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News

Long-awaited garage opens today

Parking in new building will be free for first week; officials offering garage permits at pro-rated fees

by AMY WOLFMAN
The Daily Cougar

The parking garage at Entrance 1 and Calhoun Road opens today, bringing new retail services and much-needed parking spaces to campus. 

The five-floor structure provides students, faculty and staff with 1,500 parking spaces. The first and second levels will be equipped with 500 spaces for faculty, staff and visitors. One thousand student spaces will be on the third, fourth and fifth levels. 

The first level will also have spaces for vehicles with disability tags.

Students will be required to swipe twice, once at the street level and then again at the third level to access the student parking area.

Vanessa Turner, assistant director of Parking and Transportation, said parking registration is already underway.

"At this time, there is not a limit to the number of students who can purchase a garage permit," Turner said in an online interview with The Daily Cougar. "The garage will be equipped with a state-of-the-art monitoring system, (and) we will be able to inform customers of which level is full to capacity or which level has available parking spaces."

Turner also said that students who already have parking permits can upgrade to garage permits by returning their permits and paying an additional fee.

"Students not currently registered for an annual parking permit can register for a garage permit via Enrollment Services Online or come to the parking office, (in the) E. Cullen Building, Room 1," Turner said.

Student garage annual permits are $200 and student garage semester permits are $120. One only has to pay $41 to upgrade to a student garage annual permit from a student annual; to garage annual from economy is $88; to garage semester from economy is $48; to garage annual from economy plus is $75 and to garage semester from economy plus is $35.

Parking in the garage is free until Monday.

In addition to the new spaces, 12,000 square feet are reserved for restaurants and retail space on the first floor of the garage. 

"The retail shops that have expressed interest are Tealicious, an oriental tea house featuring tapioca tea; Wish, a clothing and accessories boutique; and C&T Cleaners, offering drop-off and pick-up services," Turner said.

She said the facility will house the University's new Welcome Center, which encompasses the Academics and Visitor centers. The Center is expected to open in March or April. 

In addition, the offices of Admissions, Enrollment Services, and Scholarships and Financial Aid will move to the garage from the E. Cullen Building.

The facility will also have 15 emergency call boxes and 14 security cameras. 

To insure safety, all floors are flat with no interior walls, which will eliminate blind spots when driving and will allow pedestrians to have a clear view of the entire floor.

"We wanted to gain at least 1,000 spaces from the project. We also wanted to build a safe garage that would have all of the safety elements that a modern garage could have," Browand said.

"The parking facility will help alleviate parking congestion at the University," Turner said. "We are anticipating a much improved parking situation for everyone on campus."

Students are invited to attend the garage opening event from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Thursday at Calhoun Road and University Drive. 

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