The long-awaited opening of the new Market Street Parking Garage is here.

A walk through the facility on Friday showed light usage by vehicles, but that’s to be expected early on. Hopefully, city officials will see leases and day-parking increase after the holidays so that the $13 million project doesn’t end up a total waste of taxpayer dollars.

Work on the building took more than two years to complete. It initially had been set to serve as a parking hub from the long-awaited Wheeling-Pitt Lofts, but that project hasn’t come to fruition — and likely never will. City leaders instead, without providing studies or other justification, have pitched it as a needed facility in downtown Wheeling.

The garage’s opening was delayed slightly due to the Downtown Streetscape project. City Manager Robert Herron said the delay allowed Triton Construction to finish the sidewalks in the area.

“We appreciate the West Virginia Department of Highways and Triton Construction in working with us to get those sidewalks done so when the building is open, all of the construction as it relates to the Streetscape in front of the building will be completed — with the exception of the planters, etc. But the sidewalk part will be completed,” Herron said.

Now, outside of getting more usage out of the facility — Herron has said previously that they expect early on for the garage to be at 50% capacity — there’s the question of what shops go into the ground floor retail spaces. Finding the right mix will include tenants that offer something unique to Wheeling. There’s been much discussion of that possibly being some type of a grocery store or something similar to assist those residents living downtown.

“… The thought process is that once we get that construction completed and all of the stuff out of the way, we’ll be able to better showcase that space,” Herron said.

That’s all well and good, but here’s a fact: the city’s parking garages are highly underutilized. Look at the Robert C. Byrd Intermodal Transporation Center — it’s historically been at about 50% capacity. The new garage is anticipated to be on par. This leaves taxpayers footing the bill for projects that, in the real world, would not be feasible.

This is a project inherited by this current council, but let’s hope they are not as spend-happy as the prior administration. Parking downtown is surely needed, but until it’s proven otherwise, this garage could well end up as another example of how not to spend taxpayer dollars.