2008 Woodie Awards
Parking Garage in Works
Jason Lewis
Issue date: 10/4/06 Section: News
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In January 2008, Bolton Yard will be the site of the groundbreaking for a new mixed-use development that will include residences, retail space and a multi-story, 1,300-space parking garage. Of those spaces, 1,100 will be guaranteed for UB.
Bolton Yard currently provides 600 parking spaces that will be unavailable during construction. University administrators assured the displaced parking would not be a problem.
“The project requires the contractor to replace all spaces during construction,” said Barbara Aughenbaugh, associate vice president of Auxiliary Enterprises. “But, as far as where or when, that hasn’t been determined.”
Although the logistics of substitute parking remain to be seen, students should not expect a longer walk to class. Parking Management, Inc., (PMI), the company contracted to manage the new parking structure, has relationships with the parking vendors in the neighborhoods surrounding UB.
“They either control it by management or actually own the garage,” said Don Paddy, vice president for finance. “They’ve also been told there is only a reasonable distance that we will accept substitute parking in. So if they don’t own [a suitable location], it’s their obligation to go out and rent those spaces for our community.”
The Bolton Yard project should not disrupt campus parking for long.
“It’s really only going to have an impact during the spring [2008] semester,” Paddy said. “Because during the summer, we can almost manage with...what remains in our inventory.”
Construction of the new garage should be completed in September 2008.
The development at Bolton Yard will provide the university and the surrounding community with other amenities including a grocery store, retail space and apartments, in addition to the new parking garage.
“The kinds of amenities that you’ll see in there will make this campus more attractive to everyone that goes here, works here or lives around here,” said Chris Hart, manager of public information. “I don’t think you can assign a dollar value to that.”
The financial benefit this development represents to the university is not negligible.
“We’re not going to have a substantial increase in fees that would normally be required to build a new garage, because the developer’s building it,” Paddy said.
Even more lucrative is the ground rent payments the university will receive from the developer.
“That pays us the money that we’re going to roll back into the university,” Paddy said.
Dwindling state funding for higher education prompted commercial bidding to develop the Bolton Yard lot.
“If the state of Maryland gives us money, tuitions are held down. If they don’t give us money or they cut it, tuitions go up.” Paddy said. “So it always becomes a formula of, either the state or the students. But it’s always been those two pieces, and we said, ‘It can’t go on.’
“During these past four years, tuitions [have] gone up anywhere from 36 to 45 percent, depending on what program you’re in. And there’s no guarantee that it won’t continue if the state won’t provide. So we’ve got to find a third revenue source.”
Developing surface lots provides a third revenue source for the Bolton Yard project. As Hart put it, “We want to make sure that our real estate holdings are working for everybody, especially for our students.”
Students’ reactions to the project have been mixed.
“My first question is, where are they going to replace the parking?” asked Jake Weddle, third-year law student. “But, mixed development is always good and convenient.”
“It’s kind of nerve-wracking to think about [since] we have problems with parking already,” said Christian Wilson, undergraduate business student. “Although they say they’re going to facilitate parking elsewhere, I’m not sure how effective that’s actually going to be.”
Bozzuto Development Company is the primary developer for the Bolton Yard project in conjunction with PMI and Gould Property Management.
jasonlewis.x@gmail.com