New parking garage to open next fall
$24M project may be ready as early as next summer, price rate set at $5
by Boyd Fletcher
The Metropolitan.
Students may have access to the new parking garage being built at the
corner of Ninth Street and Auraria Parkway by next summer.
According to Mark Gallagher, director of parking and transportation for
the Auraria Higher Education Center, groundbreaking for the five-story
garage started on time around Labor Day, and while not in time for the
start of summer classes, construction should be complete by the start
of classes next Fall semester.
Gallagher said the new garage, north of the Tivoli and west of the Metro
baseball field, will add 800 parking spaces to the roughly 6,000 already
on campus.
The new spaces will help to alleviate the stress caused by the roughly
1.9 million people who use the parking facilities every year for school,
work or special events.
According to Gallagher, the garage will cost roughly $24 million.
Money for the garage comes from a $19.5 million revenue bond loan to
be paid back over the next 20 years, as well as about $5 million in reserve
money from parking and transportation services.
Recent parking rate increases of up to 75 cents in other lots around
campus go toward paying off the loan, but also go toward other services
such as the completion of 10 “smart” classrooms and repairing
part of the Events Center roof.
Parking rates for the new garage have been set at $5, with no plans to
increase the current rate of $3.75 in the Parking and Transportation Center.
Like the PTC, in the new garage students will pay as they exit, however
Gallagher plans to convert to pay-as-you-park for non-school-related events.
The location was carefully selected to maximize its use for both school
and non-school related activity and to help improve the flow of traffic
around campus during school hours.
The garage entrance on Walnut Street will help the flow of traffic in
and out of campus. Students will have to turn off Auraria Parkway south
onto Ninth Street, then left on Walnut into the entrance.
According to Gallagher, this will help alleviate traffic congestion.
“Having the entrance on Walnut is stacking prevention so Ninth
Street doesn’t back up and clog Auraria Parkway,” Gallagher
said.
The garage will be available for Pepsi Center and other downtown events
as well, Gallagher said.
Non-school-related events are an expected source of income for the Auraria
Parking and Transportation Center.
“One shortfall this year was the loss of the Avalanche games,”
Gallagher said.
With the NHL on strike this season, nearly $350,000 dollars in parking
revenue is lost as the Pepsi Center sits dormant most weeknights.
“That $350,000 is profit over and above our budget,” Gallagher
said. “We’ll still be within our budget without it.”
The new garage is being built in place of the old tennis courts that
have been unused since the Metro tennis team began practicing at the Gates
Tennis Center in Cherry Creek last spring.
According to Gallagher, six new tennis courts will be built at the northeast
corner of the athletic fields with funds from PTC.
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