Parking garage expansion opens

There are now more places to park in downtown Olathe.

The parking garage expansion, which opened Wednesday, increased the number of available spaces in the garage from 393 to 715.

Construction of the six-level structure, which replaces the former surface parking lot north of the existing garage at the corner of Loula Street between Cherry and Chestnut Streets, began in late June.

"Our downtown's merchants, employees and visitors have waited patiently for this day to come for quite some time..." Mayor Mike Copeland said. "This project has been a long time coming, but it's only the beginning. It's a catalyst for our Envision Olathe downtown plan.

Councilmember Bob Montgomery has pushed to expand the existing garage that was built in 1989 since he joined the city council.

"It's a definite big step in the right direction for downtown," he said. "We just hope everyone is going to use it."

That shouldn't be an issue. By mid-afternoon, drivers in downtown Olathe had already discovered the garage was open.

Turner Construction's completion of the garage was originally anticipated for mid February, said Jeff Blakeman, the project manager for the garage.

The expansion would have opened on time if not for delays caused by winter weather.

Those delays, however, did not increase the total cost of the project, Blakeman said.

Copeland said the next project in Envision Olathe, the city's downtown revitalization plan, should be taking shape soon. The first phase of the Santa Fe Streetscape project — to improve the gateway to downtown between Kansas highway 7 and Interstate 35 — will begin late this summer.

That phase, from Kansas Avenue to Kansas City Road, will widen sidewalks, add trees, landscaping, street furniture and trash receptacles, replace medians and traffic signals and add wayfinding signs.

Like the rest of recent and future downtown projects, Ken Henton of Hoefer Wysocki Architects, the company that designed the garage, said it was important to incorporate design elements – different colored brick and stone – into the garage to mesh with the look and feel of downtown.

An interesting feature about the garage was the incorporation of infrastructure beneath it to accommodate about 5,600 square feet of retail space in the front part of the lower level should the city decide to renovate it.

The cost of the $8 million project was split between Olathe and Johnson County goverments.

"The best part about this is the partnership between county government and the city, said Annabeth Surbaugh, chair of the county commission. "It's the way government should work. It's local government at its best."

Surbaugh added that the parking garage in the "heart of Olathe" would benefit the 650,000 people who enter the courthouse each year, 250,000 who pass through the county administration building annually and the 860 county and state employees who work downtown.

Count Barbara Pickwoad as one who was excited about the garage opening. The Olathe Police Department volunteer who patrols all of downtown – on foot or her Segway – ticketing illegally parked cars, said she couldn't wait until it opened.

"I don't know if people will actually use it," Pickwoad said, "but if they do, it will be a whole lot easier for me."

Contact Jack Weinstein at 764-2211, ext. 130.