Why Bethlehem is spending $550K on a parking garage that may be razed

The Bethlehem Parking Authority will spend $552,880 over the next year on fixing the Walnut Street garage, a 43-year-old structure that could be demolished in the coming years.

The money is needed to keep the popular but aging garage behind historic Main Street open until city officials decide what to do with it. A parking study last year indicated the garage needs to be replaced for $20 million or repaired for $9.5 million to $11 million over the next 20 years.

If it’s decided to rebuild the garage, parking officials have said, that likely wouldn’t happen until 2023. That would make it a project under the administration of Mayor Robert Donchez’s successor.

The short-term work to be done on the 777-spot garage includes reinforcing beams, sealing cracks and construction joints, and fixing the brick facade, columns and overhead concrete. It would bring to $652,800 the total amount spent on repairs and preventative maintenance at the facility over the last three years. The repairs were recommended in a recent study the authority commissioned.

The latest round of repairs at Walnut is part of a $1.4 million contract that the authority on Wednesday awarded to South Shore Construction LLC of New Jersey. The bid came in about a $1.2 million less than the highest bid and $10,000 less than the closest bid submitted. Nearly $710,000 of the contract will include work on the 800space North Street garage, and nearly $154,000 on the 412-space Lehigh Riverport garage.

The Walnut Street garage opened in 1976 over several storefronts that were privately owned. In anticipation of repairing or replacing it, the city has been buying those storefront properties beneath the garage. Last month, the authority approved the purchase of the parcel where TC Salon & Spa closed a decade ago. The authority has one owner of two parcels left to negotiate with.

The authority opened a 626-spot garage on South New Street and is preparing to build a 470-spot garage at Polk and Third streets, near Northampton Community College’s Fowler Family South Side Center. More than half of those spots are now spoken for. The authority on Wednesday approved agreements to lease 300 spots to the college, 45 to the Lehigh Valley Charter High School for the Arts and 35 to The Factory.

There is an alternate bid to add another 91 spots, or 1½ stories, to the garage — if more leases are secured. There is also a 30-spot parking lot to be located behind the garage.