federal CAGE — overlay greenfield
- Succession-aged principal
KY SoS LLC scan + Madison/Berea Chamber introduction + walk-in with NDA + 3-year P&L review
Berea-resident operators within Berea Industrial Park whose existing capability is adjacent to specialty-trade scope and who could pivot into a Vendor-Qualified sub-vendor posture without relocating. Name withheld pending consent

Berea Industrial Park tenant cross-reference pool — categorical
- Already Berea-resident — local-business preference clears immediately
- Adjacent capability (millwork shop, electrical contractor, light-manufacturing fabricator)
- Existing facility with Berea utility / occupational-license footprint
Berea Industrial Development Corporation tenant-roster pull + Berea Chamber introduction sequencing

Long tenure

Long tenure, no exit signal yet

Regional hospital-system biomed shop senior technician with established customer relationships and a non-compete window expiring or side-book carve-out opportunity. Typically the source of a founder's pipeline rather than the target of a transaction; partnership-into-equity structure is the realistic pathway. Name withheld pending consent

Senior BMET with non-compete-window carve-out
- 10+ years tenure at a single regional hospital system
- AAMI member network presence
- Non-compete window inside 12 months
AAMI Kentucky chapter outreach + warm-introduction track via Lexington-area biomed network

Bridged

Already-bridged operators — reference benchmarks, not targets

Operators whose succession transitions are publicly executed. Included as the local pattern, not as acquisition opportunities.

Bechtel Parsons Blue Grass JV (Bechtel National Reston VA + Parsons Corporation Centreville VA, joint venture per BPBG and PEO ACWA fact sheets); Battelle Memorial Institute (Columbus OH, SAM.gov verification queued); Amentum (Chantilly VA, SAM.gov verification queued); GP Strategies Corporation (Columbia MD, SAM.gov verification queued). Performing at BGAD; not Madison-headquartered. Reference benchmarks for the federal-vendor teaming aggregator candidate; not acquisition targets. Name withheld pending consent

BGCAPP federal primes — named customers, place-of-performance dollars only (not acquisition targets)
- Named teaming subcontractor structure at BGCAPP per PEO ACWA
- Out-of-state principal office
- Place-of-performance dollars at BGAD, not Madison-vendor revenue
Messer Construction Co. (Cincinnati/Lexington — dominant historical Berea GC, 1932-founded); D.W. Wilburn Inc. (Berea KY 40403, founded 1986, 440+ projects across 66 KY counties); Codell Construction (Winchester KY, 1914-founded, fifth-generation); Whittenberg Construction (Lexington); Luckett & Farley (architect of record at Edwards Building, Bingham, Dana). Capture-management capture-management entry points for Vendor-Qualified sub-vendors flowing scope down from primary contracts. Name withheld pending consent

Named GCs serving Berea College capital pipeline — reference benchmarks (not acquisition targets)
- Multi-decade tenure
- Published Berea College or EKU project portfolios
- Sub-trade flow-down practices not public — verificationcapture-management calls required
Steris IMS / STERIS plc (parent Mentor OH); Agiliti Health (Louisville service center 3881 Business Park Dr); SterilMed (J&J / Ethicon subsidiary); TRIMEDX (national clinical-engineering); Auxo Medical (Lexington autoclave specialist); BMES (Louisville depot); American Surgical Instrument Repair (SDVOSB); Laerdal Medical (Wappingers Falls NY); Gaumard Scientific (Miami); Stryker Corporation; Medline Industries (Baptist Health prime distributor since 2014). Capable national defenders priced for system-scale master-service-agreement work; SAM.gov awardee-HQ verification queued for any federal-procurement framing. Name withheld pending consent

Healthcare named OEMs and national defenders — reference benchmarks (not acquisition targets)
- Named OEM or national defender
- System-scale master-service-agreement footprint
- Travel-loaded pricing creates local-route opening for Madison-HQ entrant

What we ruled out — and why.

We ruled these out because each one loses to a stronger candidate already on this list. Four economies share Madison County: EKU, Berea College, the I-75 manufacturing cluster, and Blue Grass Army Depot. The published candidates each demonstrate how the openings sit in the seams between those four, rather than in the depth of any single anchor.

Cuts below either name federal vendors at the depot before awardee-headquarters can be verified, repeat a mechanic already published at smaller scale in another county, run on credential gates wider than a working operator can carry inside an 18-month launch, or describe a generic shape that could be anywhere.

