St. Catharines Downtown Association

Joe Reid has fond memories of opening the Garden City's first parking garage

But the former mayor never expected he'd be around to close the Carlisle Street structure.

"I'm a little sad to see it go.... It was one of the only buildings with my name on it," a chuckling Reid said Friday, minutes after lending his crowbar to the "ceremonial first step" in demolishing the 33-year-old garage.

The 92-year-old was mayor when the five-level garage opened to much fanfare in 1976, with a plaque announcing "the facility became operational only six months after construction commenced -- a notable achievement for a project of this scale."

Reid gets to keep the plaque after he helped Mayor Brian Mc-Mullan and St. Catharines Liberal MPP Jim Bradley wrench it off the garage wall Friday.

The longtime St. Catharines politician, who also served as a member of Parliament, had mixed feelings about the rather unique demolition ceremony.

"I'd have loved this one to stay up longer ... although it looks pretty damn good for 33 years," Reid said of the garage, which needs to be replaced because of a crumbling support system. "But the new one is going to serve the people of St. Catharines well."

Passersby got a glimpse of architect renderings of the planned new garage at the ceremony.

The new eight-level, 730- space garage "will be as attractive as a parking garage can possibly be," said Bradley, who was a city councillor during the time Reid was mayor.

"It isn't a glamorous project ... but it's one of those important things that allows a downtown area to thrive."

The province and federal government will pay two-thirds of the cost of the $28 million project under the Infrastructure Stimulus Fund.

City council will have the chance Monday night to endorse the conceptual design for the garage, which includes 12,000 square feet of office and retail space and an exterior resembling an office tower rather than a traditional parking structure.

"This is a pretty exciting step for downtown St. Catharines," said McMullan, who called the garage a necessary building block for new core businesses and the planned performing arts centre.

Reid congratulated the current council on its decision to pursue the project.

He recalled opposition in the 1970s to the first parking garage. "Some people would always say, 'Oh, why do we need that?' " he said. "But it was needed. We proved that."

Plaque removal aside, the Cannington Group has already begun demolishing the building, although major tear-down work probably won't begin until the new year.

Under the terms of the Infrastructure Stimulus Fund, the project must be substantially finished by the end of March 2011.

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Highlights of thepreferred design goingto council Monday:

730 spaces;

Eight levels, two underground;

12,000-square feet of street-level office and retail space;

A pedestrian plaza beside the office space along Carlisle Street;

A "sky lobby" overhanging the pedestrian plaza and connecting to the existing catwalk from the Garden City Tower;

An office building facade;

Potential for "green" design features like grey-water recovery and landscaping.

Story by M. VanDongen in The St. Catharines Standard at;

http://www.stcatharinesstandard.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2208498