Downtown reimagined: Celina officials complete parking garage

Public parking in the new garage is available on the first, second and third floors on a first-come, first-served basis. Parking for people with disabilities is available, and the fourth floor is reserved for contractor parking and staging until construction on the Downtown Center is completed. The garage also includes an off-site library book drop.

The downtown redevelopment project is slated for completion in December 2026, according to Celina’s capital improvement projects dashboard.

Crews broke ground on the parking garage and government center in October 2024.

The redevelopment project has increased in price over the years because of added costs, such as technological infrastructure and rejected cost-saving measures by city officials, which would have changed the design of the facilities. City Council approved the increased price tag in February 2025.

It is being paid for through a variety of sources, including bond funds, park fees and surplus city revenue, said Joe Monaco, Celina’s director of marketing and communications.

The garage includes:

• Total parking spots: nearly 400
• Total cost for garage: $19.3M

• Total library space: 20K square feet
• Government center total cost: $59M

The details

The project includes the addition of the new Downtown Center at a cost of about $59 million. The center will feature five floors, two of which will be reserved for the city’s new 20,000-square-foot public library. This will increase the square footage for the library tenfold.

The library is set to include separate adult, teen and children’s sections with interactive play areas for children.

The center will also include:

• Rooftop community space
• Community meeting rooms
• Offices for city departments

The background

Anthony Satarino, director of the Celina Economic Development Corp., said the new parking garage downtown will be an “economic catalyst” for the area.

“Downtown continues to be the heart and soul of our city,” Satarino said.

Residents and business owners in the area have expressed that parking has been a consistent challenge when it comes to frequenting downtown, he said. The garage was a necessary project to further incentivize downtown’s foot traffic, he said.

“[No parking garage] limits some of those visits and can also limit some of the time spent downtown,” he said.

Downtown Celina saw about 867,000 visitors in 2024, according to the corporation.

Satarino said downtown businesses will be able to serve even more people now that the parking garage is open.

“When you’re visiting, that parking garage serves as an anchor. You know where to go,” he said. “You don’t necessarily have to keep driving around the square hunting for parking.”

City leaders included this parking in the Celina downtown master plan when it was adopted in 2020. Celina City Council voted to name the government facility the Downtown Center in September 2024.

Once the center and parking garage are completed, Tubbs said downtown will be a thriving area where residents and visitors can “connect, engage and contribute to the city’s future.”

The impact

Removing the barrier of limited parking will allow people to linger longer and shop and dine more frequently downtown, Satarino said.

“It’s going to support our existing merchants,” Satarino said. “It makes downtown more accessible.”

He also sees the additional parking as freeing up some land opportunities for redevelopment and new investment in downtown.

Areas in downtown where parking currently exists may be able to be redeveloped in the future now that the city has the garage, Satarino said.

What else?

Downtown is changing in a number of ways even outside of the ongoing redevelopment. The city’s Ousley Park, which will run through downtown, is in the works. City Council members are currently in talks about what a future reconstruction of the downtown square could look like.

The EDC is working on a study to solidify the branding of downtown, Satarino said, but there is no set timeline yet.