Place-of-performance trap — declined for defamation discipline

Energetics-adjacent specialty manufacturing (RDX or HMX precursor, packaging)

ATF Type 20 plus ITAR plus selling into a Bechtel, Battelle, or Amentum vendor master is structurally hostile to a Madison-sized entrant — 36-plus months minimum to first revenue. The Center of Excellence Sources Sought is a real demand signal but the credential and clearance gates do not fit a working-operator launch. The federal-vendor teaming aggregator candidate carries the depot opening without naming subcontractors before awardee-headquarters is verified.
Specific-named-vendor framing for any Bechtel, Battelle, Amentum, or GP Strategies subcontractor

Dollars performed at Blue Grass Army Depot are not Madison-vendor revenue. Naming PIKA International, D&D LLC, Schwarz Construction, Micron Air & Mechanical, Centeio Associates, Valkyrie Enterprises, Capstone Precision, Luxfer Magtech, MedVolt, or Xator as a Madison vendor before SAM.gov awardee-headquarters verification is the attribution this report explicitly avoids.

Mechanics already published in other counties at smaller scale

Tooling and progressive-die rebuild with weekend service

Mechanically identical to Warren's industrial-machinery-repair candidate (Tier-1 OEM service, out-of-state-defender displacement, weekend turnaround) and Pulaski's industrial-machinery and machine-shops candidate. Real demand at KI USA, Middletown Metalworks, and Hitachi Astemo, but adds nothing the prior counties did not already cover. The manufacturing-staffing candidate captures Madison's seam between EKU's Manufacturing Engineering pipeline and the I-75 cluster — which Warren's manufacturing-anchored candidates could not.
Forklift-fleet aftermarket service to the Hyster-Yale customer base

Real demand against an assembly volume of about 5,000 forklifts per year, but this is the Warren manufacturer-aftermarket-route mechanic at a different OEM. No new dimension.
Senior in-home personal-care at the $63,000 median-income tier

Pulaski's Medicaid-waiver candidate at a higher median-income band already runs this mechanic. Madison's median supports a private-pay personal-care market, but Pulaski's lessons-learned warns against lifting that candidate forward without redoing the math from scratch.
Specialty outpatient imaging — fixed MRI or PET in Berea

Certificate of Need risk is the whole game and the buyer is a radiology group, not a working operator. The mobile sterile-processing and biomed candidate covers Baptist Health adjacency without the Certificate of Need regulatory dependency.
EKU-graduate-retention remote professional services (CPA, fractional-CFO, IT managed-services)

Saturated-professional-services shape already covered in a prior county at the higher-income tier. Remote-delivery-as-moat is real but adds nothing here. The honest read on saturation survives in the typology framing without consuming a candidate slot.

Credential gates wrong-sized for the operator-reader

Battery-thermal / NVH testing lab as Tier-2 to Hitachi/Honda BEV programs

A2LA accreditation + 5-8 PhDs + dynamometer + climatic chamber. Capex and credential gap is a wall, not a hurdle. The operator-reader profile of this volume does not include a strategic-capital play that requires a multi-year accreditation campaign as the launch step.
Industrial-hygiene / EHS managed services

CIH (Certified Industrial Hygienist) credential is multi-year and cannot be partner-acquired around inside the volume's 12-18-month investigation horizon — ABIH does not allow an unlicensed owner to sign reports. The manufacturing staffing candidate (published) covers I-75 cluster demand without the credential constraint.
Aramark Kentucky-Proud sub-vendor carve-out at EKU

Selling into Aramark national procurement with 'when financially feasible' contract language is the textbook hostile-vendor-master case. Years of paperwork for a contract Aramark can re-bid away; the BMET cross-route candidate (published) covers EKU adjacency without the vendor-master dependency.

Generic shape — could be any county

I-75 commuter grab-and-go or breakfast-bowl drive-thru

Chain-defended shape with no Madison edge. The commuter-shift childcare candidate carries the I-75 commuter economy without the chain-saturation risk.
Equine bluegrass-edge farm services on Madison's northern fringe

Real demand from Jessamine and Clark farm operators, but this is a Fayette-spillover business with a Madison address rather than a Madison opportunity.
Reverse-commute warehousing on I-75 exits 87 and 90 to Lexington small businesses

Real industrial real-estate dynamic, but a real-estate play more than an operator candidate. The manufacturing-staffing candidate covers the cluster's labor underbuild with a working-operator mechanic.
Photography or digital content production for the Berea artisan economy

Very low moat. Lifestyle-business shape. The Berea College Vendor-Qualified trades candidate covers the Berea-as-distinct-economy reading at higher moat.

