By Chaise Sanders
bhamnow.com
Parking—it’s a headache sometimes. Now that downtown Birmingham is bustling with new business, restaurants, apartments and hotels, where are we going to park? Well, we’re just in luck. The city’s Design Review Committee recently gave the thumbs up for a new parking deck downtown.
According to the Birmingham Business Journal, Ascent Hospitality Management will build a new deck at 1901 1st Ave. N. right across from Jemison Flats. They’re the same company that renovated Elyton Hotel and are developing Macaroni Lofts, so the project is in good hands.
The new deck will add an additional 10 levels with 720 parking spaces downtown. For urban planning aficionados, the plan is to build up and not out. There is currently a two-story public parking deck in that spot and it’s about to get a lot bigger.
The parking deck is in an extremely busy part of downtown and the additional parking is sure to benefit many. Now motorists can park closer to their favorite hangout spots like:
- Elyton Hotel
- The Pizitz
- Brick & Tin
- Bistro V
- Trattoria Zaza
- Paramount Bar
- McWane Center
- Alabama Theatre
- Atomic Lounge
- Railroad Park
This parking deck is a huge win for the city. If you’re anything like me, you give up on trying to find a parking space after two or three circles around the block. Also, who has a handful of quarters at their disposal 24/7? It’s simple. Good parking gets people out and about.
Luckily, Birmingham is looking to introduce ParkMobile which would make parking a breeze.
The City Council last month voted to approve a contract with ParkMobile to add a pay by app parking payment option to city meters.
The panel also voted to amend the city’s parking ordinances to allow for coinless payments.
ParkMobile helps motorists find and pay for parking on their mobile devices. Users will be charged a $0.45 convenience fee to pay by app per transaction. ParkMobile will receive $0.30 of that fee and $.015 will be for a card processing fee. The contract offers the ParkMobile service at 8,000 parking spots in the city for the next three years and will include street and deck parking.
“This is a huge step forward for modernizing and making parking much more customer oriented, friendly, modern and easy,” said Lakey Boyd, Deputy Director of the city’s Department of Transportation.
Motorists should be able to use the app in 45 days.
For more on the modern, mobile guide to Birmingham visit www.bhamnow.com.
