Paid parking coming to Lexington’s Distillery District. What you can expect
Visitors to Lexington’s Distillery District could soon find themselves paying for parking, as businesses there confront a shortage of spots in the city’s popular entertainment district.
In an Instagram post Tuesday afternoon, Ethereal Brewing announced customers using the parking lot it shares with other businesses in the area will soon need to validate their parking or pay up.
“We understand available parking was a huge draw for the Distillery District,” Ethereal Brewing wrote in the post. “To elevate this issue, we all collectively decided to try something new. Our lots will turn into paid parking, unless validated by the businesses the lots are allocated for.”
The change will apply to many different businesses in the district off Manchester Street.
Those include Goodfellas, James E. Pepper Distillery, Desperados Cantina, Crank & Boom, the Elkhorn Tavern, The Break Room, Wise Bird Cider Co., Halligans Bar and Grill, District 7 Social, Relic, Brevede Coffee, Massage Strong and the Dark Arts Whiskey House, according to the Ethereal Brewing social media post.
Ethereal Brewing said the change will be gradually implemented in the “near future.”
Reached by phone Tuesday afternoon, Ethereal Brewing owner Andrew Bishop said the changes will initially only impact the U-Haul parking lot, which faces the large warehouse mural — the side with businesses such as District 7 and Dark Arts.
Paid parking there will begin this week as a “trial run,” the Instagram post said.
The enclosed parking lot in the middle of the district will not be affected for the time being, Bishop said.
“Our side with the water tower and that reaches all the way down to Desperados and Crank and Boom, as of now, that side will not be affected,” Bishop said.
Available parking has been an ongoing issue for businesses in the area as the popular entertainment district has grown and been redeveloped in recent years.
Bishop said businesses have had issues with people parking in the area and going to Rupp Arena for shows or otherwise leaving their cars in the lots all day.
“As much as we don’t want to do anything, our parking lots are kind of getting overrun,” Bishop said.
How will parking validation work in the Distillery District work?
According to Ethereal Brewing, validation will work as follows:
Visitors will arrive and scan a QR code on parking lot signage.
They will enter their license plate number and select the location they’re visiting.
They’ll follow a prompt for a “complimentary 40 minute parking session.”
Visit one of the participating businesses and verify your visit with a QR code. That will extend your complimentary parking by two additional hours.
Tuesday’s Instagram post announcing the change did not indicate how much the paid parking would cost following the complimentary parking window.
Speaking to the Herald-Leader Tuesday, Bishop said the change was “mainly being spearheaded by U-Haul.”
“To a certain degree, we’re just kind of along for the ride,” Bishop said of the other businesses there.
If visitors fail to validate their parking, it’s possible they could face steep fines.
“I do believe that it would be somewhere in the neighborhood of like $20 to $30 an hour,” Bishop told the Herald-Leader.
That said, he added businesses are looking at ways to work with customers who need to leave their cars overnight, perhaps after having a few drinks, for example.
“We are aware of and looking at the options for people to be able to safely leave their car and not be charged,” Bishop said. If someone is accidentally charged, Bishop added, “there will be a fairly simple way to be able to appeal that.”
“We can tell the parking attendant to basically refund the charge,” he said.
Bishop added the changes may not be enforced 24/7, but could be enforced during “high-volume times.”
This story was originally published July 8, 2025 at 4:16 PM.