Honorable mentions — strong candidates that lost the slot competition

Residence-hall turnover crew network (off-campus EKU student housing)

Trades-operator profile with a 90-day May-to-August demand spike against more than 10,000 off-campus students at 33 named complexes. Existing players are Lexington-based and generalist. Strong candidate, but the seasonal-trades stack was already demonstrated by Warren's institutional-cleaning candidate.
BGCAPP workforce-transition services at scale (TAA, WIOA, DCIP)

Real demand from the 245-position Battelle WARN, the broader 1,000-worker transition through 2027, and the 140-federal-employee November 2026 cliff. Named federal grant programs (TAA, WIOA Rapid Response, DCIP) and EKU plus Kentucky River Foothills as partners. The federal-vendor teaming aggregator candidate carries the depot opening more cleanly without the institutional-grant administration overhead.
EKU $26 million residence-hall renovation sub-trades (Codell, D.W. Wilburn pass-through)

A concrete EKU mechanic through named primary general contractors and live construction-bid solicitations. Lost to the Berea College Vendor-Qualified trades candidate, which runs a structurally similar sub-trade mechanic on a privately-procured invited-bid list — and adds the Berea-as-distinct-economy reading.

Frequently asked questions.

What are the largest employers in Madison County, Kentucky?: Four anchors carry most of the payroll. Eastern Kentucky University in Richmond enrolls 15,969 students and is Kentucky's third-largest public university. Hitachi Astemo Americas runs about 1,500 employees in Berea and is mid-ramp on a $153 million electric-vehicle expansion. Hyster-Yale Materials Handling assembles forklifts at 2200 Menelaus Road in Berea with roughly 850 employees. Blue Grass Army Depot is the federal anchor, with a $903 million FY26 appropriation to establish a Center of Excellence for Energetics. Baptist Health Richmond (488 employees) and Berea College (1,527 students plus faculty and staff) round out the institutional payer base.
What is Eastern Kentucky University and how does it shape the Madison economy?: EKU is the public regional university in Richmond and Kentucky's third-largest, with 15,969 enrolled in Fall 2025 and roughly $172 million in three-year federal awards. It runs Kentucky's only Manufacturing Engineering bachelor's program, launched Fall 2023, with an Engineering Advisory Board that includes Hyster-Yale, Lockheed Martin, Valvoline, Alltech, Corning, Lexmark, and Carhartt. EKU buys most commodity categories through Kentucky Finance and Administration Cabinet master contracts, which compresses the local-capture surface and pushes opportunity into sub-vendor positioning and into specialty services outside the state-master scope.
What is Berea College and why is Berea read as a distinct economy?: Berea College is a private tuition-free work-college in Berea with 1,527 students and a roughly $1.5 billion endowment that funds about 75 percent of operating expenses. It runs an invited-bid Vendor Qualification process at berea.edu/finance/purchasing rather than open public sealed-bid — Ashley Creekmore handles the $3,000 to $9,999 tier and Aurelia Brandenburg handles $10,000 and above. The College has more than $124 million in completed Ecological Renovations scope plus a $24 million CMIT building opened in 2024-25 and an Edwards Building rebuild targeted for winter 2025 completion. Berea also carries the Kentucky Artisan Center, the Welcome Center, and a tourism economy at roughly one million annual visitors — an economy structurally different from Richmond's, in the same county.
What is the Blue Grass Army Depot's place-of-performance trap?: Dollars performed at Blue Grass Army Depot are not Madison-vendor revenue. The Bechtel Parsons Blue Grass joint venture has roughly $5.52 billion across six BGCAPP awards, but Bechtel National is headquartered in Reston, Virginia, and Parsons Corporation in Centreville, Virginia. Battelle (Columbus, Ohio), Amentum (Chantilly, Virginia), and GP Strategies (Columbia, Maryland) are all out-of-state-headquartered teaming subcontractors. Naming smaller depot subcontractors as Madison vendors before SAM.gov awardee-headquarters verification by CAGE and UEI is the attribution this report explicitly avoids. The $903 million FY26 Center of Excellence for Energetics is a real future demand signal, but the candidate set does not depend on any depot dollar being treated as Madison-vendor revenue.
