This artist’s conceptual drawing by the Mills Group shows the planned design of the city of Wheeling’s new parking garage slated to be constructed at the corner of 11th and Market streets downtown. (Image Provided)

WHEELING — Despite concerns over costs raised by the public and by some council members themselves, Wheeling City Council voted unanimously Tuesday in support of a $19.5 million bond ordinance to finance a new downtown parking garage.

The proposed six-story parking structure is expected to be built on the corner of Market and 11th streets to provide needed parking for tenants of the Historic Wheeling-Pitt Lofts, a nearby landmark being renovated into apartment buildings by a private developer.

During a public hearing on the matter at Tuesday’s Wheeling City Council meeting, only one resident stepped forward to speak. Julia Chaplin — who had spoken against plans for the new parking garage during the previous two council meetings in October — again questioned the need for the structure and criticized city leaders’ recent spending habits.

“You continue to pass what I consider to be your wants and needs, not your constituents’,” Chaplin said. “Did you even once do any surveys of our current garages, review the statistics on parking garages or consider the indebtedness of your constituents and their families on spending $19.5 million on parking garages?”

Chaplin asserted that city officials are ignoring signs surrounding a challenging economic climate being created by the Biden Administration.

“If it were your own money, I seriously doubt you’d be so speculative,” Chapline said. “Yes, you were elected by the voters, but if they knew you’d be so loose with their money, I doubt you’d be in office today.”

Initial plans for the new parking structure started out at around $13 million, Chaplin stated, noting that more recent estimates being provided by the city have escalated by millions.

“The final cost has not reached $19.5 million yet,” she said. “In government, the cost is always more than the estimate. With the current lagging supplies, inflation, climate initiatives, tax increases and environmental rules and regulations, this is far from being only $19.5 million.”

Victor Greco, architect for the parking garage project, confirmed that the estimated cost of the project has increased over original projections. He was asked by city leaders to step forward and explain why this has happened. Greco agreed that the current supply chain crisis has caused the cost of construction materials to become exorbitant. He also noted that geological issues were also contributing to the escalating cost estimates.

“Wheeling’s geological makeup is a series of caverns and rocks and deep conditions of geological content that requires the building to be set on deep foundations,” Greco said, noting that the same issue was experienced during construction of The Health Plan’s building downtown. “It has a serious impact on the cost of the project.”

Chaplin questioned why the developer of the Historic Wheeling-Pitt Lofts — Access Infrastructure, which is reportedly investing $30 million — did not include parking costs in their plan to redevelop the city’s tallest building.

“I want Wheeling to prosper, but this garage is an expensive dream,” Chaplin said. “I do not believe that our citizens are prepared to absorb this financial indebtedness, along with the expenses of remodeling and expanding the city police, fire and county buildings.”

Councilman Jerry Sklavounakis noted that he has voiced concerns about the parking garage proposal to fellow council members and the city administration as well, including concerns about the cost.

“It’s not something that I think we take lightly here in the city of Wheeling,” Sklavounakis said. “But, I think there’s one thing that we can all agree upon. I think everyone in the community agrees that the Wheeling-Pitt building is something that needs to be brought back to life. The building has sat empty for 10 years now. This is the only solution that we have at this point in time.”

Sklavounakis said the city can make this investment, collaborate with the private developer now and help spark downtown economic growth — or just do nothing and potentially watch the Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel building sit vacant for another decade or more.

“This is a project that people have strong opinions on,” Mayor Glenn Elliott said, describing the Wheeling-Pitt building as basically the only skyscraper in town and a structure that was “gifted” from prior generations to serve as an important anchor to the downtown. “I think if we lost it, I don’t think we’d ever see another 12-story building built here — at least not one that looked like that.”

Officials noted that many private investors can attest to the need for housing, and with housing comes the need for parking. The mayor said moving forward with these projects will not only help save the Wheeling-Pitt building, but will activate the need for more retail in the heart of downtown.

“Right now, there’s only one retail outlet in that entire block,” Elliott said, noting that bringing more activity to the downtown area of the city is a good thing and a worthy investment.

“I also have concerns about the costs,” Councilman Ben Seidler added. “We’re talking about an astronomical amount of money at this point.”

Seidler asked City Manager Robert Herron to reiterate the fact that there will be protections in place to assure that all of Access Infrastructure’s financing is solid and their commitment to completing their redevelopment project continues moving forward before the city breaks ground on building this new garage.

“Last night we did release the requests for proposals for financing for this project,” Herron noted, explaining that the city’s lender will require documents from the Wheeling-Pitt’s developer, including documents related to their financing, to federal and state historic tax credits being utilized and other certifications needed from the bank for their due diligence.

Now that the bond ordinance has been approved, the parking garage project will proceed to its next steps, including demolition of the vacant Chase Bank Building at the site, securing of funding through a local lender and awarding of bids to a contractor to construct the new structure.

“We’re expecting bids on Nov. 18,” Greco said. “We had five eligible contractors that attended the mandatory pre-bid meeting last week. We’ve gotten a lot of interest, which is a good thing.”

“Hopefully in the end, we’ll have a nice building, and along the way some good construction jobs along with it.”