WESTBROOK, Maine — Finding a place to park in downtown Westbrook will hardly be a problem, at least not for a while.
A new parking garage has just opened, completing a critical element of the city’s plan for expansion. The garage cost about $21 million to build, but parking there is free to the public.
“You can’t grow the downtown and then think of the parking later. You have to think of the parking first,” Acting Mayor David Morse said Thursday. “Having the downtown be the center of economic activity has been the goal that we are now seeing come to fruition.”
The more than 400-space facility was mostly empty Friday evening, except for around a dozen cars on Level 1.
Morse and Daniel Stevenson, Westbrook’s economic development director, said the large capacity is by design.
“It allows us to continue to build up in our downtown and be able to absorb that growth,” Stevenson explained.
Although this project and others downtown dealt with delays and headaches for neighbors weary of construction, several local business owners are optimistic in the garage’s power to generate growth.
Carlos Silva, co-owner of Westbrook on Tap and Westbrook House of Pizza, hopes the new garage will allow customers to stay at his business longer, unoccupied with meter fees and street parking.
“You can be more comfortable. You end up spending more time at the business you’re visiting,” Silva said Friday.
The garage is open 24/7.
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