Photo by Olympia Development of Michigan
A surface parking lot in Detroit will be replaced with a six-story, 900-space parking garage on Montcalm Street between St. Johns’ Episcopal Church and the current Detroit Tigers’ garage.
The $28.7 million garage would be for fans attending baseball games at nearby Comerica Park, worshippers at St. Johns, patrons of the theaters and other downtown entertainment options — and for residents of housing earmarked to be built just to the south.
It also will serve the new Detroit Red Wings arena and surrounding mixed-used development under construction a couple blocks away. That project, known as The District Detroit, calls for 300 housing units on the surface parking lots between Comerica Park and Woodward Avenue.
The garage would be at least five stories above ground level, which is intended for retail use such as merchandise or temporary food and drink sales.
Olympia got approval to build the garage this week from the city’s Downtown Development Authority, and said it has all approvals needed to start work.
Construction is expected to begin within a couple of months, and the garage is scheduled to be ready by Opening Day, April 8.
Crain’s first reported in July 2014 that a second garage was proposed as part of Ilitch’s The District Detroit project that includes the $627.5 million hockey arena and hundreds of millions more in mixed-used development for the 50 surrounding blocks.
The current parking lot, which has 338 spaces, is owned by the Detroit-Wayne County Stadium Authority (which owns Comerica Park). The lot is bordered by John R to the east, Montcalm to the south, I-375 to the north, and the church to the west.
The stadium authority leases the lot and stadium to the DDA, which in turn has a concession management agreement with the Tigers to operate them.
The parking garage project contractor is a joint venture between two Detroit-based firms, Colasanti Construction Services Inc. and MIG Construction.
Photo by Olympia Development of Michigan
The area shown in red is where the new parking deck will be built by Olympia Development of Michigan. It will be available for patrons of sporting events, entertainment activities and nearby residents.
LINK TO ARTICLE: http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article/20160226/NEWS/160229849/second-parking-garage-near-comerica-park-to-open-in-2017