It takes only a warm, sunny day to make the Lexington Distillery District one of the busiest, most bustling spots in town.
To the historic site of the James E. Pepper Distillery on Manchester Road comes a throng of bohemians, blue bloods, babies, boomers and everything in between. They arrive in search of eats, drinks, retailing, entertainment and parking spots.
The historic James E. Pepper distillery, revitalized in 2008 by Amir Peay, was a catalyst for the Distillery District’s development into an entertainment and retail complex.
Yes, parking spots. The lot, which six decades ago served a couple hundred Pepper employees, wasn’t designed to host several hundred cars at once. In what could be called the Distillery District Driving Tour, patrons navigate the 27-acre complex seeking a slot. Others give up and go elsewhere, said Jeff Wiseman, co-owner of Barrel House Distillery and Elkhorn Tavern.
“When it’s really busy, you’ll see people circle around and then leave,” said Wiseman. “It’s a fine problem to have. There’s so much going on here that plenty just drive until they find a spot.”
As the Distillery District’s first tenant in 2008, Wiseman has watched the explosive business growth at the long-idled site. Barrel House moved in because it needed an industrial site for spirits distillation, but Wiseman and co-owner Pete Wright were also attracted by the promise of its mixed-use zoning that would attract a variety of retail businesses.
“Coming to [the Distillery District] isn’t like going to Maker’s Mark, where you have just one experience,” Wiseman said. “There are two distilleries, two micro-breweries, a cider place, ice cream and a lot of food options.”
What it was, and what it could become In 2005, a property development group toured the Pepper site to discuss how to turn the abandoned factory into a business park.
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Developer Barry McNees said many buildings and elements were purposely left in an unpolished state to retain an “authentic grittiness”.
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The bedraggled buildings appeared better suited for use as a haunted house, not a hip and happening consumer center. But the complex’s bones were solid, making it easier for visitors to ignore the broken windows and leaking roofs.
“A Lexington city councilmember called it ‘the DMZ of Lexington,’ because he thought nothing positive could happen there,” said Barry McNees, managing member of the Lexington Distillery District. “Sometimes it’s hard to look past what something is and imagine what it could be.”
“Sometimes it’s hard to look past what something is and imagine what it could be.” — Lexington Distillery District managing member Barry McNees
The group also was excited about the Pepper complex’s history. Its builder, Col. James E. Pepper, was a third-generation distiller whose family began making whiskey at the dawn of the American Revolution. According to the distillery’s website, Pepper was a bourbon industrialist and a flamboyant promoter of Kentucky whiskey and horse racing.
The group also loved the complex’s industrial aesthetic: soaring ceilings, uninterrupted sight lines, loads of natural lighting, brick furnaces, boilers and coal bins.
“We purposely haven’t polished things so that it retains some authentic grittiness that keeps it real,” McNees said.
Here come the neighbors
The complex’s distillery building saw a growth spurt begin in 2014 with the opening of Ethereal Brewing Co. Goodfellas Pizzeria’s large restaurant and craft cocktail bar arrived next, followed by Crank & Boom Ice Cream, Middle Fork restaurant and The Break Room bar. A 2,500-square-foot wood deck and mezzanine overlooking Town Branch Creek was built beside the distillery building to give visitors a spot to lounge outside.
Ethereal Brewing Co. opened in 2014.
Ethereal taproom manager Chris Bucher said the brewery’s owners were unsure how the business would do in what was then a still-rough space. But when those eateries arrived, they got their answer.
“We saw a big spike when Goodfella’s opened,” Bucher said. “They usually have a line out the door, so people will stop in our spot, get a beer and then go eat. The whole thing now is blowing up into this big, awesome place.”
With the distillery buildings fully occupied, McNees is now focused on the Pepper Rickhouse, a five-story, 200,000-square-foot building. The brick and concrete structure once held thousands of barrels of whiskey, but now retailers are moving into its ground floor as its upper floors are being converted into moderately priced apartments. Relic Lexington, which sells wares made from vintage and reclaimed materials, opened last November. It’s since been joined by Massage Strong, Fusion Brewing, Battle Axes and Wise Bird Cider Co., which opened in June.
“We pushed hard to get in here,” said Relic owner Chad Tussey. Already a fan of the Distillery District, he wanted to tap into its existing customer base with a retail option.
“The space was perfect for what we needed: 3,000 square feet and high ceilings ... for oriental rug racks.”
To moderate parking woes, a lot behind the Pepper Rickhouse was recently paved and painted. To keep customers from walking out onto Manchester, which has no sidewalks, doors added to both sides of the building created a path through Relic.
“Having people walk through the store gives us great exposure,” Tussey said.
Greta Wright said she and husband Tim Wright were lucky to land their Pepper Rickhouse space for Wise Bird Cider.
“When we saw it, I said, ‘Wow, I can’t believe somebody hasn’t nabbed it,’” said Wright, who moved here from Virginia, just outside Washington, D.C., to be near family and to open the cidery. The business is making traditional cider using fresh apple juice fermented and bottled on site. “Opening our business here made much more fiscal sense than trying to do it in D.C. ... And this location has so much history.”
Blessed with traffic, cursed by parking
Despite the blessing of new businesses and, as early as 2021, residents in upper-floor apartments, parking woes are expected to worsen, and presently no plans exist for resolving them. Patrons who can’t find spots currently park in empty lots near the Pepper complex or along Manchester. Yet without sidewalks, foot traffic along the road remains a concern. Solutions to those problems aren’t easily executed, McNees allowed.
Manchester Street is state owned and currently zoned industrial. Any funding and approval for changes such as sidewalks would have to come from Frankfort. And even if Distillery District owners paid for sidewalks along Manchester, they’d fall well short of sidewalks planned for Town Branch Trail, the construction of which through the area is slated to begin in 2020. At least one mixed-use project, tentatively called Distillery District Park, is also in planning stages along the north side of Old Frankfort Pike, which would potentially bring more traffic to the area.
McNees said, ideally, he wished civic leaders at all levels would make a long-term play by adding parking lots and sidewalks sooner and in anticipation of Town Branch Trail. “Why not do it now for the safety of all involved?”
Remaining options, he said, include purchases of properties along Manchester or on the other side of Town Branch Creek, which would require customers to cross a footbridge to get to the Pepper complex businesses. Barrel House’s Wiseman said the good news is most customers accept the parking challenge as a minor consequence of visiting the Distillery District’s businesses.
“Sure, it’s a deterrent to some extent, but I think most see it as a normal inconvenience of being in an urban area,” he said. Such explosive growth rarely happens without challenges, he said, and that every business owner in the area has committed to helping each other manage the crowding issues. “I can’t ask for better neighbors. We all want to see each other benefit. Like I said, this is a great problem to have.”