Opinion: Under construction: Downtown parking, culture

The 396-space College Station Car Park opened in December. Its 375-space cousin, the Heer’s Car Park, will celebrate its ribbon cutting in the spring.

Missouri State University continues to announce downtown expansions, Kevin McGowan purchases the Heer’s building, Park Central Square renovation plans are under way, and the 14-screen Hollywood movie theater prepares to sell its first ticket this summer.

New customers, more residents, and improved property values are the expected dividends of these projects.

But the price of progress will be the need to develop new philosophies on parking.

Customer convenience

For the first time, four parking decks will encircle the square. Customers will be within two blocks of virtually anywhere in the core of downtown. College Station patrons can watch a movie, dine in one of its restaurants or shop in one of its stores and receive free parking with validation. The Jordan Valley Parking Garage (north of U.S. Bank on Trafficway and Benton) is free on nights and weekends.

The Davis Parking Garage recently underwent $175,000 in renovations. Its $4 fee is offset by its prime location at the core of downtown at McDaniel and Robberson.

These four public parking structures combine to provide the capacity for more 1,400 spaces. Another 2,000 free spaces are available to customers – 400 on-street spaces during both the day and evenings and 700 surface parking lot spaces on nights and weekends.

The challenge, however, for downtown is the lack of line-of-sight parking. Customers often walk just as far from acres of surface parking at the big box stores or the mall, but it’s psychologically preferable to set out directly for the objective.

One of the distinct downtown advantages to combat the lack of line-of-sight spaces is the ability to park once for several activities – shopping, dinner, theater (live or movie), dessert and/or nightlife.

Employer options

Small businesses gravitate to center city for several reasons – most notably for affordable projects and the desire to be a part of a vibrant urban area.

An example of the potential savings is that the center city zoning codes that don’t require on-site parking. This is due to the fact that many historical properties are built out to the lot line, and some short-term public parking is available for customers or clients. Properties not within center city zoning, under current Springfield code, are required to have one space for every 300 square feet of gross building area. So a 3,000-square-foot building would need 10 spaces, which, at an estimated $6,200 per space, potentially saves the downtown business $62,000 in land acquisition and development costs.

Businesses without on-site parking are then faced with a decision that is escalating with the rate of infill development: convenience versus cost.

The community improvement district is working to provide free parking lots on the perimeter with no time restrictions.

The options will be within three blocks of any area of downtown. Those who need to park closer (within one or two blocks) have several options to lease spaces at costs ranging from $25 to $50 per space per month.

Some business owners will say, “Employees are customers, too!” And they’re right. They do eat in restaurants and shop with local merchants.

But the same could be said for any big-box or mall employee, and yet, they are required to park at the back of the lot because the store cannot survive on its own internal sales. In order for the store to be profitable and sustain the employment base, they need external customers – guests – to buy their products and services.

If downtown businesses value the vibrancy and economies of scale guests provide (more than 40 restaurants), then they should be willing to lease spots in appropriate areas or park on the perimeter in a free lot and walk the extra few minutes – which could be an important initiative in company wellness.

Downtown’s infrastructure previously supported thousands and it can once again with new parking options and philosophies. The new year promises to be an exciting time for both customers and businesses.

Rusty Worley, executive director of Urban Districts Alliance, can be reached at rusty@itsalldowntown.com.[[In-content Ad]]