Last ditch tour to save Pelissier Street parking garage retail space

CTV Windsor: Garage Choices Rich Garton takes a look at what the Pelissier St. Garage could be if it's not cleared out for retail space.

Parking lots aren't usually known for how they look, but rather how they function.

But then there’s the Z Parking Garage in Detroit.

The Downtown Windsor Business Improvement Association hosted a tour of the mega parking structure Wednesday.

Art adorns the walls of the 10-level, 13-hundred space garage that is well lit.

“Have you been in the parking garages in Windsor?” questions DWBIA Chair Larry Horwitz. “They’re dingy, they’re rotten, they’re disgusting.”

Horwitz insists it is what local garages like the one on Pelissier Street could look like, and he used the visit to highlight the retail space in the parking garage.

“Detroit's doing it and we can learn from them,” says Horwitz. “It’s a shame we haven’t.”

But there's another difference between the two garages.

The 'Z' is privately owned, and costs $20 U-S a day, or $3 for every 20 minutes to park. The Pelissier Street parking garage in Windsor is city-owned and costs $1.50 an hour and up to $15 a day.

“If we were to jack up the rates to the amount being charged by the Z Garage in Detroit, surely we could do a whole lot more” says Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens. “But we've balanced off trying to be fair in the pricing to accommodate people's needs."

The tour comes days before a city council vote to move ahead with converting existing ground floor retail spaces to 42 parking stalls at the Pelissier Street garage.

City staff have negotiated down the low bid from Elmara Construction to $723,000.

Council is expected to make a final decision on the parking garage when it meets on Tuesday.