Construction of a parking garage on Main Street and US 377 was pushed forward with the approval of a construction manager advisor during the Jan. 28 Roanoke City Council meeting.

The overview

Gallagher Construction Company was named as the construction manager for the project and will also aid the city in the preconstruction process by looking over all plans proposed by the architect and evaluating costs, suggesting improvements and help with bidding and eliciting approval from the city on all components.

The project includes a four-story garage with 420 parking spaces. The parking garage will be free for the public.

"We did a parking study a number of years ago, and ... we discovered how many spaces we were short downtown," Mayor Scooter Gierisch said. "This is going to help bridge that gap tremendously. ... We really look forward to [this project]. That's why we purchased the land, so we could move forward.”

The details

Though the cost for Gallagher’s services has not been finalized, there was a percentage contract put in place. Once the final scope and plans for the project are completed, the fee schedule will be fixed to a dollar amount based on these percentages:

• 7% will be incurred for the total project cost up to $5 million.
• 6.8% will be incurred for the total project cost between $5 million-$15 million.
• 6.65% will be incurred for the total project cost for anything above $15 million.

The funding or timeline for construction of the garage has not been decided yet, according to city documents.

The background

The architect for the project was approved during the May 14 council meeting for a total of $922,400. At that time, the estimated cost of construction was between $9.24 million and $11.76 million based on the range of $22,000-$28,000 per parking stall, according to city documents.

At that time, the estimated start date for construction was April 2025 with an estimated finish date of October 2025.

Also on the agenda

The city voted to spend $4.84 million from the general and utility funds to pay the remaining balances of three bonds, which allowed the city to operate with a lower tax rate that was passed in September.

Additionally, the city will save approximately $575,000 in future interest payments over the next six years, according to city documents.

The three bonds paid off are:

• Combination Tax and Revenue Certificates of Obligation, series 2014, with a remaining balance of $1.75 million
• Texas General Obligation Refunding Bonds, series 2015, with a remaining balance of $1.39 million
• Texas Combination Tax and Revenue Certificate of Obligation, series 2015, with a remaining balance of $1.71 million