Richmond versus Berea — what's the difference inside the same county?: Richmond is the seat — about 38,000 residents, the EKU campus, Baptist Health Richmond's 105-bed regional hospital, and the county-government and chamber surface. Berea is the southern city — about 16,000 residents, Berea College's tuition-free work-college, the I-75 manufacturing cluster (Hitachi Astemo, Hyster-Yale, KI USA, Middletown Metalworks, Vitro, Novelis, Stemco), the Kentucky Artisan Center and the 'Folk Arts and Crafts Capital of Kentucky' tourism economy, the Berea Industrial Park, Saint Joseph Berea's 25-bed critical-access hospital, and Triple Crown Business Park. Two cities, two procurement surfaces, two chambers, two school districts (Madison County Schools plus Berea Independent Schools), in one county.
Hitachi Astemo versus Hyster-Yale — what's the difference?: Both sit in Berea on or near the I-75 cluster, but they're different mechanics. Hitachi Astemo Americas runs the Berea BK Plant with roughly 1,500 employees and is mid-ramp on a $153 million expansion announced July 11, 2023 — 752,000 square feet on 62 acres for electric-vehicle motor and battery components supplied into the Honda stack, with production ramping through 2027. Hyster-Yale Materials Handling assembles forklifts at 2200 Menelaus Road across roughly 960,000 square feet plus a 160,000-square-foot post-2019 expansion at roughly 850 employees; it's a member of EKU's Manufacturing Engineering Advisory Board. Both are master-services-agreement-driven on staffing and sub-trade work — and both feed the same manufacturing-staffing candidate on the Madison labor curve.
What business opportunities exist in Madison County under $300,000 startup capital?: Two candidates on this report sit clearly inside that range. The cross-route biomedical-equipment-technician service runs $75,000 to $175,000 in founder capital and bridges Baptist Health Richmond, the EKU School of Nursing simulation center, Saint Joseph Berea, and the Madison Health and Hospice Care Plus device population. The mobile sterile-processing and biomed service also fits the lower-capital tier on the Baptist Health adjacency. The commuter-shift extended-hours childcare candidate starts higher — $300,000 to $500,000 for a leased buildout, $400,000 to $700,000 for an acquired Madison-county center plus extended-hours and infant-room pivot.
What is the I-75 commute pattern and why does it drive the candidate set?: American Community Survey commuting tables record a 91 percent drive-alone share for Madison County, a 24-minute median one-way commute, and a wage-earner outflow exceeding 50 percent into Fayette, Scott, and Jessamine counties. UK HealthCare changes shift at 7am. Toyota Motor Manufacturing Kentucky in Georgetown — about 30 miles north via I-75 — starts production shifts at 6am. Amazon LEX1 runs 24 hours. A Berea parent leaving at 5:50am to make a 7am UK HealthCare shift can't drop a child at a center that opens at 6:30am, which is the standard envelope at 37 of Madison's 38 licensed providers. The commute pattern also pulls EKU and Berea-resident clinical staff into the cross-route biomed and manufacturing-staffing candidates.

How we read this place.

How we read this place. Madison is a county of about 95,800 on Interstate 75, 25 miles south of Lexington. Four overlapping economies share the same map: Eastern Kentucky University in Richmond, Berea College and the I-75 manufacturing cluster around Berea, Baptist Health Richmond plus Saint Joseph Berea on the healthcare side, and Blue Grass Army Depot on the federal side. The published candidates target the seams between those four rather than the depth of any single anchor.

We pulled public-record sources for the read: Census American Community Survey 5-year demographics, County Business Patterns establishment counts, Nonemployer Statistics, Bureau of Labor Statistics Local Area Unemployment, USAspending federal awards, and IRS Form 990s for institutional anchors. We ran web research across procurement portals — berea.edu/finance/purchasing for Berea College's Vendor Qualification process, KentuckyBids feeds for Madison County and Berea Independent school districts, SAM.gov for the depot Sources Sought W519TC-26-R-0019 — plus Kentucky Secretary of State entity records, Kentucky Bar Association membership, NAHB CAPS directories, IAQG OASIS aerospace certification listings, and trade press relevant to each sub-economy. Where a primary-source artifact existed (a Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development announcement, a PEO ACWA fact sheet, a Lane Report investment story, a Richmond Register dedication notice), we cite it.

