Call it Park Place -- New garage for Jamaica
Daily News, April 20, 2004
Seeking to attract more shoppers, Jamaica officials broke ground yesterday for a 406-car, $11 million, three-story garage in the heart of downtown Jamaica.
The structure, expected to be completed in a year, will include 5,000 square feet of retail space on 162nd St. The midblock garage, just north of Jamaica Ave., will have entrances and exits on 162nd and 163rd Sts.
"We are transforming this older but no longer distressed downtown into a modern and very viable regional center to serve Queens and Long Island," said Tazewell Smith, chairman of the Greater Jamaica Development Corp.
"Having these parking facilities attracts more shoppers and others having business in downtown Jamaica and helps counter the appeal of free parking in malls in nearby Nassau County," said Lamont Bailey, vice chairman of the corporation and an officer of Jamaica First Parking, the entity formed by the development agency to build, upgrade and operate parking lots and garages in downtown Jamaica.
Formed three years ago, Jamaica First Parking purchased three deteriorating parking facilities from the city and upgraded them - two lots on either side of 168th St. and north of Jamaica Ave. with 550 spaces and a 540-car garage at Archer Ave. and 165th St.
Jamaica First spent more than $2.5million upgrading those sites.
And Jamaica First will begin a $1.5million upgrade of a 500-car former municipal garage on Parsons Blvd. just north of Jamaica Ave. this summer, Bailey said.
Jamaica First Parking was created with a "pooled approach to allow stronger parking facilities to support weaker ones in the downtown-wide system," he said.
"We encourage monthly parkers to use our underutilized facilities. We offer special programs for not-for-profit institutions such as library and local churches, and all of the net proceeds from existing facilities are used to develop new ones," said the vice chairman.
"Like good wine, economic development takes time to mature - and the Greater Jamaica Development Corp. is truly an economic development vineyard in Queens," said Borough President Helen Marshall.
"All around us, we see the seeds of growth that have prompted great developments: York College, new courthouses, the Air Train and new shops and businesses," said Marshall.