The fate of the Center Street parking garage in downtown Royal Oak lies in the hands of the City Commission. Next week the Commission will consider whether to improve the 30-year-old parking deck or act on the city's Downtown Development Authority's proposal to redevelop it.
The Royal Oak DDA is pushing for redeveloping the parking garage and an adjacent surface lot at the corner of South Center and West Second streets into a mixed-use building. The idea is it would create more vibrancy in downtown by bringing in more people to occupy retail, office or condo space.
City officials are not sold on that idea, yet. The city commissioned a structural engineering study on the parking garage last fall. The results of the study indicate the structure has about 20 years of life left in it and would require about $2 million in improvements to capitalize on that lifespan. Of that $2 million, $1 million would have to be invested within the next two or three years.
Source: Kevin Kalczynski, chair of the Royal Oak downtown development authority
Writer: Jon Zemke
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