Plans to convert the Lexington’s Distillery District’s rickhouse building into a U-Haul self-storage facility will not impact the iconic mural painted in 2014 by French street artist MTO, company officials said.
Lexington’s Distillery District, just west of downtown, is a collection of locally owned businesses, restaurants and entertainment venues. The area has also become a hub for the region’s growing craft beverage industry, with two breweries, two distilleries and a cidery located on the 25-acre property that originally housed the historic James E. Pepper Distillery.
The James E. Pepper Distillery, founded in 1780, began distilling whisky in Lexington in the late 1800s but ceased all operations in the 1960s, leaving the campus and its buildings abandoned for more than half a century. Revitalization of this now vibrant and growing area began in 2006 with the establishment of Barrel House Distillery. Since that time the Distillery District has welcomed businesses such as The Break Room, Goodfellas Pizzeria, Crank & Boom Ice Cream, and others.
An anchor of the Distillery District, the historic distillery’s former rickhouse, reaches higher than the buildings around it. The nearly 200,000 square foot building houses several tenants on its first floor, but the upper floors of the building have remained vacant for decades.
Recently, the rickhouse property was purchased by U-Haul, which plans to renovate the building into a 1,400 unit climate-controlled self-storage facility as part of its adaptive reuse program. This initiative supports infill development to promote sustainability in communities where they operate.
Understandably, both the first-floor tenants of the rickhouse and fans of the Distillery District expressed concerns about what this acquisition could mean for the character of the area. In this tight-knit community, business owners have made personal investments in their businesses and often collaborate.
Tom Wilmes
Tim and Greta Wright opened the Wise Bird Cider Company in the Distillery District’s rickhouse building in 2019.
That feeling of community and promise of growth is what prompted Tim Wright and his wife, Greta, to open Wise Bird Cider Co. in June 2019 in the creek-side corner of the rickhouse, with a large outdoor seating area overlooking Town Branch Creek.
“When we decided to open the cidery, we decided to do it here in the Distillery District. We were excited about where this part of town was going at the time,” he said.
“Part of the vision was that the rickhouse would become a mixed-use space — offices, condos, hotel — some combination of those categories that involve people,” he said. “We saw that as a benefit to us to invest here, in the hope that it would continue to be a destination for both locals and tourists, and that it would also transition into a part of town where people would be living.
“Parking is already a problem, and now we will have more people who come down to store things that aren’t customers of the businesses here. That, I think, is going to be the challenge we’re all going to face. How do we bring those people in to support our businesses?”
Chad Tussey, owner of Relic Lexington and Vibe Fitness, both also located in the rickhouse, echoed Wright’s concerns.
“When I first heard about it, I was concerned, like everybody else. We had hoped that something different might happen, like it might be residential above us,” he said.
“In my mind, though, I look at it and think that if we do have a U-Haul here and they have an office and trucks here, that is driving daytime business down here. My businesses are both daytime. The majority of the businesses here thrive off of the nighttime crowd, but they are still open during the day. This can be a boon for everyone,” Tussey said.
Relic Lexington, specializing in furniture, rugs, and home accessories with a rustic feel, opened at the end of 2018.
Vibe Fitness, located next door to Relic, opened by Tussey and his wife, Rachel, in 2020, is a fitness studio focusing on barre, yoga, boot camps and kickboxing, with small classes and state-of-the-art sound and lighting.
Christopher Minnich, U-Haul Company of Louisville president, is working to reassure everyone that they want to be a positive part of the community at the Distillery District.
“We do not want to impact this community in a negative way. We are hoping to bring a positive service — not only to serve the downtown and college student community but also to help create more foot traffic for the businesses in the district,” Minnich said.
“We don’t want to interfere with any of the tenants or the local businesses. We’re huge on supporting small businesses. In our market alone, we have over 300 independent businesses that use U-Haul,” he said. “In this location, we’re looking to build a building on the opposite side of the property so that we don’t interfere with the existing tenants and what the businesses are doing, and with the traffic coming and going on a daily basis.”
So far, most of the tenants of the rickhouse plan to stay. Although Battle Axes, an ax-throwing venue, was already planning to relocate in order to expand and add additional activities, no one else has made plans to leave. And, according to Minnich, businesses are continuing to express interest in locating to the rickhouse.
Both Wright and Tussey agree that UHaul’s ownership and planned renovation of the building is a big plus for all tenants.
“The advantage of the Fortune 500 company coming in and buying this building is that they have the cash flow to make the capital repairs that this building desperately needs,” Wright said.
Said Tussey: “They are replacing the roof, installing new gutters, adding passenger elevators, and are going to pave the rest of the gravel lot and install new, better lighting outside. It will add about 200 parking spaces.”
Many have asked about the status of the large mural painted on the building by French street artist MTO in 2014 as a part of Lexington’s annual PRHBTN festival.
“The last thing we want to do is impact [the mural],” Minnich said. “It’s huge for the local community and the Distillery District. We are currently working on our plans, and we’re going to do the best we can to preserve it.”
For Wright, ideally “we could have some additional parking available when we’re open, and the building is improved but isn’t materially changed in a way that detracts from the look and feel as it is currently,” he said.
Which, according to Minnich, squares with U-Haul’s plans for the property.
“We want to preserve locations like this through adaptive reuse,” he said. “There are businesses that could go into the building that would greatly impact the existing businesses, but we want to keep that from happening.
“We want to keep everybody in the area growing. A lot of these businesses have invested a lot of money in this location, and we want them to succeed.”