Hundreds of vehicles are using the multi-million dollar downtown garage built by the city of Temple as part of its destination plan. The ExtraCo Bank Parking Plaza has been serving the community since opening last October. The parking garage is on the corner of Avenue A and First Street near several businesses, including B&W Beauty Supply.
Owner Shirley Hutka told the Telegram the garage has been a boost for her business in terms of convenience. “It’s been helpful to my customers that have disabilities. .
.. My customers have come in that have more access to parking than they did,” Hutka said.
“I have parking in the back of my shop so I made my appointments where I would have somebody park in the back and call me and let me know they’re in the back so I would let them in.” Treno’s Pizzeria & Taproom owner Jacob Bates told the Telegram the parking garage has impacted downtown as a whole. “I certainly see a lot of our customers (and) just people walking around especially (for) special events downtown during First Friday and whatnot using the parking garage,” Bates said.
“It is being utilized and it definitely gets some of the long-term parkers in the day off of the streets.” Bates said this allows customers coming into businesses for short times to use spaces out front on the street. Construction on the parking garage started in November 2021 and ended in October 2023 at a cost of $6.
3 million to the city. The parking garage contains 242 parking spaces acro.