Two factual disciplines shape the candidate set. First, every named federal vendor at the depot is treated as a depot place-of-performance counterpart until SAM.gov awardee-headquarters is verified by CAGE and UEI. Bechtel Parsons Blue Grass joint venture ($5.52 billion across six awards), Battelle, Amentum, GP Strategies, PIKA International, D&D LLC, Schwarz Construction, Micron Air & Mechanical, Centeio Associates, Valkyrie Enterprises, Capstone Precision, Luxfer Magtech, MedVolt, and Xator are either out-of-state-headquartered or pending SAM.gov awardee-headquarters verification. The candidate set does not depend on any depot dollar figure being treated as Madison-vendor revenue.

Second, EKU buys most commodity categories through Kentucky Finance and Administration Cabinet master agreements. The local-capture surface at the largest single institutional payer in the county is narrower than at a private university. Opportunity sits in services EKU buys outside the state-master scope — capital-projects sub-trades flowing through primary general contractors, biomedical services on the simulation-lab device population, athletics facility services, e-Campus production work — and in adjacent-to-EKU off-campus economies. Berea College runs the inverse shape — invited-bid through a Vendor Qualification list rather than open public sealed-bid — and we read it as a distinct economy inside the same county.

We have not yet reached EKU procurement (Micah Hunsucker at 859-622-4484, [email protected]), Berea College Office of Purchasing (Aurelia Brandenburg and Ashley Creekmore at [email protected]), Baptist Health Richmond materials management (859-625-3131), Saint Joseph Berea (859-986-3151), the EKU School of Nursing simulation-lab director, Hitachi Astemo or Hyster-Yale Berea HR, Donna Angel at City of Berea Economic Development (859-986-8528 option 3), Dr. Nilesh Joshi at EKU's Manufacturing Engineering program, the Madison Chamber federal-vendor working group, Kentucky River Foothills Development Council, or any of the depot primes' small-business outreach offices. Those calls are queued for verification. Where a direct conversation would change the picture — chamber consent on naming, succession openness on named operators, master-services-agreement roster verification at Hitachi or Hyster-Yale, IAQG OASIS pulls, Kentucky Secretary of State bulk pulls on each candidate's relevant NAICS — we say so on the relevant candidate page.

Source families

Census American Community Survey 5-year estimates: 2024, cross-checked against 2022 baseline
Census County Business Patterns: 2022
Census Nonemployer Statistics: 2021
Bureau of Labor Statistics Local Area Unemployment Statistics: 2024-2025
USAspending federal awards: 2023-2026 three-year window
FPDS-NG procurement detail plus SAM.gov entity and Sources Sought records: 2023-2026 (W519TC-26-R-0019 issued March 13, 2026)
PEO ACWA — BGCAPP closure overview and Bechtel Parsons Blue Grass fact sheet: 2025
Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development announcements (Hitachi Astemo $153M July 2023; Triple Crown groundbreaking May 2026): 2023-2026
Kentucky Office of Employment and Training — WARN filings (Battelle BGCAPP April 2025: 245 positions): 2025
Berea College Office of Purchasing, Facilities Management, and Office of Sustainability: Captured May 2026
EKU Department of University Procurement (Jaggaer/SciQuest portal): Captured May 2026
Lane Report, Richmond Register, WEKU, WKYT, and Stars and Stripes regional press coverage: 2023-2026
Madison Chamber and Berea Chamber rosters (member-by-name detail partial): May 2026
Web research sweep (Kentucky Secretary of State, Kentucky Office of Inspector General — Division of Health Care, NAHB CAPS, IAQG OASIS, AAMI CBET, Laerdal and Gaumard service plans, FAR and DFARS clauses): May 2026

Full Source Register with claim-level provenance is maintained internally and available on request.

Acronyms used in this report.

