The long awaited new downtown parking garage, which has been under construction since early 2015, is now open to the public.
The 3.5-story garage features more than 270 free parking spaces, including a handful of electric vehicle charging stations. Public art is found throughout the building—not just on the outside where Napa artist Gordon Huether’s controversial “Tarantula” and “Poppy Jasper” pieces decorate the structure.
The top floor of the garage is reinforced for future community events.
The garage is located between Third and Fourth streets, behind Huntington Station, Trail Dust and Toto Trattoria restaurants. The vehicle entrance and exit to the garage is on Fourth Street, and pedestrian access is located on Third Street and a walkway that connects the structure to the nearby restaurant properties.
The City Council awarded the construction contract for the parking structure to F & H Construction in 2014 for $8.6 million. The price included the two prominent public art pieces created by Huether. The city purchased the property on which the garage sits for about $2.1 million. Funding for the project came from leftover Redevelopment Agency money that was originally intended for such downtown improvement efforts.
“F&H Construction has delivered a safe, complete, unique, and quality parking garage to the Morgan Hill community,” City Manager Steve Rymer said. “We are very pleased to present the garage to the our residents, businesses, and visitors.”
The project also includes the “Third Street Plaza,” located underneath the sprawling branches of a heritage oak tree behind Huntington Station. The plaza features new walkways, benches, tables, chairs and electrical outlets to facilitate outdoor work stations and entertainment. A wooden deck surrounding the oak tree’s trunk protects the roots and offers more gathering space for visitors and residents, according to city staff.
“The opening of the garage is significant to the new redevelopment of downtown that has already begun and the upcoming $50 million of new private investment that will bring exciting restaurants, retail shops, entertainment, housing and a boutique hotel,” Mayor Steve Tate added, referring to other downtown projects under way at former RDA properties, including the Granada Theater, Downtown Mall, Depot Center and the former Simple Beverages property on the corner of Third Street and Monterey Road—just a few yards away from the garage.
A community celebration of the garage and other recently completed city-funded downtown projects will be scheduled for the near future, according to city staff.
