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Congressman John Mica, from Florida's Seventh Congressional District, offers remarks during ceremonies prior to the groundbreaking. Seated (left to right) are members of the St. Augustine City Commission: Don Crichlow, Vice Mayor Susan Burk, Mayor George Gardner, Errol Jones and Joe Boles.
Members of the City Commission and Congressman John Mica sit at the ready on backhoes arranged in a semicircle as they listened for the countdown from those gathered at the groundbreaking ceremony.
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St. Augustine breaks ground on City's first public parking garage
Reproduced courtesy of St. Augustine.com, story by Kati Bexley
April 23, 2005 - (Jacksonville, Fla.) A ceremonial ground breaking for St. Augustine's first public parking garage was held Friday, and construction of the $18.5 million structure begins next week.
The Historic Downtown Parking Facility at the Visitors Information Center will be built behind the existing Visitor Center, bordered by Castillo Drive and Cordova Street. For about 14 months, the city's special events field, adjacent to the project, will be used as 204 temporary parking spaces, John Regan, city chief operations officer, said.
"We wanted to get past festival season," he said. "This won't stop any festivals."
He said the city will still have space for festivals at nearby Francis Field.
The parking garage's construction begins Monday, Regan said. The plan is for an 1,177-space garage, four stories tall. It will be completed June 30, 2006, Regan said.
The contractor is Perry-McCall Construction, Inc., of Jacksonville.
The majority of project funding is from bonds, but about $1 million is from federal grants. U.S. Rep. John Mica, R-Winter Haven, is working to have another $1 million given to the project.
Mica and City Commissioners each sat on a back hoe and dumped dirt as the ribbon cutting of the project.
"It's taken a long time to get this project off the ground, but I think it will be very worthwhile," Mica said. "As we know, we have tens of thousand of visitors coming to St. Augustine and they need a place to park."
The design for the parking facility includes a Mediterranean-revival-style garage, a bus terminal, taxi stand, tourist train and trolley station and horse carriage pick-up point. Walker Parking Consultants, Tampa, is the prime consultant and project engineer.
The general contractor is Perry-McCall Construction, Inc., of Jacksonville.
The building architect is Les Thomas Architect Inc. and the urban design and landscape architect is Frederick Halback and Associates Inc. Both firms are from St. Augustine.
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