Cleveland wants to demolish long-term garage at Hopkins as part of new parking plan

Port Control Director Ricky Smith said in an interview Tuesday that razing the garage, perhaps as early as this summer, should not cause a parking shortage for the millions of travelers who use Hopkins each year.

"We think in the near term that we will sufficiently handle the need for parking at the airport," Smith said.

Mayor Frank Jackson's administration will need City Council approval to demolish the garage and implement the parking plan. Smith said the garage is more than 40 years old, was built as a temporary structure and could eventually pose a safety hazard.

"We think there's an urgent need to raze it and develop new parking lots," he said.

The plan Smith will present to the council calls for adding spaces by converting an employee lot into public parking and installing "smart parking" technology in the newer, short-term garage before demolition begins on the long-term garage. There will eventually be about 1,000 spaces in a covered surface lot where the long-term garage now stands.

If approved by the council, the revamped parking should be ready by mid-2012, Smith said. He would not provide an estimated cost for the project. The city plans to hire a company that will both design and build the new lots.

Councilman Martin Keane, chairman of the council's Aviation Committee, said he was told two years ago that the long-term garage needed to be torn down. He said he has been briefed on the administration's parking plan.

"The biggest thing is to make sure we always have enough spots for current demand and prospective demand," Keane said.

If officials anticipate problems during the peak Thanksgiving travel period this year, the city will delay demolition until after the holidays, Smith said.

Cleveland has about 7,100 public parking spaces at the airport, including parking in addition to the two garages. But it has a peak demand for 5,800 spaces. Before razing the 2,600-space long-term garage, the airport will add 278 spaces by converting the employee lot into public parking.

And the smart-parking technology system will allow the airport to fully use the short-term garage, which has about 4,000 spaces. The parking system, which involves using overhead lights to direct drivers to open spaces, will allow the short-term garage to more easily fill, Smith said.

Forecasts for Hopkins' parking needs are flat, Smith said. Should the economy improve and demand for air travel increase, Hopkins can institute what Smith called Phase II of the parking plan. That would involve adding as many as 1,600 spaces to the short-term garage by adding decks and expanding outward.

"Phase II will be demand-driven," Smith said.

As with most airports, parking is the biggest non-airline-related source of revenue at Hopkins. Cleveland received $14 million in parking revenue last year.

The city also will seek proposals to hire a management firm to run airport parking. Hopkins has had a month-to-month agreement with Standard Parking since the company's contract with the city expired in 2009. Smith said he hopes the city will be able to get a more favorable deal by bidding out the parking management contract.