Skift Take
The story of how Nik Feldman, 29, opened his first hotel tells a bigger narrative about the sector, too.
Nik Feldman long believed that Lexington, Kentucky, was ready for a high-end boutique hotel.
Every summer in his teens, his parents sent him to the “Horse Capital of the World” to stay with a professional polo team, take care of the horses, and play in tournaments. Years later, while working in Manhattan for real estate developer Brodsky, he realized that Lexington had no hotel tailored to the city's wave of next-gen visitors.
That changed in June when Feldman and his co-founder Hank Morris debuted The Manchester, a 125-room boutique.
"My plan — not particularly well thought through — was to move to Lexington and build a great hotel — because the city needed it," said Feldman. "Easier said than done."
Feldman noticed Lexington was booming — whether it was the city’s Distillery District (revitalized in 2008), its spot on the Kentucky Bourbon Trail (which hit record visitation in 2022), its $37 million 12-acre park (set to open in two years), or the recent $300 million expansion of its convention center, Central Bank Center.
“You do a day at the races, explore the Bourbon Trail, see some horse farms, visit Lexington’s gorgeous little buttoned-up historic downtown, and go to a Ken