Binghamton closes two floors of Collier Street parking garage indefinitely

BINGHAMTON, N.Y. — The City of Binghamton has “indefinitely” closed the top two floors of the Collier Street parking garage due to “growing” repair needs, Mayor Richard David announced Friday.

The closure affects about 220 of the garage’s 535 spots, the city said in a news release.

“We are seeing the consequences of years of neglect and inaction, but more importantly a failure to develop a plan for the future of the Collier St. garage,” David said. “It’s very unfortunate the City has been put in this position, but this administration is doing everything it can to pick up the pieces and secure funding for a new facility that meets our growing needs.”

The mayor in March announced $1.4 million in restorations to the city’s three public-parking garages.

Work on the Collier Street garage included repair of concrete slabs and reinforcing steel; external steel-beam rehabilitation; floor-drainage repairs; and waterproofing measures.

As crews began work on the Collier Street garage, they discovered “more complex and costly issues than originally anticipated,” the city said in the release.

The issues include “insufficient” concrete cover of reinforcing steel and “corroded” post-tensioning strands and brittle concrete.

In order to fully address these “deficiencies,” Binghamton would have to invest between $700,000 and $800,000 more to keep the garage fully open for only a few more years.

Instead, the city will close the garage’s top two floors and keep the rest of the structure “at least partially open” until 2018, when the city’s engineering consultants say Binghamton will need to close and demolish the facility, according to the news release.

“Since the day I took office, I’ve stressed that the Collier St. garage is reaching the end of its useful life and a new facility must be built to replace it,” said David. “As the new regional economic-development council awards and Upstate revitalization competition move forward, it is critical that the Collier Street Commons project be listed as one of the region’s top priorities.”

The Collier Street Commons project would develop a mixed-use residential, parking, and commercial structure on the site, transforming a multiple-block section of downtown.

Binghamton has relocated all city-owned and parking-management vehicles to the State Street and Water Street parking garages. The city has also notified the New York State Unified Court System and relocated juror parking.

Parking management has been working with Collier Street monthly-permit holders to relocate them to other municipal garages, the city said.

Space at the Collier Street garage is “very limited” and Binghamton said it urges drivers to use other municipal-parking facilities. The city encourages residents with questions to call LAZ Parking at (607) 772-7151, according to the news release.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com