Mayor Mark Begich remarks
Downtown Parking Plan Press Conference
Noon; March 2, 2005; Mayor’s Conference Room, City Hall

Good afternoon – thanks for being here.

Today I’m excited to announce the key elements of a plan to accommodate growth in downtown Anchorage with more than 1,500 new parking places. This comprehensive parking plan has two purposes: serve the needs of residents who work in our city’s heart everyday, and serve the growing number of visitors coming to our downtown.

Visitors to Anchorage are expected to grow dramatically as we revitalize downtown with a new civic and convention center, expanded museum, E Street Corridor and millions of dollars worth of new private sector investment.

A vibrant downtown is essential to the health of any growing city. But inadequate parking can kill off the best of intentions.

That’s why we’ve been working on this parking plan for months, and why we believe it will help stimulate a new sense of excitement and growth in our downtown.

 It begins with a major break-through: a new, pedestrian-friendly parking garage across the street from the Atwood state office building, on the half-block shared with Covenant House and 5th Avenue Outfitters.

 We’ve been in negotiations for months with the owners of that lot, Diamond Parking. And late last week Diamond’s board approved an agreement with the city to construct a new parking garage on that lot with about 650 spaces. The garage also will have retail and restaurant space on the ground floor.

 During business hours, approximately 300 of these new spaces will serve the state office building and employees when the new civic and convention center is built on the parking lot many of them currently use. There will be an additional 350 spaces in the garage for other downtown visitors.

 What’s especially exciting about this new garage is the potential for winter cities connections in downtown. Envision sky-walks connecting the new civic and convention center diagonally across 7th Avenue to the new garage, and then on to the Performing Arts Center. Or envision sky-walks between the new convention center and the Atwood Building. The opportunities are limitless.

 A second parking garage is planned for the surface parking lot at 3rd between G and H streets, near the courthouse. This 375-space garage, to be built and operated by the Parking Authority, also will include ground-level retail space.

 But the best part is the potential for downtown housing with unmatched views of the Alaska Range and Mt. McKinley in the distance.

 A few months ago, we mentioned the idea of housing on this garage to a few developers and got a blank stare. Today, they couldn’t be more excited about the prospect. There aren’t many better positioned locations for an excellent downtown location and those views.

 An RFP for the 3rd and G garage will be going out within the next few weeks.

A third new parking garage is planned to serve the museum expansion, at 7th and C streets near the federal building. The land for this 600-space garage is currently owned by the federal General Services Administration and used largely for federal employee parking. Some of the new spaces would be reserved for federal employees and others would be available for museum and other downtown uses.

The city is working with Alaska’s congressional delegation on funding for this garage and the land transfer.

 Another important part of our downtown parking plan is the JC Penney’s garage. We’ve been in talks for months with Penney’s about the city leasing or assuming management of the garage. This garage is 40-years-old and everyone who’s been in it lately knows it needs work – better lighting, better access, better security.

Of the 591 spaces there, only about 300 are regularly used. Our talks with Penney’s continue, but I’m confident it will play a central part in improved downtown parking.

 A fourth parking garage has been on the drawing board for years by the Alaska Railroad. Their plan is to build a garage with 620 spaces into the hill below E Street and the current Eisenhower Memorial.

 The long-term vision of this garage is to serve commuters from the Mat-Su, Eagle River and other areas. The railroad’s plans fit in well with the E Street Corridor development.

The result of these 1,500-plus new downtown spaces is to better accommodate visitors and residents alike. Much of this new parking will be built regardless of whether a new convention center is constructed. But let me specifically address the parking for the new center.

As these maps show, within just one block of the new center will be 2,349 parking spaces. Within just two blocks, 4,226 spaces.

Compare this to the Sullivan Arena, our next largest venue and site of the most bulk parking. You can see there is and will be more parking downtown than at the Sullivan, and it’s much closer to the facility.

I know some questions have been raised about displaced state employees and where they will park with a new convention center. The immediate answer is across the street, in the new Diamond garage.

We have representatives here today from the organizations involved in this parking plan:

• From Diamond: Mike Neely and John Tindall;
• From the Railroad: Jim Kubitz;
• From the Parking Authority, Kevin Kinney.
• From the development team building the new convention center, John Rubini.

With that, I’m pleased to answer your questions.

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