Times Observer file photo The Clark Street parking garage in Warren is pictured. City Council members have approved a smaller rehabilitation project for the structure after the state told city officials grant funding planned for the project was an ineligible use of the funds.

Warren City Council members are going to put a bandage on the Clark Street parking garage – but city officials know the time may come when a bandage no longer works.

The most recent discussions were spurred by the state that two Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program grants the city had previously received couldn’t be used as part of a $5.2 million renovation project on the Clark Street garage. Council members ended up approving a reduced project with a $3 million budget that doesn’t accomplish as much as the $5.2 million project but temporarily extends the life of the ramp. Councilman Phil Gilbert was the lone no vote to pursue the $3 million project.

Council member Maurice Cashman was among those who argued that continued development in Warren on the riverfront and downtown are reasons to have the Clark Street parking garage available in the future. Mike Holtz, city manager, said he and city staff have discussed if the garage is necessary in the future. The Clark Street garage has several floors. The top floor isn’t rented because snow can’t be removed. Total capacity in the garage is 644 spaces, with 471 considered rentable and 316 rented. There are also 47 metered spaces and five spaces that can’t be rented because of rust problems.

Holtz said before the COVID-19 pandemic the Clark Street garage was typically 90% filled with usage at its highest levels the year before the pandemic. But the past five years have seen decreasing use of the Clark Street garage while some surface lots downtown have plenty of open spaces, leading discussion that perhaps surface lots on the site of the Clark Street garage and elsewhere downtown could provide enough parking.

“We’ve talked about, maybe the day will come that we don’t need the garage and surface parking will take care of things,” Holtz said. “The reality is, probably, you would not spend $10 million to fix this garage. You could really build a new garage for less than that … Nobody would probably want to put $10 million dollars in this garage that you could demo and rebuild for $6 million that doesn’t have the faults that this one had.”

Evan Rowles, a principal at Atlantic Engineering Services in Pittsburgh, discussed the project with council members via Zoom. The garage’s steel frame is in “relatively good condition,” according to Rowles, with most of the issues that need attention being the concrete floor slabs that are deteriorating and creating potholes in the ramp. The original $5.2 million would have included more full replacement of the concrete slabs. The $3 million version of the Clark Street garage rehabilitation will focus on more temporary fixes that should last between five and 10 years. Then, the council will have to decide whether or not to pay for additional repairs.

“We surveyed the garage back in 2020 and we surveyed it again last year in 2024 and we did see an increase in the amount of deterioration that occurs,” Rowles said. “Additional deterioration would result in additional repairs being required down the road.”

In response to a question from Mayor Dave Wortman, Rowles said doing nothing will result in faster deterioration of the garage. Eventually the concrete will spall to the point steel can be seen, with the city able to use less of the ramp. That response prompted Wortman to plant a seed for both city staff and the council to consider – what happens next.

“Possibly spending this kind of money on a parking garage is not an exciting adventure in terms of an investment that people are going to get really excited about,” Wortman said. “But it’s definitely a critical infrastructure need for our downtown area and the downtown businesses to support them with the parking that’s needed and necessary within the city itself. So my question to the staff is, based on the current utilization rate and you know the support that is needed for the parking garage and the businesses downtown, is it even feasible? I’m thinking ahead maybe a couple years, perhaps, to where else would people that are frequenting our businesses, where else would they be parking if we’re not investing in continuing to maintain this infrastructure? How does that look? Is that even possible?”