Tag Archives: parking deck

Downtown, Parking, Rahway

No go on parking deck expansion

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Good news for some Sky View residents: They get to keep their view. The Parking Authority passed on the idea of adding two levels to the existing parking deck at Lewis and Main streets.

Executive Director Donald Andersen said commissioners had concerns about the cost effectiveness and shutting down a large portion of the garage during construction, as well as possibly Main and Lewis streets. Construction probably would have last four to five months in either case and two levels of the garage would be closed.

Adding one level would have cost $2.6 million and created another 85 spaces ($31,000 per) while two levels would have cost $4.8 million and added 170 spaces ($29,000 per). The existing six-story parking deck, which opened four years ago with 524 spaces, cost $11 million (which works out to about $21,000/space).

Commissioners discussed the “Vertical Expansion Feasibility Draft Report,” prepared by Tim Haahs & Associates of Blue Bell, Pa., at their November meeting.

Andersen said the parking study commissioned last summer will hopefully be completed by the end of March.

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Downtown, Parking, Rahway

Study to evaluate parking deck, needs

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A consultant will evaluate downtown parking needs, including the feasibility of constructing a deck on Lot B (behind East Cherry Street) and adding two levels to the Main Street deck. A preliminary report to the Parking Authority is expected by the end of the year.

Until the residential housing meltdown of the last several years, the parking deck at Lot B (photo, below left) was to be part of The Westbury by Dornoch, which is also constructing The Savoy. Original plans included a 324-space, five-story parking deck, 150 condos and 17,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space.

Instead, the Parking Authority and the city will take the lead on the Lot B garage. City Administrator and Redevelopment Director Peter Pelissier said the developer would be back-charged for each unit that would require a space in the deck. Changes also will require renegotiations to the redevelopment agreement with Dornoch, which could take several months, said Redevelopment Agency attorney Frank Regan.

Developers have spent about $5.5 million in recent years to assemble properties for The Westbury project, according to Regan. That total could surpass $7 million once they acquire the Greek-American Deli on Main Street and a Parking Authority parcel, he added, and so the project has simply become too cost prohibitive to put together at this point.

In an interview after last week’s Parking Authority meeting, Chairman Matt Dobrowolski said there’s already been discussion with the city administration about a possible third location for a parking deck. “We’re looking long-term, not just the Dornoch project,” he said. Adding two levels at the Main Street deck (photo, right) is more difficult with Carriage City Plaza now constructed, he said, but they have the ability to do it although it won’t solve the Lot B issue.

The Main Street deck took about a year to erect and Dobrowolski expects the same timeline with the Lot B deck. Opened in December 2004, the six-story, 524-space deck cost $11 million — $3 million of which is to be paid back to NJ Transit.

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Uncategorized

Some street parking to be restored

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After meeting with the Traffic Bureau on Monday, City Administrator and Redevelopment Director Peter Pelissier said areas around downtown have been identified to restore some parking spaces lost after two-way traffic was established. He estimated between 20 and 30 spaces might return and it would happen as soon as signage and striping can be completed, which he said could be a couple of weeks. About 40 spaces were lost initially.

Some of the parking spaces to be restored include two to three spots on East Milton just under the train tracks and on Main Street opposite the retail stores, where one owner said his business has dropped off by as much as 50 percent since on-street parking was eliminated.

In an interview after last week’s City Council pre-meeting conference, Pelissier also mentioned other long-term possibilities to address downtown parking: something on Coach Street to accommodate the arts center, and the corner of Elizabeth Avenue and Main Street, which currently houses a construction trailer for the Park Square project.

Changes in the Parking Authority’s rates that took effect Aug. 1 include the first 30 minutes free in the Main Street deck.

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Carriage City Plaza, Downtown, Parking, Rahway

Parking deck permits going up 30 percent

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A 30-percent increase in the monthly cost of parking permits for the Lewis Street garage has sparked a petition drive.

Tina Morgan and others who use the deck are collecting signatures for a petition they plan to present to the Parking Authority. She will be collecting signatures outside the deck on Thursday from 6 to 7:15 p.m., Friday morning, and again from 3 to 5 p.m. that day.

Raising rates had been mentioned as a possibility earlier in the year, but the Parking Authority Board of Commissioners at its June meeting approved increasing the monthly rate for the new parking deck by $20 — from $65 to $85.

Permits for surface lots are going up by $10, roughly 20 percent, from $50 to $60 or $55 to $60. The only fees that won’t see increases are a lot leased from St. Mary’s Church and permits in Lot B (behind The Waiting Room), which are downtown residents and merchants, said Parking Authority Executive Director Don Andersen.

Commissioners, who meet the first Wednesday of the month, discussed fee increases at their May meeting, according to minutes. At least one commissioner suggested Rahway’s rates are “very low” compared to other towns while another said the increases “would not be as bad as originally proposed.” The garage began 24-hour operations June 3 in anticipation of the opening of Carriage City Plaza. Condo residents were expected to begin moving in this month.