Show all 77 acronyms ↓

AAMI — Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation: Biomedical-equipment-technician credentialing body; issues the CBET certification.
ABET — Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology: Engineering-program accreditor relevant to EKU's Manufacturing Engineering BS.
ABIH — American Board of Industrial Hygiene: Issues the Certified Industrial Hygienist credential.
ACS — American Community Survey: Census Bureau 5-year estimates.
ACWA — Assembled Chemical Weapons Alternatives: Program Executive Office at Blue Grass Army Depot — PEO ACWA.
APEX — Kentucky APEX Accelerator: Federal-procurement counseling program; formerly Kentucky PTAC.
ATF — Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives: Federal license issuer for explosives manufacturing (Type 20 license).
BEV — Battery Electric Vehicle: Honda BEV programs supplied by Hitachi Astemo Berea.
BGAD — Blue Grass Army Depot: Federal installation in Madison County.
BGCAPP — Blue Grass Chemical Agent-Destruction Pilot Plant: Bechtel Parsons Blue Grass closure-phase program at BGAD.
BMET — Biomedical Equipment Technician: Hospital clinical-engineering role; CBET-certified track.
BPBG — Bechtel Parsons Blue Grass joint venture: Systems prime at BGCAPP.
CACFP — Child and Adult Care Food Program: USDA reimbursement program for licensed child-care centers.
CAGE — Commercial and Government Entity code: Defense Logistics Agency identifier required for federal contracting.
CAPS — Certified Aging-in-Place Specialist: National Association of Home Builders credential.
CBET — Certified Biomedical Equipment Technician: AAMI credential for the biomedical-equipment service candidate.
CCAP — Child Care Assistance Program: Kentucky subsidy program reimbursed via the DCC-300 Maximum Payment Rate Chart.
CFR — Code of Federal Regulations
CHFS — Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services: Operates the public child-care licensing search.
CHI — Catholic Health Initiatives: Corporate parent of CHI Saint Joseph Health; rolled up under CommonSpirit.
CIH — Certified Industrial Hygienist: Multi-year ABIH credential.
CMIT — Communication, Media and Information Technology: $24 million building opened at Berea College 2024-25.
CMMS — Computerized Maintenance Management System
CMTA — Commonwealth Mechanical and Technology Associates: Lexington-based MEP-engineering firm.
CNC — Computer Numerical Control: Precision-machining production category.
CPA — Certified Public Accountant
CRCST — Certified Registered Central Service Technician: HSPA sterile-processing credential.
DCAA — Defense Contract Audit Agency: Federal cost-accounting audit authority.
DCC-300 — Maximum Payment Rate Chart: Kentucky CCAP reimbursement rate schedule.
DCIP — Defense Community Infrastructure Program: Department of Defense Office of Local Defense Community Cooperation grant line.
DCSA — Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency: Administers facility clearances (FCL).
DFARS — Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement
EKU — Eastern Kentucky University: Public regional university in Richmond — Kentucky's third-largest.
FAR — Federal Acquisition Regulation: FAR 52.219-9 governs small-business subcontracting plan goals.
FCL — Facility Clearance: DCSA-administered classified-information clearance for a contractor facility.
FDA — U.S. Food and Drug Administration: Quality system regulation 21 CFR 820 governs medical-device service.
FPDS-NG — Federal Procurement Data System — Next Generation: Federal contract-award detail database.
FSC — Forest Stewardship Council: Sustainable-wood certification used in Berea College Ecological Renovations.
FTE — Full-Time Equivalent
HAL — Human Patient Simulator (Gaumard HAL S5301): High-fidelity simulation manikin in EKU's School of Nursing simulation lab.
HIPAA — Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act: 45 CFR 164 governs ePHI on imaging and pump networks.
HMX — High-Melting-point Explosive (octogen): Energetics compound named in the FY26 Center of Excellence appropriation.
HSPA — Healthcare Sterile Processing Association: Issues the CRCST credential.
IAQG — International Aerospace Quality Group: Operates the OASIS aerospace-certification registry.
IDIQ — Indefinite Delivery / Indefinite Quantity: Federal multiple-award contract vehicle structure.
IECE — Interdisciplinary Early Childhood Education: Kentucky initial teacher-certification track at EKU.
ITAR — International Traffic in Arms Regulations: 22 CFR 120-130.
KAR — Kentucky Administrative Regulations: 922 KAR 2:120 governs child-care center health and safety standards.
KEDFA — Kentucky Economic Development Finance Authority
LEED — Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design: USGBC green-building rating; Berea College's Deep Green building is LEED Platinum.
LEED-AP — LEED Accredited Professional: USGBC credential cited for the Berea College Vendor-Qualified trades candidate.
LEX1 — Amazon LEX1 Fulfillment Center: Lexington 24/7 returns operations; commuter-shift demand driver.
MEP — Mechanical, Electrical, and Plumbing: Specialty-trade scope category.
MILCON — Military Construction: Defense appropriation line for new federal construction.
NAHB — National Association of Home Builders
NAICS — North American Industry Classification System
NDAA — National Defense Authorization Act: FY26 appropriated $903 million for the Center of Excellence for Energetics at BGAD.
NISPOM — National Industrial Security Program Operating Manual: 32 CFR Part 117; governs FCL-cleared contractors.
OASIS — Online Aerospace Supplier Information System: IAQG aerospace-certification registry (AS9100D).
PEO — Program Executive Office: PEO ACWA manages the BGCAPP closure mission.
PTAC — Procurement Technical Assistance Center: Predecessor to the APEX Accelerator program.
RDX — Research Department Explosive (hexogen): Energetics compound named in the FY26 Center of Excellence appropriation.
RMA — Risk Management Association: Annual Statement Studies industry-benchmark publication.
SAM — System for Award Management: SAM.gov is the federal contractor registration system.
SBA — Small Business Administration: 7(a), 504, Microloan, HUBZone, and 8(a) programs.
SDE — Seller's Discretionary Earnings: Acquisition-valuation metric for small-business sales.
SDVOSB — Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business: SBA federal-contracting set-aside category.
TAA — Trade Adjustment Assistance: Department of Labor dislocated-worker program.
TMMK — Toyota Motor Manufacturing Kentucky: Georgetown assembly plant; 6am shift start drives the commuter-childcare demand.
UEI — Unique Entity Identifier: SAM.gov registration identifier; replaced the DUNS number.
USGBC — U.S. Green Building Council: Issues LEED and LEED-AP.
VOC — Volatile Organic Compound: Low-VOC documentation is part of Berea College Ecological Renovations specifications.
VOSB — Veteran-Owned Small Business: SBA federal-contracting set-aside category.
WARN — Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act: Battelle filed a WARN notice March 3, 2025 for 245 BGCAPP positions.
WIC — Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children
WIOA — Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act: Rapid-response dislocated-worker line.
WOSB — Woman-Owned Small Business: SBA federal-contracting set-aside category.

