GAINESVILLE – A bigger shadow will soon be cast on the area surrounding the downtown Gainesville square: the city’s parking deck is about to get two-stories taller.
City Manager Bryan Lackey updated the Gainesville City Council at its work session Thursday morning about plans to add an additional 168-parking spots to the existing structure.
“We’ve already procured the services of an architect to put two more levels on that deck,” Lackey told council members.
“It was designed that way,” he added.
“They expect to have us a set of plans ready to bid by the end of this year, to be able to go to construction by the first of the year.”
Why the rush? Why the expense? Because two downtown vacant lots used by the city for parking are about to become construction sites.
Click here to read about the city’s announcement made in early May regarding a trio of mixed-use building projects coming to downtown. Two of those projects are ready to break ground and 137-parking spots will be lost once construction begins.
“Carroll Daniel Construction, which is looking to build in the Main Street lot, is pushing pretty hard. They, as a company, would like to break ground before the end of this year,” Lackey said.
That lot currently provides parking for 86 vehicles.
The other lot about to become a “hard-hat” area abuts the south side of the square along Spring Street. A retail/restaurant/luxury condominium project is planned for that site; that lot accommodates 51-vehicles at present.
“We’re going to offset those two losses of those two lots with the 168. We’re looking to move very quickly on that.”
“There’s going to be a lot of challenges over the first part of next year as those two lots come off line for construction and while we’re adding those parking spaces.”
Lackey said the third of the three downtown projects is more than a year away but his office is already planning for the loss of those parking spaces. (That lot is along the north side of Jesse Jewell Parkway, between the locomotive exhibit and Maple Street, locally known as the “old Greater South” lot.)
“That is an additional 86-spaces,” Lackey explained, “but we are looking to accommodate that.”
Lackey pointed at a building and the city block it sits on recently purchased by the city that will become a second city-owned parking deck for the downtown area.
“We’re looking at that to be a SPLOST VIII project on the north side of the square.”
“We do have a plan,” Lackey said as he concluded his presentation. “We do understand that parking is going to be a challenge over the next few months; just bear with us. We do have a long-term plan to be able to address that.”
“There’s going to be growing pains. We’re going to have to work with those merchants downtown to make sure we help keep them thriving as we look forward to the long term and all the improvements that are going to be happening in our downtown.”
