Yippie Yay! more downtown development.
Except.
Except that what they're planning to build the hotel and office/condo/retail building on are two of downtown Champaign's largest parking lots.
Jon 'Cody' Sokolski, chief executive officer of One Main Development, said he expects to know by the end of next week whether a hotel will be a part of a downtown building project that he and several other investor-owners are planning for most of the block between Neil and Randolph streets and Church and Hill streets.Have you tried to find a decent parking space in downtown Champaign during the day?
Sure, we need development. It's great! Fuels the economy. I'm all in favor of development.
But do we need to close two more parking lots? Isn't there another location. One that doesn't eat parking lots?
UPDATE: OK, OK, I read the story wrong. Turns out the first phase of the project will be a 400- to 500-vehicle parking deck built in conjunction with the city. That sounds like public parking to me, too. It still takes two big lots out of the parking mix for however long it takes to build the deck, and the Old Guy ain't getting any younger looking for a downtown parking space so he can get his afternoon cappuccino.
And so it goes.
3 comments:
The article also states that the first structure that would be built as part of this project would be a parking deck.
Sounds good to me.
I really do hope you're right and I like the idea of a downtown hotel. But even supposing the parking deck is public, it'll still take a lot of public parking out of commission for a couple years, I'm afraid.
Guess I maybe did read the story wrong . It does say a 400- to 500-vehicle parking deck built in conjunction with the city
Sounds like it could be a public deck after all. I shall cross some fingers.
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