Northpinellas: Proposed garage's price tag? Not cheap

CLEARWATER -- Removing parking lots that cover much of the city's waterfront and expanding Coachman Park along the harborfront is an expensive proposition, according to a new downtown parking study getting finishing touches.

Building a 980-space garage to replace about 700 bayfront parking spaces near the Harborview Center and Main Library could cost as much as $17.4-million, according to estimates in the draft report, which city officials received this week.

The garage, which would be built on lots that serve the AmSouth Bank office building, would require a subsidy of more than $740,000 annually to be able to operate and to pay off debt the city would incur to build it, the study states.

The estimate made city officials wince.

"Ow. That's a painful number," Commissioner Hoyt Hamilton said.

"We clearly don't have that kind of revenue right now to provide that as a subsidy," said Assistant City Manager Ralph Stone, who was reviewing the report by Urbitran Associates Inc. of New York City on Thursday.

But Stone noted the financial outlook could improve if new downtown projects, such as a new concert amphitheater in Coachman Park or a nearby movie theater, someday materialize and increase the demand for a garage.

The garage's finances also would improve if the city began charging patrons of Harborview Center, Stein Mart and the future new Main Library for parking, which is now free, according to the study.

In addition, the report recommends that Clearwater raise downtown parking rates to 50 cents an hour from 10 or 30 cents an hour, and begin charging for parking on the weekends and during special events, to help finance any new garage.

Stone said that it would not be unusual for a city to take on some risk in financing a garage to encourage downtown redevelopment, with the garage eventually evolving to become self-sufficient.

Commissioners said they would only consider a garage downtown as part of an overall downtown redevelopment plan.

"We need a garage to get the parking off the bluff, so to me it's a priority," Mayor Brian Aungst said. "But it needs to be part of whatever master plan we develop."

Commissioner Frank Hibbard said he would be "willing to take on some risk, but not tremendous amounts."

"Prior to going through with something like that, we'd have to have much better ideas of the different venues that would be using that parking," he said.

In addition to the garage near Coachman Park, the study analyzed the possibilities of building smaller garages at six other sites downtown. The other locations, which included expanding the city's Garden Avenue garage or building a garage beside Station Square Park, couldn't pay for themselves, either. They required subsidies of as low as $70,000 annually, although they were much smaller and farther from the waterfront.

The study looked at several other aspects of downtown parking. Urbitran declared downtown parking enforcement to be very lax. On two days that consultants checked downtown meters, nearly 40 percent were on the blink and the cars at the meters weren't ticketed.

Additionally, the consultants determined that municipal lots have only 63 percent occupancy at the busiest times of day, while on-street parking spaces downtown are only 57 percent full and private parking lots are only 55 percent full.

"What I'm reading is that in the current situation, in most areas, our supply meets the demand," said Tracey Bruch, the city's parking manager.

But such figures don't convince small business owners such as Michele Homer of the Saltwater Fly Fisherman. The Homers think there is a lack of convenient parking near their Cleveland Street store, so they plan to relocate to South Tampa by fall.

"We can't sit and wait while the city makes up its mind about parking," Homer said. "We know some of the (private) parking garages are not full, but they're not available to us. ... With the parking problem, it's just business; and we have to move."

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