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 across three levels. City spokesperson Megan Price told the Telegram the garage is being actively used.
“We are currently averaging between 280 and 315 vehicles utilizing the garage per week,” Price said. Price mentioned that residents, visitors and downtown employees are the primary users of the parking garage. The Extraco Parking Plaza and the future Fourth Street parking garage have been developed to accommodate city growth and to provide a solution to finding parking in the often crowded downtown area.
The Fourth Street garage, currently under construction, will be two stories higher, have retail spaces on the ground floor, and will have more than double the square footage and an elevator compared to the Extraco Parking Plaza. Emelie Palma, city public relations specialist, told the Telegram that the naming rights for the Extraco Parking Plaza were established during initial negotiations and no naming rights have been established for the Fourth Street parking garage. The first major addition to the Extraco Bank Parking Plaza was license plate scanners which are law enforcement devices the Temple Police Department has used for active warrants, vehicle threats and Amber Alerts.
The scanners were installed last November and seven electric vehicle charging stations, security cameras and emergency call boxes have been added since. Parking is free for anyone using the garage for parking..
