About 25 people, including downtown business owners, nearby residents and one potential buyer, filled Meadville City Council’s chambers Tuesday, nearly all of them calling for a solution to the problems plaguing the Market Square parking garage that does not involve demolishing the structure that was completed in 2004.
Previously explored plans, such as a so-called “shotgun” permit plan that would allow those parking in the deck to compete for metered spots located blocks away, held little appeal to retirees who had chosen to live in the Kepler Hotel condominiums because of their proximity to the garage’s covered parking.
“When you tell me that there’s going to be open parking — ‘shotgun’ parking — you might as well take the shotgun and use it on me,” Kepler resident Claudia Gilliand told council members, “because there is no way I can walk further than that garage — and that’s not fair. That was the whole idea of moving there.”
The top possibility — one that was explicitly endorsed by several of the residents who addressed council — seemed to be allowing Dennis Watkins, owner of McKean-based Watkins Property Management LLC and Watkins General Contracting Inc., to purchase the garage for a token cost so that he could begin operating it as a private venture while performing expedited repairs. Watkins Property Management has owned the four Kepler Hotel commercial units since 2022 and also owns 18 of 30 residential units in the building.
The resulting disruption, Watkins said, would be far less significant than the disruption likely to result from demolition of the garage. Speculating about how it would work, Watkins said the process would likely start with the removal of the city’s 32 parking meters used for lower level spots and installation of entrance gates to allow access by fob or credit card only.
Permit holders parking on the sixth floor would then be moved to the first floor while repairs begin on the vacated top floor. Upon completion of the sixth floor, work would move down a level and the affected permit holders would be reshuffled.
Watkins was optimistic that no long-term permit holders would be displaced from the building and that hourly parking would be restored “in less than a season.” The rate would remain competitive, he said.
“We’re not going to charge $8 an hour,” he added, “because no one’s going to park there.”
The 244-car garage includes 82 spaces leased to Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, 110 leased to other organizations or individuals, 20 vacant spaces and the 32 metered spaces. Constructed from 2003 to 2004, the garage is not yet paid for: The city owes nearly $1.5 million on the structure, including approximately $853,000 in bond debt and $607,000 from a U.S. Department of Agriculture loan that must be repaid when the garage is sold or demolished, according to Finance Manager April Smith.
Even with the garage operating for the past two decades, parking has remained a concern for business owners in the area.
Mary Melvin, owner of Save Room for Dessert, the bakery located inside the Market House, said parking has been an issue since she started her business 14 years ago and urged council members to trust Watkins like she and others in the audience did.
“The way I see it, this parking garage has been a monkey on the city’s back,” Melvin said, “and it’s like, why not get that monkey off your back and let Dennis take over?”
City Council members appeared receptive to the idea, though they also preached caution. Deputy Mayor Larry McKnight did not attend the meeting.
“No matter what, there will be some disruption,” Councilman Jim Roha said.
“It’s easy to look back now and be, like, ‘What a stupid choice,’ right?” Councilwoman Autumn Vogel said of the years of deferred maintenance that had made demolition a possibility for the garage. “I know that certain decisions right now feel like no-brainers, but I personally just want to make sure we are making the right decision for the future because obviously that hasn’t always happened.”
After the meeting, City Manager Maryann Menanno said that time-consuming public bidding procedures meant that a contractor operating the deck as a private business would be able to move more quickly than the city could to address the garage’s structural issues.
Whatever the solution, the prospect of the garage being open for use this winter is quickly diminishing: The building is set to close Dec. 1 as the result of a structural assessment completed several months ago.
To reopen the garage, any new owner would need to make repairs or provide the city with an evaluation from a structural engineer endorsing the safety of the garage, Menanno said.
The city’s estimates of $5.7 million to $8.1 million put city-led repairs well out of reach, and even demolition and replacement with a surface lot, at an estimated $1.5 million, was projected to result in a tax increase and higher fees. Given the forecast, the prospect of unloading the garage — even at the cost of $1 that was proposed during the meeting — appeared worth considering to city officials.
“It’s a liability, not an asset, at this point,” Menanno said after the study session.
Little had changed by Friday afternoon, when Menanno said nothing had changed since the meeting.
“We’re still waiting on a proposal from anybody interested in purchasing it,” she said.