Disclosures.

Items we have not independently confirmed, items under active litigation, and items where the responsible party is not publicly named. Listed so a reader can weight the report accordingly.

Unverified Bechtel Parsons Blue Grass joint venture, Battelle Memorial Institute, Amentum, and GP Strategies SAM.gov awardee-headquarters verification by CAGE and UEI — every named depot prime is treated as a place-of-performance counterpart until verified
Not publicly named Federal-vendor figure of roughly $5.52 billion across six BGCAPP awards as Madison-vendor revenue — this is a place-of-performance figure at Blue Grass Army Depot, not Madison-headquartered awardee revenue
Unverified PIKA International, D&D LLC, Schwarz Construction, Micron Air & Mechanical, Centeio Associates, Valkyrie Enterprises, Capstone Precision, Luxfer Magtech, MedVolt, and Xator awardee-headquarters reconciliation against the Madison-vendor frame
Pending FY26 National Defense Authorization Act $903 million Center of Excellence for Energetics appropriation status under the final FY26 enacted budget or continuing resolution
Pending Army Contracting Command Rock Island Sources Sought W519TC-26-R-0019 (March 13, 2026) downstream solicitation timing and scope
Unverified Hitachi Astemo Berea BK Plant master-services-agreement roster, preferred-vendor list status, and tier-2 staffing-vendor posture
Unverified Hyster-Yale Berea continuous-hire posture, skilled-trades staffing vendor relationships, and current production-rate baseline
Unverified Triple Crown Business Park (1604 Farristown Industrial Drive, Berea) current letters of intent, signed tenants, and average-wage figure confirmation pending direct call to Donna Angel at City of Berea Economic Development
Not publicly named Madison-county NAICS 624410 child-care succession pool — named targets pending Kentucky Secretary of State FastTrack bulk pull on Madison-resident entities sorted by formation date
Not publicly named Madison-county and Lexington-region NAICS 2382/2383 specialty-trade succession pool — named targets pending KY SoS bulk pull and chamber introduction
Not publicly named Federal small-business pass-through aggregator candidate pool — named targets pending SAM.gov entity search reconciled against KY SoS principal-office records and the DCSA FCL list
Unverified Berea College Vendor Qualification list current sub-vendor roster and named-primary general-contractor flow-down practice
Unverified EKU procurement state-master scope boundaries and the sub-vendor pathway for services outside the Kentucky Finance and Administration Cabinet master agreements

END

Published: May 9, 2026
Last updated: May 9, 2026

Madison County