By JAIMIE JULIA WINTERS
winters@montclairlocal.news
The Midtown Parking Lot on Glenridge Avenue will close for construction on Monday, Jan. 4. All vehicles must be removed from the lot by then or they will be towed, officials said.
The project, at the intersection of Glenridge Avenue and North Willow Street, will expand the facility from 83 spaces to five stories and 314 spaces, and is part of the Seymour Street project, which is bringing apartments, office space, retail and an arts plaza to the area of the Wellmont Theater on Bloomfield Avenue.
All C and N permit holders who currently park in the Midtown lot can use other municipal lots until the project is completed:
- North Fullerton deck (North Fullerton Avenue) – Entire third floor, or ground level in parking spaces marked “Permit parking only”
- South Fullerton lot (33 South Fullerton Ave.)
- Plymouth lot (43 South Fullerton Ave.)
- Portland lot (13 Portland Place)
- Montague lot (14 Montague Place)
- Maple Plaza lot (6 Maple Plaza) – In parking spaces marked “Permit parking only”
- Gates Street lot (48-26 Gates Ave.)
- Valley Road lot (20 Valley Road) – In parking spaces marked “Permit parking only”
The work on the deck is anticipated to take at least a year to complete.
There will be no access to the rear of Bloomfield Avenue businesses that currently have access from Glenridge Avenue. Any vehicles parked on private properties behind businesses on Bloomfield Avenue may be trapped there until the project is finished.
Employees of the area’s businesses who do not have township parking permits will be permitted to park in the Crescent deck.
In January 2018, the Township Council approved an agreement allowing for the mixed-use Seymour Street project, but with the condition that the developers deliver a parking facility along with it to replace the loss of the two municipal lots at South Willow Street and South Fullerton Avenue to make way for the project. That parking facility will be the Glenridge Avenue deck.
Once it is built, the deck will be owned by the town, which will keep the parking revenues.
Although most of the $8 million to $9 million construction cost to build the garage will be picked up by the developer, there could be some construction costs for the town, but that cost is capped at $1.2 million.
The entire project includes a six-story building, at 2 South Willow, that will feature rental apartments, 28,000 square feet of street-level retail space, 224 parking spaces and 10,000 square feet of space available for rental by artists. A seven-story building, at 1 Seymour Plaza, will rise just southwest of the Wellmont and include 40,000 square feet of office space and 210 parking spaces.
Public and permit parking has opened up for residents at these lots, according to Dennis Giuliano, vice president of development at Ironstate Development Co. The garages will accommodate transient, paid hourly and monthly parking. Monthly parking passes are already available at info@littlemanparking.com, Giuliano said.