http://abclocal.go.com/wjrt/story?se...cal&id=6305496
Ground will be broken this week
By Joel Feick
FLINT (WJRT) -- (08/04/08)--Ground will be broken later this week on a new $10 million parking structure for downtown Flint.
It will be built at the corner of Kearsley and Beach on land that had been owned by Citizens Bank.
The Downtown Development Authority will own the new parking deck, and will sell bonds to pay for it. Some of the money will also be used to repair an existing parking deck adjacent to the Character Inn.
No city money will be used for the project
The head of the DDA says it's a good news, bad news story.
The bad news? With all that's going on downtown, parking has become a problem at times.
The good news? The structure will be four floors and will house 388 new parking spaces.
It won't be for people who are stopping into the nearby Secretary of States offices, for instance. They'll be directed to the surface lot across the street. IThe new structure will largely be for people who work downtown. They'll pay $60 a month to park here.
"You get Rowe Engineering down here with 100-plus employees. Wade Trim coming in. Your competitor, Channel 5, is in. We now have the Community Foundation here on the Main Street rather than in their own lot. All of those folks need extra parking," said DDA's Larry Ford.
Larry Ford, from the DDA, expects the new facility will be open by June of next year.
Then as we hopefully get some successes with regard to the hotel, I'm hoping that the Crim will be able to make those numbers work. But then we gotta accommodate that hotel. Right now we're not, and right now my ramp at the hotel is full," Ford said.
Ford feels it will set the standard for future development downtown.
"It's gonna set the standard for other things that are gonna happen in this community. We're pleased about some other potential development down here."
The new parking center will be called the "James Rutherford Parking Structure," named for Flint's former mayor and longtime booster of downtown Flint.
The plan is to have the structure open by next June.