VANCOUVER, Wash. — At eight stories tall, the new parking garage along Vancouver's waterfront development project will bring some much-needed parking relief to the already busy and popular area.
Gramor Development, who is the principal owner of the 32-acre waterfront property, partnered with two architectural companies with the garage's design. International Parking Design from Los Angeles did the main garage and TVA Architects handled the exterior's design.
In March, KGW talked with developer and president of Gramor Development Barry Cain about the parking problem.
"We have projects that we have parking problems, and we have projects that we don't have parking problems, and we like the ones where we have parking problems better," Cain said, referencing that business was good.
The parking garage's total 829 stalls add more than 350 parking spaces, or about 50% more than was available. At least 10% of the spaces, or 83, are available for electrical vehicle charging.
For those that park, shop or eat here, the added spaces are welcome.
"Sometimes, it's impossible, especially on a weekend night," Connie Korn told KGW. "There was one time we were going to eat — you couldn't find parking even in any of the parking lots, and my husband's like, 'I'm done. Let's go home.'"
Drivers aren't the only ones that felt the headache of limited parking. Businesses did, too.
"There's just no expanded parking lots. I'll stand out here for five minutes and watch the same car just roll around, just troll around looking for parking spots, then they end up leaving," said Adam Collins, the general manager of Stack 571 Burger & Whiskey Bar.
Collins said with more buildings being built, that means more customers, more employees and more visitors, expressing that business has suffered with the lack of parking available.
"Our business has been down the last couple of years because of the parking situation," Collins said. "This is going to change everything down here."
Korn hopes so, too: "It has been a problem. I'm thinking the parking garage will help alleviate that."
The street level floor of the garage features 10,000 square feet of retail space. In a news release, developers said the first retail client should open in spring 2025.
Gramor Development's master plan includes tearing down the current surface level parking lots in the fall to develop more mixed-use buildings in their place.
"All the future dwellings that are coming in, they should have underground parking, so we shouldn't see any more influx due to the residents or the businesses." Collins said.