After many years of dispute and delay, the city has found a home for the proposed Mid-Block parking garage, under a new name and a block away. The city has bought a parcel on Wall Street to host a $24 million, 600-space garage, officials announced Wednesday.
“It’s been a long time coming, and we’re excited to get it under way,” said economic development chief Kelly Murphy (pictured above), ending years of negotiation by sealing the deal on a 1.062 acre site at 10 Wall Street, near the intersection of State Street.
Plans to build the Mid-Block Garage in the interior space between Elm, Wall, Church and Orange Streets fell through early last year. So the Mid-Block Garage got moved down the block, to a cheaper, more visible spot.
The city, through the Parking Authority, just bought 10 Wall Street from Southern New England Telephone Company (AT&T) for $1.85 million, said Murphy. That’s over $4 million cheaper than the original prices discussed to make way for Mid-Block.
A $4 million grant from the state Department of Economic and Community Development will defray the cost of acquisition and construction, said Murphy. The rest of the $24 million project will be funded by revenue bonds issued through the parking authority. The cost will be “guaranteed” by parking revenues, according to mayoral spokesman Derek Slap.
Mayor John DeStefano, Jr., ordered the design phase for the Wall Street Garage to begin immediately. The Parking Authority has contracted with Desman Associates to design a 600-space garage with a possible retail component.
“I would really like to see some retail on that site on the ground floor so it’s not just garage,” said Murphy. She said she foresees ground-level retail with six levels of parking above, equivalent in height to a four-story office building. The site’s grading will be analyzed to see if that plan could work.
The proposed Wall Street structure would be 200 spaces shy of the original Mid-Block plan, but Murphy said the reduction won’t cause a problem. “It’s the whole system. The key for us is to get moving on the Union Station Garage, to be honest.”
Parking authority chief William Kilpatrick estimated the garage “” the first new construction by the parking authority since the ‘80s “” would be completed by the summer of 2009.
The new spots will add to the newly expanded Temple Street garage, which just added 180 spaces, and will prove key in defraying a parking crunch when the Gateway Community College completes its relocation to downtown in 2011.
