Visitors to downtown McKinney now have 310 additional parking spaces to choose from.

The Chestnut Commons parking garage opened Feb. 1 at the corner of Chestnut and Herndon streets.

A public-private partnership between the city of McKinney and developer The Sanchez Group helped fund the development of the five-story parking garage.

City Manager Paul Grimes said the city will lease the parking garage for five years before taking over ownership.

The garage will feature a mosaic called “McKinney Blooms” created by artist Reginald Adams. The mosaic will be installed Feb. 4-9.

"It’s a great problem to have that so many people want to come [to downtown McKinney], it shows we have something worth visiting,” Mayor George Fuller said in a news release. “However, we realize parking is often the first experience people have when they come downtown and we want to do everything we can to ensure it is a positive experience. This garage will go a long way in alleviating some of the parking capacity issues we’ve faced in the past.”

More about downtown parking and city initiatives to offer more parking can be found in Community Impact Newspaper's previous coverage here.