By Larson McDonagh
Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, does not take its new parking garage for granted. In a sign of just how important the facility is to the city, Bethlehem recently held a week of festivities to celebrate the opening of its new Walnut Street Garage. Known as Walnut Week, the celebration — held the week of November 17 — highlighted the critical nature of the city’s parking infrastructure while bolstering businesses and kicking off the holiday season.
Out with the old, in with the new
The new 520-space garage is located on the site of the city’s former parking facility. The existing 50-year-old garage would have required millions of dollars to repair, said William Reynolds, the mayor of Bethlehem. For this reason, it made more sense to design and build a new facility rather than simply upgrade the old garage, Reynolds said.
To this end, the existing facility was demolished, and the new garage was constructed in its place. All told, these efforts cost $27 million and were paid for by bonds issued by the Bethlehem Parking Authority, which owns the garage.
The new facility includes electric vehicle charging stations, wayfinding signage, bike racks, bike-sharing programs, and retail space located on the first floor. These features align with the sustainable design standards developed by the ParkSmart sustainable parking rating system, said Steve Fernstrom, director of the Bethlehem Parking Authority.
Although the previous garage had 250 more spaces than the new facility, it no longer met accessibility standards, Fernstrom said. Meanwhile, the city opted for a smaller structure because a parking study conducted for the Bethlehem Parking Authority found that its garages typically did not exceed 40% capacity, he said.
Instead of providing more garage parking, the city looked to the transportation system as a whole, Fernstrom said. “We’ve expanded public outreach, launched new remote occupancy signage showing real-time available spaces, strengthened partnerships with public transportation agencies, produced robust social media communications, and continuously upgraded technology to make the garage experience more efficient,” Fernstrom said. “Our data shows these efforts have been successful in increasing utilization and supporting longer visitor stays in Bethlehem.”
‘New energy and vibrancy’
The smaller garage also afforded additional space for other infrastructure, which Fenstrom said the city plans to utilize for additional housing. He said this will add to the density and vitality of downtown Bethlehem.
“From the outset, our goal was to bring new energy and vibrancy to a block that had lacked it for decades due to the presence of a 500-foot-long parking structure,” Fernstrom said. “Introducing first-floor retail activates the streetscape, improves walkability, and ensures the project contributes to downtown vitality rather than serving solely as a parking facility.”
The new parking garage promotes the character of downtown Bethlehem by expanding the cultural and economic diversity with retail space that reflects the city’s goals, Reynolds said.
“One of the things that we have very much focused on as a city is the idea of building live-work-and-play cities and neighborhoods,” Reynolds said. “One of the two retail spaces we have there is actually going to be the new home for the Coalition for Appropriate Transportation, which is a nonprofit group that helps with bike maintenance, bike safety, and teaching people how to take care of their bikes.”
New opportunities
Ivan Alicea, general manager at McCarthy’s Redstag Pub and Whisky Bar on Walnut Street, said that even though the business faced difficulties during the project’s two-year construction phase, they’re hopeful the garage will bring new opportunities for foot traffic and creativity. For example, the Friday following the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the garage, McCarthy’s hosted a happy hour for the Coalition for Appropriate Transportation, featuring the banana walnut old-fashioned, a drink named in celebration of the garage.
“Front-thinking restaurants and entrepreneurs really try to find ways to navigate around the challenges that are always presented,” Alicea said. “With everything that’s happened in the last few years, we as a restaurant, as a team, we’ve gotten stronger.”
Larson McDonagh is a Western Washington University journalism student interning with Parking Today Media. They can be reached at [email protected].
