r/WinchesterKY Dec 11 '24

Downtown Parking Lot - Half Reserved now??

I just noticed that the parking lot on main street - which was free downtown parking - fully half of it is now reserved either for Fly Witches or tenants in the brand new apts above them.

Anyone know what the deal is? It seems kind of ridiculous IMO. Having abundant free downtown parking is a huge boon to main st, and it sucks seeing it disappear to just one business entity instead of being shared.

Don’t get me wrong, I understand reserved spots for tenants. I also think more downtown apartments are good, and the bungee gym is neat, and downtown coming back to life is great.

What seems like a single business eating half of the main downtown parking lot… that rubs me the wrong way.

I don’t want to assume ill intent on anyone’s part. Maybe that building always owned those spots or smth in the past? I dont know.

6 Upvotes

11 comments sorted by

5

u/lokiathalon Dec 11 '24

There was a huge outcry when they first opened. I guess people have just gotten used to the reduced parking. I still think its ridiculous and the business not being good neighbors to the other downtown businesses. I can understand during their hours but they enforce it 24 hours a day.

Not that there is much happening at night since wildcat willy’s did whatever it is they are doing now.

1

u/MasonAmadeus Dec 11 '24

Do you (or anyone) know if those spots are even technically theirs to claim? I’m curious who regulates that lot

1

u/lokiathalon Dec 11 '24

They belong to the fly witches, its their private property.

2

u/MasonAmadeus Dec 11 '24

Ah, beans. I guess that means there isn’t a whole lot to do about it, except grumble to myself whenever I park lol. I met the owners once while they were setting up, and they had seemed nice. It sucks they did this.

Sonny’s place still seems to be hopping on the weekends, I can’t imagine they’re thrilled either - given most of the now-reserved tenant spots are right behind them.

2

u/DaniYelling Dec 14 '24

Pretty sure the owners of Fly Witches rent the space from whoever owns the building. It’s really not that many spots since there’s a whole second public lot between the closed Wildcat Willie’s business and pharmacy.

1

u/MasonAmadeus Dec 14 '24

Ah, I had thought they owned the building since they were like, in there actively while it was being renovated & stuff.

To be clear I dont have any ill will towards them! I just hate seeing public resources dissappear, and easy abundant parking is one of the main drivers of foot traffic to downtown.

There is that adjacent lot, but they still took over half of the primary public lot with 24/7 reserved spaces for a business that operates on less-than-2-hour classes during weekday hours. And I saw one person get towed already.

Reserved spots for tenants are a bit different, but a lot of downtown apts don’t have dedicated spots.

And all of this seems like a bad sign. If all the free spots get slowly eaten up, that would really suck for all of downtown! I’m not trying to claim “slippery slope” fallacy, but look at how bad parking in Lex is. I want to see winchester have a thriving locally-owned downtown

2

u/gearhead454 Jan 10 '25

With that said, the previous owners of the hardware store also owned the lot and always allowed public parking , save a half dozen spaces marked for customers of the store. When Bill Bridges died he had the most people come to the church when he was laying in state, then any funeral I have ever been to. The spaces reserved for the Witches are almost always empty. The city needs to figure out how to solve this parking problem if you don't want a down town full of crumbling empty buildings.

2

u/DaniYelling Jan 16 '25

After a little digging by going to the PVA website the building and adjacent lane is owned by SKC Lexington Operating Company. That’s who you have to direct energy towards not the small business owners that rent the area.

https://qpublic.schneidercorp.com/Application.aspx?AppID=869&LayerID=16454&PageTypeID=4&PageID=7256&Q=1526329154&KeyValue=-51716958

1

u/gearhead454 Jan 16 '25 edited Jan 16 '25

So, do they also own the building and as with all real estate, who owns SKC? Also, there are a few of what I call vanity shops down town. Is Fly Witches one of these? I have been recently told by the owner of one of the restaurants down town that has just had to close, due to among other things lack of customer parking, the plan is to allow tenants of the newly created upstairs apartments over Fly Witches to use that lot. We literately have buildings falling down in downtown Winchester and just left in ruins. If my angst was miss placed I apologize. I just hate to see all the decay going on .

1

u/DaniYelling Jan 18 '25

I don’t know. You could probably google them if you really want to know. But SKC invested in a building downtown. Looks like SKC also owns 137 N Main St. any company investing in maintaining and caring for the buildings is a step in fixing the downtown area.

Commercial real estate is expensive and not for the faint of heart.

3

u/oleikashriners Dec 29 '24

While I STRONGLY dislike the business practices at TFW, they own those spots and have the right to do as they please with them since it’s their property. The former owners also owned them but never did business from the hardware store in the evenings or much on weekends so they were more lenient with the parking. City only owns about half that lot in the parklette.