The Webb Companies is Central Kentucky’s oldest and largest commercial real estate firm, specializing in commercial development, finance, leasing, brokerage, tenant representation and asset management. Since its inception, The Webb Companies have completed millions of square feet of commercial real estate space in Lexington Kentucky and Fayette County. This includes a wide selection of downtown and suburban office space, mixed-use developments, retail shopping centers, apartments and residential developments, warehouses and other industrial facilities.
Company founders, Donald and R. Dudley Webb were born and raised in the Appalachian coal mining town of Whitesburg in Letcher County, Kentucky. The brothers went on to earn law degrees from the University of Kentucky and founded the firm now known as Webb, Hoskins, Brown and Thompson. In 1972, the brothers began to turn their focus to real estate development and together formed The Webb Companies. Locally, the company developed and managed all types of real estate. Under their leadership, The Webb Companies grew into one of the largest real estate development organizations in the United States. Webb developments can be found across the country from New York to San Francisco and Boston to Miami.
Even as the company grew into the nation’s third-largest diversified real estate developer with projects in more than 60 American cities, The Webb Companies’ roots always remained firmly established in Lexington, with its corporate headquarters still situated in the Lexington Financial Center, a gleaming 31-story office tower that even today, defines the Lexington skyline. In fact, its nearly 5.5 million square feet of office, retail, industrial and residential space in Lexington, Kentucky, has generated assessed tax values of hundreds of millions of dollars. Webb projects literally changed the face of downtown and all of Lexington with their hotels and office towers, specialty centers, apartments and condominiums.
Woodford Webb, son of co-founder Donald Webb, began working for The Webb Companies while in college. He learned the business from the ground up, starting in the maintenance department and progressing to property management, leasing and marketing. He joined the team full-time in 1992 as Vice President of Leasing and Property Management before attending law school and working for several years as an attorney.
Co-founder Donald W. Webb passed away in 2013, but his legacy lives on. The Webb Companies remains a family-run business. Co-founder R. Dudley Webb continues to serve as Chairman of The Webb Companies with a focus on special development projects. In 1999, Woodford Webb was named President of the company, where he oversees the company’s vast portfolio of commercial and residential investment properties as well as its new developments.