Morgan, who uses the deck daily before taking a train to her job in Newark, said the only other neighboring parking deck with comparable rates to Rahway’s $85 is in Elizabeth at $90. She suggested the fee hike be staggered — increasing by $10 this August, and another $10 next August — to make it “more digestible.”

Morgan offered an excerpt of the letter she plans to present to Parking Authority commissioners at their next meeting, Wednesday, July 2 at 6:30 p.m. in the parking deck, 67 Lewis St.:

“We are at the mercy of the Parking Authority since the more reasonably priced surrounding lots have all been removed and no longer available to us. We hope that because the deck is now, for the most part, the ‘only game in town,’ that you would not treat your loyal patrons so cavalierly. We understand $3 million were contributed to the City of Rahway by NJ Transit to allow for the deck to be built. It would seem that NJ Transit’s interest in providing such a grant would be to encourage the public to take mass transit as opposed to overburdening our already heavily congested thoroughfares. We don’t think that the grant was given to eventually price-out the average person who takes the train from Rahway and raise the parking fee to become almost as high as the train fare. This does not seem fair, good business or in the spirit of community, which the Parking Authority heralds on the Web site.”

The $11-million Lewis Street deck opened in December 2004. Of the 524 spaces, 209 are set aside for condo owners at SkyView. Through Tuesday night, Morgan reported 127 signatures on the petition.

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Downtown, Parking, Rahway

Talk of office/parking complex near RSI

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The parking lot behind the RSI bank on Irving Street (left) is being looked at as a potential parking deck/office space development, according to City Administrator/Redevelopment Director Peter Pelissier.

“It’s all talk at this point,” Pelissier said in an interview after the May 7 Redevelopment Agency meeting, with a possibility of trying to get included in the Urban Transit Hub Tax Credit Program, which aims to attract office space in proximity to rail stations.

For those counting at home, that’s a 524-space parking deck currently at Main and Lewis streets, and plans for a 324-space deck at The Westbury, a five-story deck as part of the Town Center project, and a deck at the lot near RSI would make it four decks downtown.

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The Westbury: 18-24 months

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The Westbury won’t be constructed until after The Savoy is completed, which likely means another 18 to 24 months, according to Redevelopment Director/City Adminstrator Peter Pelissier.

Pelissier said as far back as a February Redevelopment Agency meeting (.pdf) that developers of The Westbury were not ready to build and might be interested in a joint venture on the construction of a parking deck. The 150-unit development proposal, along Main Street across from The Savoy in Rahway’s “Gas Lamp Quarter,” includes 17,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space and a 324-space deck.

Steel is expected to be delivered for The Savoy project at the end of May, he said. A quarter of the 36 units were under contract as of last month.

In an interview after the May 7 Redevelopment Agency meeting, Pelissier said if the city were to get involved with building a parking facility, it would then need to charge the developer for spaces, partly for the developer’s project and to absorb the loss of spaces in Lot B behind East Cherry Street.

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Uncategorized

Parking, parking, parking

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Expect some parking spaces to be lost downtown when two-way traffic returns to Main and Irving streets. The city will determine how the spaces will be reconfigured. Some will be eliminated because they are too close to intersections or just are not safe for traffic reasons. “It will create some concern,” City Administrator/Redevelopment Director Peter Pelissier said of the forthcoming reconfiguration. The city also is examining the best locations for loading/unloading areas, bus stops and 15-minute parking.

Pelissier also said there’s resistance to using the three-year-old parking deck, as it seems some people would rather drive around the block several times to find street parking. The Rahway Parking Authority is considering designating the first level of the parking garage for retail spaces so shoppers don’t have to go to the upper levels, he added. The Rahway Center Partnership also is working with merchants to devise an incentive in parking fees, such as a restaurant giving $1 off a customer’s bill so they only end up paying 25 cents for parking.

“I find it’s pretty full during the day,” Redevelopment Agency Commissioner Carlos Garay said during Wednesday night’s meeting, adding that he uses it “pretty often.” After 6:30 or 7 p.m, the deck is “quite empty from a restaurant standpoint,” Pelissier said.

There are about 150 spots currently used by construction workers and there will be 209 spaces set aside for the new condos at the adjacent hotel once it opens in the spring. The $11-million, 524-space parking deck opened in December 2004.

“There will be some problems when Lot B (behind The Waiting Room) is developed,” Pelissier said. “Those cars have to go somewhere.” Plans for The Westbury include a 324-space parking deck at the current site of Lot B, as well as 200-plus condos along Main Street.

Pelissier said parking rates also will have to examined in an effort to keep the Rahway Parking Authority solvent. Currently, 12-hour parking permits cost $65 per month. “We’ll see if we have to increase parking rates.”

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