DC USA garage still mostly empty

Parking

by David Alpert • May 19, 2008 7:47 am

The DC USA garage will cost DC about ~~$28~~ $2.8 million a year, if it continues at the rate it did in March. Each of the 1,015 spaces is in use a little less than 2 hours each day.

Photo (not of DC) by a440 on Flickr.

When the garage opened, I ran some back-of-the-envelope calculations on the economics. By my estimate, the garage would pay for itself if it earns $3,441 per space per year.

Based on statistics for March, the garage earned an average of $1,901 per day. Total. That's $1.87 per space per day, meaning that most spaces are generally occupied for about 1-2 hours per day.

$1.87 per day is $683.77 per year, for a loss to the DC government of $2,527 a year or about ~~$28~~ $2.8 million in total.

About 1,250 total cars used the garage each day on weekends and about 650 used it each weekday. The stats don't say how full the garage gets at its peak, but it's clear that most of the garage is going empty most of the time despite the extremely cheap rates.

11 comments — Share	— tags: Columbia Heights, DC, DC USA, excessive parking

Now there's really too much parking at DC USA (Apr 27, 2009)
More underutilized parking in Columbia Heights (Jun 20, 2008)
Entire level of DC USA garage has never been used (May 29, 2008)
Bike parking scarce at DC USA (Mar 10, 2008)
Is the 1,000 space garage in Columbia Heights a good investment? (Feb 21, 2008)

Comments

"... the garage earned an average of $1,901 per day." Should that be per year?

What happened with the Bethesda garage? Should they be presented with this little piece of information that garages sometimes cost the jurisdiction huge amounts of money for parking that people aren't using?

MSP

by Michael Perkins on May 19, 2008 9:10 am

Maybe I'm proving myself naive, but why is the garage the financial responsibility of the city? It seems that Target, Best Buy, and the like have more to gain from accessible parking than the city does. Also, the Columbia Heights metro stop is no more than 200 feet from the building. Why is the DC government encouraging people to drive somewhere that is otherwise accessible and losing money for it at the end of the day?

by Matt on May 19, 2008 9:51 am

It's $1,901 per day for the entire 1,015-space facility.

Montgomery County appears to be moving ahead with their latest folly, sad to say.

by David Alpert on May 19, 2008 9:52 am

Most people dont know there is a garage there to begin with.

It would probably have been better if the garage entrance was on 14th street then most people would see it when you walk infront of the building.

by kk on May 19, 2008 9:53 am

kk, it's a good thing the entrance isn't on 14th. The goal isn't to get people to use the garage. Putting the entrance of 14th would have ruined a great deal of the streetscape there - the front door to the whole facility.

by Alex B. on May 19, 2008 10:50 am

Michael, the Bethesda garage won't pay for itself even if it fills up. The budget projections are for $1 million per year in revenue and $800,000 in operating and maintenance costs. The parking district will have to pay off the bonds issued to build the new garage from its other revenues.

The district currently gets half as much from fines as it gets from meter revenues, and it will be hard to raise parking fees when they have so many spaces they need to fill up. So the district will become even more addicted to fine revenue. You can expect Bethesda's too-short time limits on meters and overly aggressive ticketing to get even worse.

by tt on May 19, 2008 11:20 am

Do you think this has anything to do with the fact that DCUSA still doesn't have a grocery store or alot of "destination" restaurants in the immediate vicinity? Those are two things which I would think would increase demand for garage parking spaces (the comparison in my mind would be the garage by the Whole Foods in Dupont -- do you happen to know how much usage it gets?) I just discovered this blog btw, very interesting stuff -- thanks!

by cl on May 19, 2008 12:23 pm

I think more people will use the garage as time goes on. It just opened. I use my bike for transport to and from work, other trips. Yesterday I needed to buy some big heavy items so I drove to the Target and used the garage for the first time. In the elevator a man remarked to me, "Isn't it great we don't have to go to MD?". I agreed, it's great to be able to shop in our own city. Even though I drove, my drive was a fraction of road time I would have spent going to MD or VA.

Maybe the garage can rent spaces on a yearly basis when those condo's fill up. Certainly some of those residents will have cars and need a place to put them.

by Bianchi on May 19, 2008 4:12 pm

As for grocery stores, there is a Giant less than a block east of the DC USA complex. It already has its own parking, though.

More restaurants would be good, and there are actually a few opening along Irving Street (next to the Metro entrance, across the street from DC USA).

DC USA is also right on top of a Metro station, and at the intersection of several bus lines. Maybe they just built too much parking, or maybe (as noted above...) it will fill up over time.

I actually wish that the DC USA site had been more densely built, like with four to six floors of residences on top (or something), to take better advantage of its transit-accessible location.

by hiya on May 19, 2008 5:03 pm

Sorry, but $2527 per space per year, for 1015 spaces, is $2.6 million per year, not $28 million. Come on. If the entire debt service for the garage is $3.4 million per year, if the whole garage only cost $42 million to build, how could they possibly lose $28 million every year??

by David desJardins on May 24, 2008 2:50 am

Oops, yeah, $2.8.

by David Alpert on May 24, 2008 9:46 am