Parking garage now set to open in New Year

By AMANDA RICKER Chronicle Staff Writer

Bozeman had hoped to open its new 435-vehicle downtown parking garage in time for the holiday season, but it looks like the massive concrete package won’t be delivered to the public until just after the New Year.

ERIK PETERSEN/CHRONICLE Ryan Casterline finishes concrete on a curb in front of Bozeman’s downtown parking garage Wednesday morning. The opening of the parking garage is now scheduled for the first week in January. The garage is now scheduled to open the first week in January, city parking manager Paul Burns said Wednesday.

“I wouldn’t say it’s late,” Burns said. “I would say our best hope didn’t materialize.”

The city-owned garage had been slated to open next Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving Day. Before that, officials had hoped to open it in October. The garage was originally planned to open in August.

The garage, located between Tracy and Black avenues along Mendenhall Street, will have five levels of elevator-serviced parking, 10,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space, public bathrooms and will serve as a hub for Streamline buses.

Just what businesses will be located in the retail and restaurant space remains unclear, Burns said.

Construction began on the garage in the summer of 2007 and crews are working at least six days a week to finish, said James Goehrung, facilities director.

Delays were caused in part by issues that arose with stair towers, utility lines and scaffolding. But the delays were mostly due to wet and snowy weather that kept crews from working.

“Really, a lot of the schedule right now goes back to last winter, when we had all of those snow days,” Goehrung said.

Chris Naumann, executive director of the Downtown Business Partnership, said business owners had hoped the garage would be open for the holidays, but many realize it’s a big project and a long-term investment that needs to be done right.

“We’re not building it for this December, but really to be used for the next 20 years,” Naumann said. “There are a lot of bigger concerns on people’s minds this holiday season with the economic situation.”

Once completed, the garage will be one of the larger man-made structures in the Gallatin Valley, Burns said, comprising more than 6,500 cubic yards of concrete and more than 400 tons of steel.

The parking commission has named the garage the “Bridger Park Downtown,” for the views of the Bridger Mountains from its top floors. The commission didn’t like “Bozeman Intermodal Facility,” or BIF, as it was referred to in planning documents and passed on “Central Park,” after considering that as well, Burns said.

The garage is expected to cost around $12 million, Burns said. When bids for the garage were awarded in the summer of 2007, city officials said they expected it to cost around $10.5 million.

“We’ve spent about $7 million so far,” Goehrung said. “Some items are 100 percent complete, other items are still in progress.”

For example, all the concrete for parking decks has been poured, but the elevators and other components have yet to be finished.

Funds for the garage include $4 million in federal transportation money, $6.5 million from the downtown tax-increment financing district and $1.3 million the city made selling the garage’s retail space.

Parking in the garage will cost 50 cents an hour. Monthly permits will also be available from the city for $45 for the ground floor or $50 for upper floors. For more information, contact the city’s parking clerk at 582-2337.

Amanda Ricker can be reached at aricker@dailychronicle.com or 582-2628.

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