A parking structure in downtown Port Huron? Here’s how it came up in recent talks for city officials. – The Times Herald

The West Quay parking lot in downtown Port Huron in spring 2018.(Photo: File photo.)

Whether to build a parking structure in downtown Port Huron is a discussion that goes back years.

Now, city officials are using reconstruction of public parking areas to touch on laying the necessary infrastructure for a second deck at the West Quay lot in case, its ever needed.

City Manager James Freed said officials briefly weighed if an underground parking deck was possible at the citys Majestic lot, where DTE Energy is currently wrapping up reconstruction as part of a soil excavation effort.

However, as talks are underway for a similar DTE project nearby at West Quay, he said theyre hashing out cost details with the energy company as that lots size may be a better fit.

The process with West Quay is even more preliminary than that. Meaning, we dont know what the design for West Quay is going to be, but its one of those conversations were having, Freed said. And so, the very 30,000-foot-level conversation was, We dont want to put a second deck on it right now, but can you put the pilings in place today for a possible second deck in the future? And thats something were looking at. Thats really as far as we got.

DTE is paying for reconstruction of the Majestic as part of an effort to clean up century-old contaminants in the area, which was home to one of the companys predecessors, Port Huron Gas and Electric Company.

It wasnt yet clear when the city would consider another access deal with DTE, as they did for the Majestic. In October, a company representative said they were in talks to move to West Quay, and city officials said they expect that phase sometime next year.

Several downtown parking lots in Port Huron are shown in May 2018.(Photo: File photo.)

The question about parking rarely escapes conversations among city officials, business owners and those looking to invest in new developments downtown.

Freed emphasized the West Quay was just an idea. But both he and Cynthia Cutright, director of Port Hurons Downtown Development Authority, acknowledged officials utilize projects in the central business district to address future parking needs overall.

Not just parking structures.

With new lofts going up, new projects like the grocery store and Wrigley Center on their way, parking is something we are definitely keeping our eye on, Cutright said in a statement last week. Having appropriate parking is key. We dont need just spaces. We are being mindful of where timed spaces need to be to turnover in front of businesses, permitted parking for lofts, and quick trip parking for grocery store pickups.

Among the more vocal figures about parking downtown has been developer Larry Jones, whos amid his third major loft project and has plans to redevelop the old Art Van building into a multi-use structure with lofts and commercial space as the Wrigley Center next year.

He approached Port Huron City Council members during public comment of an Oct. 12 meeting, calling the Majestic lot reconstruction a missed opportunity to address larger parking needs.

Freed later said the proximity to utility lines and the size of the lot itself wouldnt have added enough spaces to make the upgrade worth the cost. He told DDA members Nov. 5, We could maybe get four spots out of it.

Still, Jones said last week, he thought a site right on the Black River, where West Quay is located, may not be the best spot to add more parking and nothing else.

Rather, the developer said he thought city officials should be thinking more proactively about parking inland.

The East Quay lot reconstruction several years ago, Jones said, was an example of another missed opportunity. There was also one other a much older one that he still references in talking about the kinds of infrastructure that developers like him might look for long-term when deciding whether to invest in Port Huron.

When me and Brent first came to Port Huron here on 10 years ago, Bruce Brown,the very first time we met him, he has a board in his office, and he tries getting us to build a hotel in that parking lot where the transit bus station is and a parking structure, Jones said, referring to his development partner Brent Marsall and Brown, then-city manager.

So, as the need comes about for it, and now, with us doing the Wrigley Center everybody is very excited about the Wrigley center they know the amount of investors and other people that are going to be looking at Port Huron. Those things are going to come about in the future.

Contact Jackie Smith at (810) 989-6270 or jssmith@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @Jackie20Smith.

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A parking structure in downtown Port Huron? Here's how it came up in recent talks for city officials. - The Times Herald